“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..” Lopez says in her new Amazon Prime Video documentary, ‘The Greatest Love Story Never Told.’
Jennifer Lopez is reflecting back on her romantic relationships.
In her new Prime Video documentary, The Greatest Love Story Never Told, which follows the making of her original musical film, This Is Me… Now: A Love Story and upcoming album, Lopez details some of the “unsavory” experiences she’s had in the past.
The topic is broached after the singer-actress filmed scenes for her song, “Rebound,” which appears on her new album This Is Me… Now. In the scene, Lopez and a love interest perform a choreographed dance routine that depicts a toxic relationship and elements of domestic violence.
“I’m glad that one’s behind us,” Lopez declares, as she walks from the set to her trailer.
Later, the 54-year-old gets emotional during a car ride when she’s asked about shooting that particular storyline.
“Being thrown around and manhandled like that is not fun,” Lopez says. “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.”
Diving into some of these rough moments from her past appear to be taking a toll on Lopez, who details how emotionally exhausting it’s been to work on the movie musical during a call with her longtime friend and producing partner, 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?'” Lopez shares.
“It’s a personal journey… that will relate to so many women who are abused,” Goldsmith-Thomas responds, assuring Lopez of the message behind the difficult-to-shoot scene. “You’re talking about how we accept less than we deserve.”
While Lopez never reveals who “manhandled” her, throughout the documentary she makes clear that the the film is an amalgam of her experiences in love and dating in her journey to self-love.
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“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,” Lopez explains. “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.’ 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 f–k out of here, never look back.'”
She continued, “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.”
As evidenced in both the documentary and musical movie, Lopez has not only achieved self-love, but real and true love in her relationship with husband, Ben Affleck, more than 20 years after the pair first called off their engagement.
Of finding their way back together after first postponing their wedding in 2003, Lopez tells Affleck, who appears both in the doc and the film, “I think I was angry at you for a long time. 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.”
The Greatest Love Story Never Told, and This Is Me… Now: A Love Story are both streaming now, on Prime Video.
If you are experiencing domestic violence, call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-7233, or go to thehotline.org. The hotline is available 24/7 in more than 170 languages; Calls are confidential and toll-free.
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