Jennifer Lopez Opened Up About Her "Up & Down" Relationship Journey To Alex Rodriguez

If you’ve followed Jennifer Lopez over the course of her career, then you know she’s experienced her fair share of romantic woes through the years. But those woes, Lopez now says, are what made it possible for her to have such an easy and loving relationship with her current beau Alex Rodriguez. In a new interview with Harper’s Bazaar, Lopez talked at length about her relationships and what ultimately led her to Rodriguez in the end. Jennifer Lopez’s comments about her relationship journey are enlightening and will definitely make you think twice about trying to love someone else before you learn to love yourself.

Lopez, who is currently promoting her new film Second Act, will be gracing the cover of the February 2019 issue of Harper’s Bazaar. In the cover story, she opened up about quite a lot of things, including how her failed relationships were actually blessings in disguise.

"For me, the relationship journey has been very up and down. But it didn’t have to do with anybody else but me — it was about me figuring out me," Lopez told Harper’s Bazaar. "Until you learn to love yourself, you can’t completely love [someone else] in a way that is pure and true. Once you do that, you can have relationships that are based on love and respect, that are supportive and nourishing. There’s an evolution there that had to happen for me. I feel like I’m in a better place now."

While there has long been speculation that Lopez and Rodriguez would get engaged and find themselves at the altar soon, Lopez gave no hints to Harper’s Bazaar that that was the case. Instead, she merely acknowledged how thankful and optimistic she is at this point in her life.

"I’ve got two amazing kids and a great boyfriend. I don’t have everything figured out, and everything isn’t perfect," she said. "But I feel very proud that with all the things I’ve gone through in my personal life, I’m still optimistic and hopeful."

Lopez’s bestie Leah Remini also chimed in about how happy the superstar is right now. And it’s all thanks to the family dynamic she and Rodriguez have created with their kids. Lopez is mom to two kids, Max and Emme, 10, while Rodriguez is dad to daughters Natasha, 14, and Ella, 10.

“She’s ecstatically happy, and the family meld that’s happening, Max with his girls [Emme, Natasha, and Ella], the whole thing is amazing,” Remini told Harper’s Bazaar.

So, even Lopez’s closest friends are saying she’s happier than she’s ever been, which is great to hear. For Lopez, becoming a mom is what most helped her get to a place in her life where she can finally relax and just be herself. And that, no doubt, has been instrumental in helping her feel secure in her relationship with Rodriguez.

"Once I had kids, I realized that I had to be better and do better," Lopez explained in the interview. "Not just for them but for myself. There’s something about being responsible for another human being that makes you go, ‘Okay, what am I doing for myself? How can I take care of someone else if I can’t even take care of myself? How can I teach them how they should be treated if I allow people to treat me in a way that’s not nice? How can I teach them to be hard workers if I’m not working hard?’ I started examining myself from all different angles."

Lopez has clearly made an effort to make some changes in her personal life and that seems to have worked out really well for her, as is evidenced by her loving relationship with Rodriguez. It’s good to see her happy!