Jennifer Lopez proved her determination knows no bounds, even just months after becoming a mother.
The Kiss from the Spider Woman star, 56, shared during the October 8 episode of the Las Culturistas podcast that just six months after giving birth to her twins, Emme and Max, now 17, she took part in a triathlon, whom she shares with ex-husband Marc Anthony.
While chatting with hosts Bowen Yang and Matt Rogers about her love of musical theater, Lopez recalled her performance You are a woman, I am a man by Funny girl at Anthony’s 40th birthday party, and casually dropped that she had completed a triathlon earlier that same day.
“I had run a triathlon that day,” she said with a laugh, prompting the hosts to burst out laughing at her nonchalant tone.
Lopez went on to explain that the goal came to her while she was still pregnant.
“When I was still pregnant, I had the idea that I was going to do a triathlon when the children were there [are born and] after I gave birth to get back in shape,” she said. “I thought I’d give myself a goal.”
Inspired by a TV show, the On the floor The singer began researching local events and soon found one scheduled in Malibu for September 2008.
She decided to commit to it. For Lopez, the decision was about more than just fitness, it was about setting an example.
She recalled looking at her 2007 American Music Award while pregnant and thinking about how her children could be proud of her one day. “The triathlon was part of that,” she says. “I want them to be proud of me.”
But as she later joked, her teenage twins don’t seem too impressed, at least for now.
“Now I’ve told them the story. They don’t care. Like, ‘Okay, you ran a triathlon.’ But one day they might think about it and say, “Wow, my mom ran a triathlon six months after having me.”
Lopez admitted that while she was happy with her overall performance, part of the challenge was especially intimidating.
“The swimming is the crazy part,” she said. “You go to look at the ocean for the first time and you say, ‘I’m going to swim to the buoy. Not the first. The third? I’m sure there are sharks.'”
Despite her nerves, Lopez completed the race, proving once again that when she sets her mind to something, she doesn’t back down.
