Jennifer Lopez grew up desperately wanting to “feel loved”. Photo / AP
Jennifer Lopez grew up desperately wanting to “feel loved”.
The 54-year-old singer opened up about her pain over her childhood in her new documentary The Greatest Love Story Never Told, in which she blamed her parents’ behaviour for making her feel neglected and alone.
She says in the film: “When I was growing up, I was always looking for somebody to make me feel loved.
”I was a middle child, not the baby, not the firstborn … you just kind of get lost a little bit in between it all.”
Jennifer, who grew up in the Bronx, New York City, with her sisters Leslie, 56, and Lynda, 52, also blasted her parents, Guadalupe Rodriguez and David Lopez, who divorced in the 1990s.
She said: “I felt very ignored by my dad because he was always working nights, then all day he would sleep and I didn’t feel like I had enough of a connection with him.
”My mom was narcissistic, centre of the attention, life-of-the-party-type person.”
Mum-of-two Jennifer previously referenced her troubled relationship with her mother in her 2022 Netflix documentary Halftime.
She said in the film: “My mom is a super-complicated woman and she carries a lot of baggage, she wanted us to be independent and never have to rely on a man.
”She did what she had to do to survive, and it made her strong, but it also made her tough … She beat the s– out of us.”
J Lo added she and her mum took “a break” from each other when the singer and actress defied her mom’s wishes by opting out of going to college.
She said: “I wanted to try dance full time… I started sleeping on the sofa in the dance studio.
”I was homeless, but I told her, ‘This is what I have to do.’”
Lopez is now on good terms with both her parents, and posted a tribute to her dad on Instagram on Father’s Day last year, saying: “Daddy, I love you” – to which he responded: “Thank you, sweetheart, I love you more.”
Ebony Lamb performs Successful Feelings. Made with funding from NZ On Air. Video / Locals Only