Jennifer Lopez Realized ‘Men Come and Go’ After Her Divorce From Marc Anthony

Jennifer Lopez confided that it wasn’t easy letting go of her husband of 10 years, Marc Anthony. But if there was one good thing that could’ve come out of her split, it was that the star realized who she really had in her corner.

Jennifer Lopez relied on girlfriends after divorce from Marc Anthony

Lopez had to face one of the things she hated the most after breaking up with Anthony. The actor was 44 at the time of their divorce, and hadn’t been single for a long time. So facing the prospect of being alone was a hard adjustment for the Hustlers star.

“Look, I don’t love being alone. I don’t. I can’t beat myself up for that,” she once told InStyle (via ABC News). “What I have to do is figure out why I don’t like it. Why am I not OK being alone? And can I ever be OK facing that?”

But losing Anthony was an eye-opening experience in more ways than one. Lopez’s view of relationships started to change after a while.

“In the past, love for me has always meant forever, and sure, you still nurse some of those fantasies, but I don’t try to force it anymore,” she added. “I hung on to my fairytale ideals for a long time. But where I am now, what I’ve been through, there are no rules. There are just lots of ways it can turn out.”

She also found out that she wasn’t as alone as she might’ve thought she was. Although her relationships might not always work out with the men in her life, she had a support system that would never go away.

“I think I realized they were as important — if not more important — when I divorced Marc. I just realized that I had been through that a couple of times and there they still were. Like they say, men come and go, but my girlfriends are always there for me,” she said.

Jennifer Lopez didn’t feel like she was loving herself during her marriage with Marc Anthony

Another important self-discovery Lopez made after her divorce was that she didn’t love herself as much as she thought she did.

“I remember when I was going through therapy at the beginning, you know, kind of in my late 30s and there was a lot of talk about loving yourself and I was like, ‘I love myself,’” she once told Coach Conversations.

But after thinking about it, Lopez realized her actions didn’t align with her words.

“But obviously I was doing all these things in like my personal relationships that didn’t seem like I was loving myself, but I didn’t even understand the concept of it. It took time and it’s a journey and it’s still a journey for me,” she said.

She didn’t mention Anthony by name when referring to her past relationship, but the timeline indicates she was referring to her marriage with him. Lopez married Anthony when she was 34, and spent the remainder of her thirties with the “You Sang to Me” artist.

Jennifer Lopez shared that Marc Anthony helped with her confidence

Lopez felt a lot of built-up negative emotions after her divorce from Anthony. But unlike with her previous relationships, Lopez was tied to Anthony forever since they shared two children. Because of this, the Gigli star had no choice but to work through her emotions for the sake of her and Anthony’s family.

“When my marriage ended, it was not easy to find forgiveness. It wasn’t the dream that I had hoped for, and it would have been easier to fan the flames of resentment, disappointment, and anger. But Marc is the father of my children, and that’s never going away. So, I have to work to make things right. And that is, by far, the hardest work I do,” she once told W.

But her relationship with Anthony wasn’t all bad, as there was a reason she was married to the pop star for so long.

“While I was married to Marc, he really helped me with my confidence, and he saw where I suffered,” Lopez once said in an interview with Today.

Anthony thought highly of Lopez’s skills as an artist at times when she doubted herself. This must’ve meant a lot, as the words didn’t just come from a husband. But someone who was an expert at his craft as well.

“’You’re a great singer. Don’t ever let anybody tell you you’re not a great singer,’” she remembered Anthony telling him. “And I respected him so much because I consider him one of the best singers of all time.”