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Jennifer Lopez has revealed that her mother used to ‘beat the s**t’ out of her before she left home at 18 to pursue a career in acting.
The singer and actress, 52, spoke candidly about her complicated relationship with her mother, Guadalupe Rodriguez, 76, and revealed her mom sometimes got into physical bouts with herself and her sisters, Leslie and Lynda.
Speaking in her Halftime documentary, Jennifer said: ‘She did what she had to do to survive, and it made her strong, but it also made her tough. She beat the s**t out of us.’
She added: ‘I was surrounded by a lot of strong women. My mom is a super complicated woman and she carries a lot of baggage, she wanted us to be independent and never have to rely on a man.’
Candid: Jennifer Lopez has revealed her mother Guadalupe Rodriguez used to ‘beat the s**t’ out of her before she left home at 18 to pursue a career in acting (pictured together in 2018)
Jennifer was born in 1969 in the Bronx to Guadalupe and David Lopez, who were both born in Puerto Rico but had moved to the U.S. as children.
Her dad worked as a computer technician. They divorced in the 1990s.
The Marry Me star left home at age 18 after getting into a ‘bad fight’ with her mom over her education, which resulted in them not speaking for eight months.
She had quit college to pursue a career in dance – something her mom was not fond of.
Jennifer recalled: ‘My mom was like, “If you’re gonna live in this house, you’re gonna get your education.” We got into a bad fight one night and I just left.’
Former school worker Guadalupe confirmed the pair ‘butted heads a lot’ in the doc, and admitted she was ‘far from the perfect mother,’ but insisted that she had her girls’ ‘best interest at heart.’
She explained: ‘I always had the highest expectations of them. It wasn’t to be critical. It was only to show you that you could do better.
‘Jennifer, she gave me the hardest time, to tell you the truth. We butted heads a lot. I was far from the perfect mother. The one thing I can always say, everything I did, I did with their best interest at heart.’
But it appears like things are all good between them now, since they have teamed up for numerous projects over the years – like the time they posed for the Coach holiday campaign together in 2020.
Jennifer previously said it was her mom who instilled ‘the love of music’ in her and gave her her ‘dance moves.’
‘I get my dance moves from her,’ she told Entertainment Tonight in 2020. ‘My mom is really the person who instilled the love of music in me and all of my sisters.
Jennifer spoke candidly about her complicated childhood in her new Netflix documentary, Halftime. She is pictured as a child
‘She was a young mom, she got married when she was 20. She had my sister when she was 21.
‘She had all of us by the time she was 26 so we all grew up together. It was like living with a teenager, to be honest.’
She added: ‘She wanted us to be independent. She never wanted us to ever have to depend on a man for anything because that’s what she was taught when she grew up.’
Elsewhere in the documentary, the Jenny on the Block songstress – who is now a mother herself to 14-year-old twins Max and Emme – revealed she nearly quit showbiz after she was mocked over her curvy figure.
The hitmaker said she was propelled to fame at a time when the celebrity body ideal was super-skinny, explaining that not fitting the mold pushed her to the verge of giving up her dreams.
Struggle: Elsewhere in the documentary, Jennifer – who is mother to 14-year-old twins Max and Emme – revealed she nearly quit showbiz after she was mocked over her curvy figure
Jennifer added her fiancé Ben Affleck was shocked at the body scrutiny she faced, but she said she expected it as a female Latina
‘There were many times where I was just like, “I think I’m just going to quit,”‘ she recalled.
‘I had to really figure out who I was. And believe in that and not believe in anything else.
‘When I started working, the beauty ideal was very thin, blonde, tall, not a lot of curves. I grew up around women with curves so it was nothing I was ever ashamed of.
‘It was hard, when you think people think you’re a joke – like a punchline. But it wound up affecting things in a way that I never intended.’
Jennifer added her fiancé Ben Affleck was shocked at the body scrutiny she faced, but she said she expected it as she was a female Latina.
The 49-year-old actor revealed in the film: ‘I said to her once, “Doesn’t this bother you?” And she said, “I’m Latina, I’m a woman, I expected this.”‘
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