"It's me and you. That's it. All the way, till the end. That's it. It's going to be us,” the star said about her relationship with Ben Affleck.
For the coming year, Jennifer Lopez has some major ambitions. In 2023, she's scheduled to release This Is Me...Now, her first new album in eight years. On Friday, November 25, the artist announced the project in a post with the tracklist after earlier cleaning up her whole Instagram account. This was the 20th anniversary of her album This Is Me...Then. According to a press release via Good Morning America, the album will feature “confessional songs, reflections on the trials of her past, [and] upbeat celebrations of love with her signature powerhouse vocals.” In a recent interview, the Live It Up singer spoke candidly about her new songs and her renewed relationship with Affleck.
JLo and Affleck started dating in 2002, got engaged the following year, then split up in 2004. "Once we called off that wedding 20 years ago, it was the biggest heartbreak of my life", she said of their split two decades ago. "And I honestly felt like I was going to die. It sent me on a spiral for the next 18 years where I just couldn't get it right," she added while speaking to Zane Lowe. But she now feels otherwise. She said, “But now, 20 years later, it does have a happy ending. It has the most would-never-happen-in-Hollywood ending. ‘That would never happen. We're not going to write that because nobody would believe it’ ending."
After her split from Affleck in 2004, Lopez said that she wouldn't even perform the songs from This is me...Then because of the trauma that it had caused her. "It was so painful." But they have come a long way since then. She said, "I think now that we're older, we realize, it's much more clear, because...when we felt that way, now we know. Now, we know. And there is no questions and there is no kind of like, ‘Well, let's see how this goes.’ Like, ‘Nope, it's me and you. That's it. All the way, till the end. That's it. It's going to be us.’”
The new album This Is Me...Now will concentrate on them reconciling decades later. The songs in the album will portray feelings of losing hope, not giving up, and most importantly the message that "True love does exist and some things do last forever." The On The Floor singer pointed out that though it is vulnerable on her part to do this, it is essential that people understand the message of real love and happy endings, per PEOPLE.
I will be joining @zanelowe TOMORROW on @applemusic. Listen at 10am PT. #ThisIsMeNow #20yearsofTHISISMETHEN pic.twitter.com/TQHWej6uuZ
— jlo (@JLo) November 28, 2022
The Boy Next Door star's new album "chronicles the emotional, spiritual and psychological journey" that she has undergone over the previous two decades. JLo said, "I've been through a lot of different difficult relationships at times and private things that happened. But it got me to this place and it was just about, let's capture who I am right now, here today, and what I've gone through."
It also follows her nuptials to Affleck, to whom the record was initially dedicated. Throughout the conversation, Lopez said that Affleck is her biggest fan. "He loves that album. He knows all of the words." According to Elle, JLo continued by saying that even though they could feel the love immediately, they were still wary of getting involved with things because of their kids. The reunification, she claimed, was like a gap in the clouds when the music burst through and it was like, "Boom, that's it." She also claimed that the universe had brought them back into one other's life. "And we were both very sure." She added, “If you do the work, and you don't give up, you can get there. To somewhere amazing and beautiful and blessed. And that's how I feel."
References:
https://www.elle.com/culture/celebrities/a42087298/jennifer-lopez-ben-affleck-apple-music-interview/
https://people.com/music/jennifer-lopez-true-love-does-exist-ben-affleck-apple-music-interview/
Cover Image Source: Getty Images | Rich Polk / Stringer
