Jennifer Lopez’s Complete Dating History, From Ojani Noa to Ben Affleck

In her very successful career, Jennifer Lopez has often done best in her romantic comedy roles and while singing passionately about love on her albums. And her fans can tell you, those performances come from a very real place. Lopez is an admitted romantic.

Her most recent projects, an album called This is Me…Now and the visual album This is Me…Now: A Love Story, plus the Amazon Prime documentary The Greatest Love Story Never Told are all about her search for love and reconnection with husband Ben Affleck.

“It captures this moment to really say the things I want to say about love, and that is that true love does exist and some things are forever,” Lopez told USA Today. “Please don’t give up on that because that’s all that matters in life…love.”

J.Lo has definitely not given up. Below is the dating history that brought her to where she is now.

Lopez’s first marriage was to Cuban actor and producer Ojani Noa. At the time, he was waiting tables as well, and dabbling in a modeling career. They were married from 1997 to 1998, divorcing at 11 months. Of her earlier marriages, Lopez was later dismissive.

“It seems like in this life, you’re always surrounded by people so you’re never lonely, but it’s very lonely. So you always want somebody with you,” she said. “So I felt like if I got married, then I would always have somebody, but that’s not how life works. That’s not how it goes, a bad reason to get married. Not the right one, the wrong one.”

Lopez added, “The right one is when you find somebody who makes you better.”

For his part, Noa still seems a bit hurt by the loss of his former flame. In 2022, he was interviewed about Lopez following her reconciliation with Ben Affleck.

“I wish her and Ben the best,” he told the Daily Mail. “Jen loves being in love but she’s been engaged six times. Ben is husband No. 4. I was husband No. 1, and she told me I was the love of her life. When we lay in bed on our wedding night, she said we would be together forever.”

He added, “We fell in love when she was already famous. But during our marriage, she became a megastar. For years, it was too painful to talk about. I wanted to lie low and live my life. But when I saw she got married to Ben, who is a good guy, the feelings came flooding back.”

Lopez dated Sean “Diddy” Combs from 1999 to 2001, when he was a producer on her hit debut album On The 6. These were a pretty iconic few years of J.Lo’s life. In 2000, she wore her incredibly famous green Versace dress to the Grammys, and he was her date that night. In 2003, she told Vibe magazine that they broke up due to infidelity.

“It was the first time I was with someone who wasn’t faithful,” she said. “I was in this relationship with Puff where I was totally crying, crazy, and going nuts. It really took my whole life in a tailspin…I never caught him, but I just knew. He’d say he was going to a club for a couple of hours and then never come back that night.”

Despite this drama, they did remain amicable, and Combs spoke of Lopez as his “friend” in 2021 during a Vanity Fair interview. However, given his current legal troubles, they may no longer be on speaking terms.

Lopez met backup dancer Cris Judd in 2000 when he was dancing for her “Love Don’t Cost a Thing” video. It was a real whirlwind romance, and they got married on Sept. 29, 2001, then filed for divorce by July 2002.

“Coming out of a torrid relationship, I meet this sweet person who’s so refreshing,” Lopez told Vibe. “But marriage is not just about love. I thought I had learned that in my first marriage...I loved Cris, still love him, he’s one of the best people. This wasn’t an easy thing to walk away from, but we didn’t have what it takes to make a marriage work.”

Ben Affleck and Lopez connected on the set of 2003’s Gigli. They were first engaged in November 2002, but eventually canceled the wedding due to “excessive media attention.”

The pair officially split in early 2004 and went on to other relationships. Affleck married actress Jennifer Garner and had three children with her: Violet, Seraphina, and Samuel. Lopez married singer Marc Anthony, and they share their twins, Max and Emme. Almost two decades passed, during which they each went through divorces and dating other people. Then, in 2021, it was reported that they’d been seen spending time together again.

“She is happy with him and enjoys spending time with him,” a source told People of the more recent sightings.

In 2022, they got engaged again.

They were married on July 16, 2022, in Las Vegas before celebrating with a second ceremony on Affleck’s Georgia estate that August.

Lopez shared select photos from their wedding in her On the JLo newsletter, adding details on the ceremony, reception, and day-after brunch.

She wrote that Affleck said in his wedding speech, “This is heaven. Right Here. We’re in it now.”

“The truth is, I never had one doubt,” she wrote. “All week I felt the calm and easy certainty that we were in God’s hands...” Though it was raining, the clouds parted right before the ceremony, “and, at long-last, I started my walk down the stairs that would become the aisle that would lead me toward the rest of my life. Ahhhhh...it was actually happening...”

Before her happy ending with Affleck, Lopez had some other relationships that had their ups and downs. That includes her third marriage to actor and singer Marc Anthony. They were wed in June 2004, shortly after she split with Affleck for the first time. No one even knew they were dating when the marriage was announced. They had, however, known one another for some time. Anthony worked with Lopez on her song “No Me Ames” from On the 6. They welcomed Max and Emme in February 2008.

In July 2011, they announced their split in a joint statement to People, writing, “This was a very difficult decision. We have come to an amicable conclusion on all matters.”

In a 2016 interview with W magazine, Lopez said, “When my marriage [to Anthony] 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.”

It seems that now they are friends and co-parents.

“Marc and I are good how we are right now,” she said in 2017 on Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen. “There’s a reason we’re not together. But we’re great friends, and we’re parents together. That has been even better for us. We met working, and that’s where we’re really magical: When we’re onstage together, and so we leave it there. That’s it.”

After her marriage ended, Lopez started dating choreographer Casper Smart. They had an on-and-off relationship through 2016. Allegedly, the end of their relationship came when she got fed up with his infidelity.

“Whether there is any truth to what is being reported or not, it’s irrelevant. Jennifer did not trust him,” a source told E!. “The relationship had not been right for a while. Smart was never going to be the love of her life, but he was fun and a nice guy to be around. It stopped being fun once his friendships with other people started to come to light.”

In a later interview with Wake Up America on Univision, Smart shared that their nearly 20-year age difference contributed to the breakup.

“I was very young and selfish. I thought I was ready for a relationship with a woman with kids and everything,” he said.

Lopez and MLB star Alex Rodriguez were rumored to be dating in March 2017. An insider told People, “He has been around her family, and she really likes that he is a dad.”

The athlete proposed in 2019, and they began planning a wedding that was delayed due to COVID-19. Time under quarantine led to a breakup in April 2021.

“We have realized we are better as friends and look forward to remaining so,” they said in a joint statement to the Today Show. “We will continue to work together and support each other on our shared businesses and projects. We wish the best for each other and one another’s children. Out of respect for them, the only other comment we have to say is thank you to everyone who has sent kind words and support.”

People reported at the time that they had trust issues in their relationship.

“She has been pretty miserable,” a source said. “And didn’t think it was in her best interests to stay with Alex.”

Another insider claimed lockdown made their issues worse.

“They both liked spending more time together as a family, but it was difficult to keep that special spark when they saw each other every day,” this person said.

Aimée Lutkin

Aimée Lutkin is the weekend editor at ELLE.com. Her writing has appeared in Jezebel, Glamour, Marie Claire and more. Her first book, The Lonely Hunter, will be released by Dial Press in February 2022.