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Her sitting style on this week’s cover of Billboard aside, Jennifer Lopez is no slouch. The 44-year-old multi-hyphenate is increasingly serious about the business of her brand, as she releases her eighth album (“A.K.A.”), tours and grabs the big booty ($52 million in just one year!) as she empire builds in the mode of a muy moder-day Martha Stuart.
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Go behind the scenes of J.Lo’s Billboard cover shoot with these exclusive photos, plus check out five things we learned about the still-fly girl.
CH-CH-CH-CHANGES IN HER PERSONAL LIFE. It’s an interesting time for Lopez, back in the public eye for her professional life and her personal life. She broke up with boyfriend Casper Smart (which sources say occurred in April, two months before reports surfaced in June). Then came a report (which she has denied) that she’s seeing Maksim Chmerkovskiy, the “Dancing With the Stars” pro she worked with at the American Music Awards last November. “Things have changed so much for me,” she says.
SHE IS DIVERSIFIED. Lopez’s current portfolio: She’s a businesswoman (her fragrance line has raked in nearly $2 billion since 2002), entrepreneur (her Latino-geared line of wireless stores has 16 locations), fashion designer (her Kohl’s clothing line), producer (ABC Family’s “The Fosters”), cable programmer (she’s the CCO of Nuvo TV), author (her first memoir arrives in October), and mom (Max and Emme, her 6-year-old twins with ex-husband Marc Anthony).
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WHOA, J.Lo!: Jennifer Lopez’s Cover Photo Shoot
HER TOUR WITH ENRIQUE BOOSTED HER CONFIDENCE. “After I got home, I realized I was a stronger vocalist than maybe even I gave myself credit for,” she says of the 2012 co-headlining tour, which grossed $21.1 million in ticket receipts. “It made me want to get back into the studio without that cage I had put on myself. Once I let that beast loose, I was doing things I didn’t know I could do.”
IT’S NOT AS BIG AS YOU THINK IT IS. Not that. We’re talking about her entourage, which was comparable to Iglesias’ on their tour, save for the twins and a few road nannies. “She’s created this empire, and you can tell that she still cares a lot about what she does, yet still manages to be a sweetheart through all of it,” Iglesias says.
EXPECT A LOT OF J.LO IN 2015. Next year Lopez will return to the film world with a trio of projects (“The Boy Next Door,” “Home” with Rihanna, and “Lila and Eve,” an indie drama). Tentative projects include a concert documentary and yes, more music. “I’d like for her to start working on some Christmas songs for an album in ’15,” says her manager Benny Medina.
Return to Billboard.com on MONDAY morning for the FULL cover story.