Jennifer Lopez is ready to talk about her divorce from Ben Affleck.

The superstar sat down with Nikki Glaser for a conversation with Interview magazine and spoke more candidly than anyone expected about her much-publicized divorce, how it affected her, and what she learned from it.

“I was thinking about this period in my life and I was like, ‘It's not what I thought it was going to be,’” Lopez said, referring to the separation and professional setbacks she suffered in the past few months. Then I thought, “No, this is exactly where I needed to be, to lead me to where I wanted to go.”

Asked if she regretted how this relationship turned out or the choices she had made, Lopez replied, “Not for one second. That doesn't mean it almost took me away for good. It almost did. But now, on the other side of it, I think to myself. Thank you, God. I'm sorry it took so long. I've put you through this so many times, I should have learned a couple of times before. I get it. You had to hit me over the head with a hammer. You dropped the house on me. You don't have to do it again.” [She was engaged twice: to Ojani Noah in 1997, to Chris Judd in 2000, to Marc Anthony in 2004, and to Alex Rodriguez in 2019, and to Ben Affleck in 2002 and 2022. Of these six, Lopez ended up marrying four times, once to Noah, once to Judd, once to Anthony, and a second time to Affleck.

To Glazer, she said, “I finally got it!” She said.

Lopez is grateful for the lessons, but of course that doesn't mean it wasn't a truly difficult time for her.

“I feel alone, unfamiliar, scared. It makes me sad. I feel hopeless. But when I sit in the midst of those feelings and think, 'This is not going to kill me,' then I can actually see that I am capable of feeling joy and happiness on my own.”

“My dating life does not define me. I cannot look for happiness in another person. I have to have happiness within myself. I used to say I was a happy person, yet I was still looking for something that someone else could fulfill.

Lopez and Affleck reunited in 2021 after 17 years, quickly became engaged, and married the following year; the “Love Don't Cost a Thing” singer filed for divorce on their wedding anniversary, August 20, 2024, just two years after they married. In her divorce filing, she gave April 26 as the date of separation.