Jennifer Lynn Lopez was born in the
Castle Hill section of the South Bronx on July 24, 1970. The middle of three musically inclined sisters, Leslie, 34, a homemaker and Lynda, 30, an entertainment consultant for New York's Channel 11, Jennifer always dreamed of being a multi-tasking superstar. Jennifer's parents Guadalupe Rodriguez and David Lopez were both born in Ponce, Puerto Rico, the second largest Puerto Rican city. The two were then brought to the United States in their childhoods, and eventually met while living in New York City. While Jennifer is of Puerto Rican descent her paternal grandmother's parents were Europeans who settled on the island of Puerto Rico.
As a child Jennifer enjoyed a variety of musical genres, mainly Afro-Caribbean rhythms like
salsa, merengue and bachata, and mainstream music like Pop, Hip
hop and R&B. Although she loved music, the film industry also
intrigued her. Her biggest influence was the Rita Moreno musical
West Side Story.
At age five, Jennifer began taking
singing and dancing lessons. Aside from being a budding
entertainer, Jennifer was also a catholic schoolgirl, attending
twelve years at an all-girls catholic high school named Holy
Family, located in the Bronx. At school, Jennifer was an amazing
athlete and participated in track and field and tennis. At age
eighteen Lopez moved out of her parent's home. During this time
Lopez worked at a law firm while she took dancing jobs at
night.
Her big break came when she was offered a job as a fly girl on Fox's hit comedy In Living Color. After a two-year stay at In Living Color where actress Rosie Perez served as choreographer, Lopez than went on to dance for famed singer-actress Janet Jackson. Her first major film was Gregory Nava's Mi Familia and her career went into over-drive when she portrayed slain Tejana singer Selena Quintanilla Perez in 1997's Selena (1997). It was at the rap party for the Selena movie that J-Lo's first husband proposed to her.
1. Jennifer was married to
Restaurant Mogul Ojani Noa 1997 - 1998
2. Jennifer was involved with P
Diddy (Sean Puffy Cobbs) 1999 - 2001
3. Jennifer was divorced
from dancer Chris Judd -9/01 - 7/02
The media has recently linked her
to Actor Ben Affleck
She moved to Manhattan to learn how
to dance and used to sleep in the studio where she was practicing.
(December 1999) Rumored to have her
body insured for $1 billion, and had her rear protected with a
$300 million policy
Is the highest paid Latina(o)
actress to date for her performance in The Wedding Planner. ($9
million)
Opened a new Cuban restaurant
called Madre's in Pasadena, California and hired her ex-husband
Ojani Noa, who has several years of experience in the restaurant
business, to run it.
Has relocated to Miami Beach after
purchasing an estate there worth $9.1 million. Her neighbors on
both sides of the house are Robin and Barry Gibb, and singer Ricky
Martin lives eight blocks away.
She has her own clothing and
cosmetic line.