Jennifer Lopez famously sang about how "love don't cost a thing." However, for the veteran star, divorce comes at a much greater emotional expense.
Her resumé reads like one only Wonder Woman would be capable of accomplishing—singer, actress, dancer, producer, American Idol judge, Las Vegas headliner. While just reading the whirlwind list would leave a mere mortal breathless, the 46-year-old says it's not her profession that gives her strife.
"When it comes to work, I never get tired. But with personal failures, I have thought, 'This is too hard,'" she said in W magazine, referencing her former relationship with ex-husband Marc Anthony.
"When my marriage ended, it was not easy to find forgiveness. It wasn't the dream that I had hoped for, and it would have been easier to fan the flames of resentment, disappointment, and anger. But Marc is the father of my children, and that's never going away. So, I have to work to make things right. And that is, by far, the hardest work I do."
For a woman who had famously said "I Do" two times before and later broke off an engagement to Ben Affleck, Lopez had a feeling about this union early on.
"I hung in there for seven years," Lopez continued. "I knew very quickly that it wasn't the right thing."
A self-described "relationship kind of girl," the mother of two is currently dating her on-and-off boyfriend, professional dancer Casper Smart.
"We got together and broke up and are now together again," she admitted. "I still think about getting married and having that long life with someone. I love the movie The Notebook. A dream of mine is to grow old with someone."
She's as equally concerned with being respected in the business as she is with finding love. Though she's one of the most successful stars in history, even Lopez suffers a double standard in the male-dominated business world.
"People may now think I'm 'nice,' but they still act surprised when I'm smart. It's a man's world, and truly, people in a business setting do not value a woman as much as a man," she said. "I feel like I'm constantly having to prove myself. If a man does one thing well, people immediately say he's a genius. Women have to do something remarkable over and over and over."
Her long list of projects is proof of that sentiment. However, her seemingly endless array of pursuits is rooted partly in her ceaseless work ethic.
"I do have trouble saying no. It's hard for me not to imagine doing everything I am asked to do," she admitted. "Even if I hear a song that someone else has done or watch a film that someone else is in, I think, 'Oh, I would do it like this.' Or, 'I wish I could do it like that.'Luckily, I love to work.'"
While Lopez just seems to get better and better and better as time goes on, there are some who still gloss over her talent nearly two decades after she burst onto the scene in Selena. Jenny from the Block uses the naysayers as the fuel to her fire.
"People underestimate me. They always have, and maybe that's for the best," she concluded. "It's fun to prove them wrong."