Jennifer Lopez on the cover of Vogue's April issue (Mert Alas and Marcus Piggott/Vogue)After her highly publicized split from husband Marc Anthony last summer after seven years of marriage, superstar Jennifer Lopez
could have taken her love life in a few different directions. She could
have played the field, could have sworn off men for a few years, and
could have even reconciled with Anthony, the father of her twin
4-year-olds (though he was a partner many thought was a mismatch from
the start). Instead the 42-year-old pop singer, movie actress, and
reality show judge jumped right back into a monogamous relationship, and
has had the public enthralled ever since thanks to the fact the guy, a
backup dancer named Casper Smart, is just 24 years old. (Would a man in
his 40s have caused this kind of frenzy if he dated a woman 18 years his
junior? Of course not. It's a double standard for sure, but we can
debate sexism another time.) Since getting together with the very
tattooed Smart a few months ago, the couple has been spotted everywhere
together — from the "
American Idol"
set to Carnival in Brazil to a fashion shoot in Miami — but Lopez has
stayed mostly mum on the subject of her new love. In the April issue of
Vogue, however, she gives us a little insight into why she's so smitten.
"He's adorable. But you already see
that," she tells the reporter. When he mentions that Smart seems very
loving and sweet, she agrees. "He is. He really is. He's a good egg. I
don't want to talk about it too much. It's my private thing."
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Jennifer Lopez and beau Casper Smart (SPW/Splash News)
According to the writer, who got a peek at the two of them together
recently, Lopez seems quite happy around her new main squeeze and the
couple can't keep their hands off each other. The mom of two, it seems,
has no problem relating to a younger man: "I don't feel older, and I
don't feel like I look it, either, so I am just acting the same way I
have always acted," she admits.
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Her long-time manager Benny Medina, however, isn't afraid to share
more: "She's not oblivious to her own reality right now, as in, 'Damn,
I'm 42 with a 24-year-old. Why?'" Medina says in the article. "We talked
about it yesterday. She was just like, 'It's not even the age, Benny.
It's actually that I just came out of a relationship where I felt like I
was kind of not getting what I needed. And I'm open! So somebody who
steps in right now and is actually touching me in a way — it's very
fertile ground!'"
[Video: J.Lo's Male Stunt Double]
The loyal Medina also had other concerns about Lopez's string of
monogamous partners: "The thing that I always sort of wished is that she
would give herself time to just naturally meet someone," he says,
"instead of having nearly obsessive guys pursue her. The ease with which
that obsession becomes a relationship I think sometimes works against
her ability to have a real meaningful relationship."
J.Lo talks love in her interview. (Mert Alas and Marcus Piggott/Vogue)
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It was long reported that Lopez's ex Anthony — with whom she still
has an amicable relationship — was a controlling spouse who often
attempted to run her career and get her to dress more conservatively, a
far cry from her signature style. And despite navigating her way to an
amazingly successful career and calling herself "Jenny from the Block,"
Lopez insists she's a softie at heart, describing herself as a "mushy
romantic." "By nature I am not tough, believe it or not," she reveals in
the interview. "No. I am a lover. And with my kids I am even softer."
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Lopez, who has now been married
and divorced three times and has had other public breakups with stars
including Sean Combs and Ben Affleck, may have finally realized the key
to making it work: "If you don't love yourself, you can't love anybody
else. And I think as women we really forget that. All we want is to be
happy, to feel secure, to feel understood," she explains. "But you can't
look for somebody else to do that for you. You think about it. . . .
Oh, yeah, of course I care about myself. Of course I have good
self-esteem. But when you really take a good look, you are not treating
yourself like someone who does. And when you let people treat you in a
way that you don't want to be treated, it's not their fault. It's
yours."
