American actress, singer, dancer, fashion designer, television producer, and entrepreneur Jennifer Lopez. She has had a more than 25-year career and is currently one of Hollywood’s greatest A-list stars. Jennifer Lopez has a $400 million net worth as of this writing. She is now $50 million wealthier than her ex-boyfriend Alex Rodriguez, who has a $350 million fortune. J-Lo and A-Rod had a combined net worth of $750 million while they were dating.
On July 24, 1969, in the Bronx neighborhood of New York City, Jennifer Lynn Lopez was born. Guadalupe Rodriguez and David Lopez, her parents, are from Puerto Rico. She has two sisters: Lynda, her younger sister, and Leslie, her older sister. Her father was an insurance agent who worked the night shift. Her mother ran the household. When Jennifer was born, the family was residing in a compact apartment in the Castle Hill district. Her parents eventually purchased a two-story home a few years later.
Jennifer started taking singing and dancing lessons when she was five. Her parents encouraged their three daughters to put on performances at home – singing and dancing in front of each other and their friends so that they would stay out of trouble. Lopez attended Catholic schools for her entire academic career. She did gymnastics, ran track on a national level, and was on her high school’s softball team. During her senior year of high school, Lopez auditioned for and was cast in the low budget indie film My Little Girl. This experience made JLo realize she wanted to become a famous movie star. Her parents thought that was a “really stupid” idea because “no Latinos did that.” To please her parents, she enrolled in Baruch College but dropped out after the first semester.
Lopez had minor roles in television shows and films from 1993 to 1995. Her breakout film role came in 1995 when she won the title role in the biopic Selena. In the movie, Jennifer played the late Tejano singer Selena who was gunned down by a former friend, employee and fan club president. Next, Jennifer went on to appear in Anaconda, Out of Sight, The Wedding Planner, and An Unfinished Life, among many other films.
In August 2003, Lopez starred opposite Ben Affleck in the romantic comedy Gigli. The film was a box office bomb and is considered one of the worst films of all time. The film’s poor reception was attributed to negative press preceding its release, as well as the media attention surrounding Lopez and Affleck’s engagement which largely overshadowed the film. Lopez would later describe this as the lowest point of her career. In March 2004, Lopez had a minor role in the film Jersey Girl, alongside Affleck. Her character dies during childbirth within the first 15 minutes of the film. From the intense media coverage following Affleck and Lopez’s break-up, it was said that “they may need to put Lopez in a coffin on the poster if they want anyone to come.”
