Jennifer Lopez claims she almost walked away from it after her 2014 divorce from third husband Marc Anthony.
The singer and actress, 56, was speaking on stage Friday during her Up All Night Las Vegas residency at the Colosseum at Caesars Palace, when she opened up about the emotional toll of the breakup.
“It was actually a very difficult time,” Lopez told the crowd. “I was really about to give it all up.”
The singer, who shares 18-year-old twins Max and Emme with Anthony, reflected on the challenges she faced as a single parent following their divorce.
“I mean, I was a single mom with two 3-year-old twins,” she said in videos from the show shared on social media.
During that difficult time, Lopez said she received advice from the late self-help author Louise Hay that stuck with her.
“She said to me, ‘Jennifer, you’re a dancer, right?’ I said, ‘Yes, that’s me,'” Lopez recalled. “And she said, ‘If you’re learning a dance and the steps are wrong, what do you do?’ I said, ‘I’m just going to keep going until I take the right steps.’ And she said, “That’s right, Jennifer. Always keep dancing.’”
Lopez said the message continues to guide her through life’s challenges.
“I wish the same for all of you… that whatever life throws at you, you dance and you dance and you dance,” she told the crowd.
The singer previously shared similar reflections during another night of the residency in December, saying she was “really starting to get good at it [dancing]’ after her third divorce, at a time when her life ‘was a mess’.
Despite the difficulties surrounding their breakup, Lopez has spoken positively about Anthony’s influence during their marriage. In a 2018 interview with Willie Geist on Sunday Today, she said Anthony helped boost her confidence as a singer.
“He really helped me with my self-confidence, and he saw what was bothering me,” she said, recalling how he would encourage her by saying, “You’re a great singer. Don’t ever let anyone tell you that you’re not.”
The pair later collaborated again on Lopez’s Spanish-language album For Primera Vezan experience she says helped repair parts of their post-divorce relationship and allowed them to rebuild their friendship through music.
