Jennifer Lopez not looking for love after divorce from Ben Affleck

Pop star Jennifer Lopez has had a rough couple of months.

The 55-year-old’s latest album This Is Me... Now, released in February, was a commercial flop; she cancelled a North America concert tour amid reports of poor ticket sales; and she split from actor Ben Affleck.

Lopez and Affleck, 52, had what looked like a storybook tale of reconciliation. The pair, dubbed Bennifer, dated in the early 2000s but broke off their engagement in 2004. They rekindled their romance in 2021, and married the following year after a high-profile courtship.

But the marriage did not last, as Lopez filed for divorce in August.

In an interview with commedienne Nikki Glaser in Interview magazine, Lopez opened up about the turmoil of the last few months, saying she felt as if her whole world had “exploded”.

The star, who is currently promoting sports-drama movie Unstoppable, said she thought she was in a good place in life when things fell apart.

“With This Is Me…Now and Unstoppable, I felt like: ‘Whoa, I got here. I’m good.’ I did all the work and look at where I am, and then it was like my whole world exploded,” she said.

She added: “You have to be good on your own. I thought I learnt that, but I didn’t. And then, this summer, I had to be like, ‘I need to go off and be on my own. I want to prove to myself that I can do that.’”

Without explicitly naming Affleck, Lopez said the process of learning to be alone again was very tough.

“It feels sad. It feels desperate. But when you sit in those feelings and go, ‘These things are not going to kill me’, it’s like actually, I am capable of joy and happiness all by myself,” she said.

And after 30 years of yearning and searching for romance, Lopez – who has been married and divorced four times – said she is not looking for anyone for the first time in her life.

While she and Affleck have split up, the two are still seemingly on cordial terms as they were spotted having lunch together with their respective children at The Beverly Hills Hotel in California in September.

Lopez has 16-year-old twins – Max and Emme – with her former husband, singer-songwriter Marc Anthony. Affleck has three children – Violet, 18, Fin, 15, and Samuel, 12 – with his ex-wife, actress Jennifer Garner.

Lopez has also recently been pilloried after clips from her documentary The Greatest Love Story Never Told, a project to go with her latest album, went viral. Netizens mocked her for trying too hard to seem relatable by bringing up her background of growing up in the working-class neighbourhood of the Bronx in New York.

But Lopez said she does not take social media comments to heart.

“I know that everything that’s being written and said about me, and all the conjecture of who I am as a person, is not who I am. I learnt that a long time ago... I know I’m a good person. I know I’m a good mum. I know who my friends are.”