Jennifer Lopez has said she had to work out why she got into relationships that were not good for her before she could find happiness.
The actress and singer, who has been dating the baseball player Alex Rodriguez for almost two years, said she had to realise that love was not a fairy tale.
She told Red magazine: “I feel like I’m in my second, third, or fourth act. I feel like I’ve lived several lifetimes already and I’ve had to figure myself out along the way, work out why I felt a certain way, or got into relationships that didn’t serve me.
“And I finally realised, ‘It’s me. It’s all me. I got to fix some stuff. I need to understand my own worth and value’.”
The star, 49, has had a number of high profile romances and was married to singer Marc Anthony, her third husband, for 10 years and the pair have two children together, twins Max and Emme.
She was previously married to choreographer Cris Judd and waiter and actor Ojani Noa and was once engaged to Ben Affleck.
She also had a five-year relationship with dancer Casper Smart.
She told the magazine: “I grew up with the fairy tale, ‘A prince is going save you’, ‘Wait for true love and that’s what makes you happy’, ‘If you’re not married, you’re not happy’.
“Well, let me tell you, my daughter is eons above me already. She said to me when she was eight, ‘I don’t know if I want to get married, mommy’. And when she said that I was like ‘Yes!’ because I’ve been teaching her to love herself since she was little.”
Lopez added: “Once I had my kids, I realised I had to be better, I had to do better. So I started doing a lot of work on myself.
“I started searching spiritually, religion, all of it. Self-help, life coach, meditation, yoga, more meditation. Different types of working out, just trying to find how do I be the best me? You’ve taken the knocks so your kids can be better, right?”
Discussing the importance of having an equal partner, she said: “Both Alex and I are Latino. We are both self-made. He was always the hardest working baseball player that was – me, the same. We have that in common.
“We have the same work ethic. We also appreciate and know that coming from nothing, we always want to try to help and give back and teach our kids that.”
The March issue of Red is on sale from January 30.