Jennifer Lopez recalled some undesirable moments from past relationships. The singer opened up in her new documentary, The Greatest Love Story Never Told, about being "manhandled" by a former partner and feeling stuck in unhealthy, sometimes dangerous situations when she was younger and in previous relationships. The topic came after the singer shot the video for her song "Rebound," which, through means of creative storytelling, addresses her past in abusive relationships by highlighting various forms of abuse.
“I’m glad that one’s behind us," Jennifer was captured saying after shooting the music video. “Being thrown around and manhandled like that is not fun,” she explained. “I was never in a relationship where I got beat up, thank God. But I’ve definitely been manhandled and a couple of other unsavory things. Rough. Disrespectful.”
At another part in the documentary, Jennifer was captured talking on the phone with her producing partner and friend, Elaine Goldsmith-Thomas. “More than anything, it’s really a vulnerable place to be in every day. That’s why I go to work every day, and I’m like, ‘What am I doing?’”
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Elaine responded that “it’s a personal journey,” which “will relate to so many women who are abused." “You’re talking about how we accept less than we deserve,” she added.
While Jennifer never specifically named the person who manhandled her, throughout her documentary she says that the film includes her former experiences in love and dating and depicts her journey to finding self-love. "There were people in my life who said, 'I loved you,' and then didn't do things that were kind of in line with the word love," she said.
"You have to hit rock bottom, where you're in situations that are so uncomfortable and so painful that you finally go, 'I don't want this anymore,'" she continued. "A therapist said to me, 'What if this was your daughter? What would you do?' And it was so clear. I was like, I'd tell her, 'Get the [expletive] out of here, never look back.'"
In regards to herself, however, the singer expressed why it was so hard for her to find her way out of it. "But for me it was so clouded and so complicated with so much of my past and my own pain and hurt and dysfunction, that I couldn't see clearly. It was like looking through fog."
Despite her past toxic relationships, Jennifer seems to be happy and content now with her husband, Ben Affleck. They first started dating in 2002 and got engaged that year, but postponed their wedding in 2003 and parted ways in 2004. In 2021, they found their way back to each other and got married in July 2022.
“I think I was angry at you for a long time,” she says to him in the documentary. “But that heartbreak set both of us on a course to figuring ourselves out to being better people. I think I’ve forgiven you all the way. I think I need to forgive myself [for] some things.”
If you or someone you know has been the victim of domestic abuse, you can find help and support at DVIS.org, the National Domestic Abuse Hotline at 1-800-799-7233, or by contacting your local women's shelter domesticshelters.org.
