Jennifer Lopez’s 1st Husband Fell for Her From the 1st Word She Said to Him
Jennifer Lopez and her first husband, Ojani Noa, met when he was a waiter at a restaurant where she was eating dinner. According to Lopez, it was love at first sight. They felt a connection right away, and quickly began dating. Noa pointed to a specific moment that made him fall for her, though.
Jennifer Lopez’s first husband shared what made him fall for her
In the 1990s, Noa was working at Gloria and Emilio Estefan’s restaurant, Lario’s on the Beach, when Lopez walked in with friends. She was working as an actor at this point, but Noa didn’t recognize her. Still, he couldn’t look away from her.
“She was the most beautiful woman I’d ever seen,” he told the Daily Mail. “In the beginning, I had no idea who she was.”
The next night, Lopez came in again. Noa said he fell for her the first time they spoke.
“They came back the next night and Jen was at the bar,” he said. “I was bringing French fries over for another customer and she said, ‘Oh my god, those look yummy.’ I handed them to her without saying a word. I was smitten. She was wearing a white top and trousers, and I remember thinking she had the best body I’d ever seen. She later told me she knew that first night she was going to marry me.”
He said things moved quickly from there
Lopez’s friend invited Noa to a club with them later that night. When they were there, she encouraged Noa to make a move with Lopez.
“When we got to the club my friend Leo took Jen to the dance floor, and I thought, ‘Oh man, you’re a lucky guy.’ Then Anita said, ‘When they get back, take Jen out there. It’s you she’s interested in.’”
He said their chemistry on the dance floor was “electric.”
“We could both feel the romantic energy. It was instant and intense. Like it was surging through our bodies. I said, ‘I feel the same way you’re feeling.’ I lifted her chin and gave her a kiss — it was a kiss like we’d known each other forever.”
The next day, Lopez contacted Noa and he saw her before she left for the airport.
Jennifer Lopez didn’t think she and her husband had a shot of lasting
Lopez confirmed that she fell for him right away. But while Noa thought their relationship could have lasted if her life was different, she didn’t think they ever had a chance.
“It was nice — a love-at-first-sight situation,” she told Rolling Stone in 2001. “We got married. He was young, twenty-one, and I was twenty-five. It was premature, I guess. I don’t think we had a fair shot as far as where we both were in life. It wasn’t for a lack of love — that was genuine. Sometimes things just don’t work out.”
They married in 1997 and divorced in 1998.
