Jennifer Lopez finally feels “free” — nearly two years after her split from Ben Affleck.
The singer opened up about how she is doing in the wake of her and the actor’s August 2024 divorce in a preview of her upcoming “Nightline” interview.
“I’m in my happy era,” Lopez, 56, gushed in a teaser clip, which aired on “Good Morning America” on Wednesday. “I think, for the first time in my life, I feel like I’m free; I’m on my own. And it feels really good.”
Lopez added that she “didn’t really know” what that felt like since she was in her early 20s.
“And even before that. I’ve always had boyfriends,” she recalled. “There was always someone in my life, and so many things that I felt like were out of my control.”
The pop star told “Nightline” host Juju Chang.that she’s also learned to stop putting too much pressure on herself all the time.
“I’ve gotten to the point where I really trust myself and appreciate myself a little bit more, instead of being so hard on myself and always trying to prove myself,”Lopez admitted, recalling how she “had to stop everything” and take “a year off from work” to properly heal from her divorce.
“I canceled tours and just decided to be home and sit in what had happened without running away from it through work, through another person, through anything – just sit.”
Lopez — whose split from Affleck, 53, marked her fourth divorce in roughly 27 years — previously said she felt like her “whole f–king world exploded” after her marriage to the “Accountant” star ended.
However, that scary feeling ultimately helped the “Jenny from the Block” singer “figure [herself] out.”
“It did. It did feel that way. I needed to be home with my kids, and that was the priority at that time,” she shared. “I just got to the point where I was like, ‘What is going on with you?’ Because I couldn’t blame anybody else, because I don’t think that’s where the lesson is. And so I really wanted to figure myself out.”
“No. I’m not!” Lopez laughed after Chang asked if she was “dating up a storm” now that she’s single. “God forbid, I don’t want to ruin anything!”
She continued, “It’s so nice right now. I’m so happy. It’s the best. I just feel really good right now. And that was the scary thing for me when I was younger. Like, I didn’t know if I could do that. I was always afraid to do that.”
But while the “Love Don’t Cost a Thing” singer is taking a break from dating, Lopez clarified that she is still “surrounded by love.”
“I am a mom of graduates this year who are going to college,” Lopez said of her and ex-husband Marc Anthony’s 18-year-old twins, Max and Emme. “I am a showgirl and an entertainer and an actor. An entrepreneur. And I am happy. I am happy. And I am healthy. And I am grateful.”
As for how Lopez has kept busy in the two years since her and Affleck’s split, she has been focusing on her Up All Night residency at the Colosseum at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas.
Although the residency is scheduled to conclude on March 28, the “Atlas” actress still has some surprises in store for her countless fans.
“I wanted to have an orchestra on stage for this show, which I’ve never done,” she told Chang. “All of the songs are reimagined that way.”
Lopez concluded, “It’s a celebration. You have to cherish and live every single moment.”
The “Get Right” singer and Affleck’s relationship saga began when they met on the set of “Gigli” in 2002.
After getting engaged but then calling off their engagement in 2004, the pair reunited in 2021 and tied the knot in July 2022.
But two years later, on the second anniversary of a larger wedding reception they held in August 2022, Lopez filed for divorce from the “Air” star and cited April 26 of that year as their date of separation.
Their split was finalized in January 2025, but they later reunited for the premiere of “Kiss of the Spider Woman” in New York City in October 2025.
Besides Affleck from 2022 to 2025 and Anthony from 2004 to 2014, Lopez was also married to actor Ojani Noa from 1997 to 1998 and actor Chris Judd from 2001 to 2003.
“After my third divorce, that’s when I really started getting good at it,” Lopez joked during her Las Vegas residency on March 6 regarding her four failed marriages.
