After a 30-year career as a dancer, actress, singer, and businesswoman, Jennifer Lopez is not only living her dream but also in the “best shape of my life.”
The new cover star of InStyle, Lopez — alongside colleagues and exes Ben Affleck and Marc Anthony — opened up about her successful career in a story dubbed “Jennifer Lopez in Her Own Words (and Everyone Else’s)” published Monday (April 5).
“The thing about Jennifer is her ability to see and understand things before they happen,” said Anthony, Lopez’s ex-husband with whom she shares twins Max and Emme. “Before she even brings an idea up, she has visualized it a thousand times. And if anyone says it might not be the greatest idea, she’ll say, ‘You just don’t see it yet.’ Nine times out of 10, she’ll nail it. She’s the first one in the room and the last to leave. The hardest worker I’ve ever met. When we were together, it was quite the opposite for me. That has changed since. I learned so much from her. She’s the original!”
Ex-fiancé Affleck, who co-starred with Lopez on films Gigli and Jersey Girl, agreed on Lopez’s work ethic.
“I thought I had a good work ethic, but I was completely humbled and blown away by what she was committed to doing day in and day out, the seriousness in which she took her work, the quiet and dedicated way she went about accomplishing her goals, and then how she would go back and redouble her efforts,” he gushed. “She remains, to this day, the hardest-working person I’ve come across in this business. She has great talent, but she has also worked very hard for her success, and I’m so happy for her that she seems, at long last, to be getting the credit she deserves.”
Lopez said it’s all due to love and passion.
“Every day does not seem like a job to me. I can honestly say I’m living a dream and I’m grateful every day that I wake up,” she noted in her cover story. “I have tireless energy for what I do. I also have an amazing team who help me in every single way both personally and professionally. I really believe the most important thing is to have great people around you.”
Throughout the piece, colleagues opened up about J. Lo the mother, the fashion icon, and the advocate but they couldn’t hold back on her glow-up.
“Where are you keeping the fountain of youth? Why do you look the same as you did in 2003 and it kind of looks like I’m in my 40s … at best?” joked Affleck.
At 51, Lopez, who says her only beauty secret is JLo Beauty, believes she’s in the best shape of her life.
“In my 20s and 30s, I used to work out, but not like I do now,” she shared. “It’s not that I work out more; I just work out harder and smarter. And it doesn’t take me as long as it did in the past. I do it more for my health than I do for looks, which is funny. When you do things for the right reasons, you actually look better!”
