The singer, now married to actor Ben Affleck, reveals she was the victim of domestic violence in her new documentary The Greatest Love Story Never Told.
She says: “Being thrown around and manhandled like that. It’s not fun.
“I was never in a relationship where I got beat up, thank God, but I’ve definitely been manhandled and hit and a couple of other unsavoury things. Rough. Disrespectful.”
She adds: “More than it’s a vulnerable place for me to be in.”
A friend replies to her: “It’s a personal journey babe, that will relate to so many women who go through abuse. You’re talking about women accepting less than they deserve.”
Among her previous relationships, J Lo, 54, was married three times and has dated a number of high profile celebrities.
However, she didn’t clarify who had mistreated her.
In the film, she continues: “There were people in my life who said ‘I love you’ and then didn’t do things that were in line with the word love.
“You have to hit rock bottom, where you’re in situations that are so uncomfortable and are so painful that you finally go, ‘I don’t want this anymore’.”
Speaking about her love life in the documentary, released today, she says: “I’ve been married four times now. I’m sure people watching from the outside were like, ‘What is this f***ing girl’s problem?’
“You saw kind of a compulsive behaviour. What I portrayed to the world was, ‘Oh this didn’t work out and it’s fine and I’m good and they’re good and they were great and I was great’. And all of that was kind of bulls**t.”
J Lo continues: “I wasn’t struggling in my professional life. I feel like I had control of that and that’s why I put a lot into it.
“But when I went home at night, and when I was dealing with my own life and my own demons and my own relationships, it was such a f***ing struggle.”
The Jenny From The Block star wore a brown leather skirt and top to the premiere of the Prime Video film in Los Angeles on Monday, after being seen kissing Ben, 51, earlier in the day.
She started dating Ben in 2002 but they split just three days before their planned wedding in 2003, before reconciling in 2021 and tying the knot in Las Vegas the following year.
Speaking about their time apart, she says: “For all those years it was really hard because I didn’t just feel like I lost the love of my life, I felt like I lost the best friend that I’d ever had.
“And I couldn’t talk to him for so many years and that was the hardest part.”
Ben also appears in the film and compares his own battles with alcoholism to his wife’s struggle for success.
He explains: “Jen felt emotionally neglected as a child.
“It’s a hard thing to look at somebody whose professional life is wildly successful and on Instagram looks like they’re living the happiest life in the world.
“The thing you discover, like you do with alcohol, is that there isn’t enough alcohol in all the liquor stores in the world to fill up that thing.
“In Jennifer’s case, I don’t think there’s enough followers or movies or records or any of that stuff to still that part of you that still feels a longing and a pain. Ultimately that’s the work you’ve got to do on your own.”
Paying tribute to Ben, 51, and fighting back tears, J-Lo also shares: “What he said and what he saw in me, and what he made me believe about myself, only comes from love. Because nobody else could have made me see that about myself. It’s very moving.”
She adds: “Because I didn’t think much about myself and so the world didn’t think much of me. That lined up.”
The superstar goes on to explain how Ben was the muse for her independently produced album, This Is Me… Then, and that she had crew read out Ben’s love letters to her during the process.
She also admits Ben felt “uncomfortable” about being thrust back in the limelight and being at the centre of her documentary.
She says: “I don’t think [Ben] is very comfortable with me doing all of this.
