Jennifer Lopez Reveals She Was Always Searching for Love as a Child of a 'Narcissistic' Mother

Jennifer Lopez reflected on how her lifelong search for love began during her childhood. In her new documentary, The Greatest Love Story Never Told, the 54-year-old revealed she had complicated relationships with both of her parents when she was a young.

The legendary pop icon grew up in the Bronx with her sisters, Leslie and Lynda, and her parents, Guadalupe Rodriguez and David Lopez, who divorced in the 1990s.

"When I was growing up I was always looking for somebody to make me feel loved," she shared in a clip. "I was a middle child, not the baby, not the first born … you just kind of get lost a little bit in between it all."

"I felt very ignored by my dad because he was always working nights then all day he would sleep," she explained. "I didn’t feel like I had enough of a connection with him."

However, she described her mother as a "narcissistic, center of the attention, life of the party-type person."

This isn't the first time Lopez has opened up on her previously strained bond with her mom. In her 2022 Halftime documentary, J.Lo confessed Rodriguez was a "super complicated woman" who "carries a lot of baggage."

"She wanted us to be independent and never have to rely on a man," she said at the time. "She did what she had to do to survive, and it made her strong, but it also made her tough. She beat the s--- out of us."

Despite their ups and downs, the "On the Floor" singer currently has good relationships with both of her parents.

Lopez's candid recollection of her youth and closest relationships comes after OK! reported her husband, Ben Affleck, was worried she was sharing too much with the world, according to a source.

"Ben loves J.Lo dearly, and he knew what he was getting into, to an extent," the source said. "But his fear is that by putting so much of herself out there, J.Lo’s just opening them up to way too much public scrutiny, and that hasn’t helped their relationship historically — far from it."

He also confessed that he initially asked Lopez to keep their sizzling romance off of social media.

"I sort of realized it’s not a fair thing to ask. It’s sort of like, you’re gonna marry a boat captain and you go, 'Well, I don’t like the water,'" he said. "We’re just two people with different kinds of approaches trying to learn to compromise."

Never miss a story — sign up for the OK! newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what OK! has to offer. It’s gossip too good to wait for!