J.Lo's Ex-Husband Subtly Shades Her With Relationship Advice Amid Ben Affleck Divorce

Jennifer Lopez has been married four times and engaged three times. Two of those engagements were to Ben Affleck. While their 2002 engagement didn't result in a marriage, their 2022 engagement surprisingly made it down the aisle that same year. However, Lopez filed for divorce from Affleck on August 20, 2024, exactly two years later, which only added to critics who argued that Lopez and Affleck never should've given their romance another shot. Case in point, Lopez's first husband Ojani Noa threw some subtle shade at Lopez during her divorce from Affleck.

In a new interview with Daily Mail, Noa described trying to reassure Lopez, who he claimed was often insecure. He also explained that over the course of their relationship, Lopez's star rose because of her role in "Selena." She liked the attention from paparazzi, but Noa didn't think it was conducive to an authentic relationship.

Noa also felt their divorce was twisted into being his fault because of her success, but he doesn't hold a grudge against Lopez. However, he did have some advice that seemed to hint that Lopez becomes too preoccupied with attention from the media. "Stay single for a while, take 12 months off," Noa said. "If she meets someone new, maybe keep it private and not get married again. She has an amazing career and she's a hard-working, beautiful woman, but when you're with someone, you have to spend quality time with them and not think about being on camera."

Prior to Jennifer Lopez's reconciliation with Ben Affleck, she was engaged to Alex Rodriguez from 2019 through 2021. In a vulnerable moment from her 2019 "It's My Party" tour video diary, Lopez discussed her former marriages. "I've been married three times," Lopez said. "And once was nine months, and once was 11 months. So I don't really count those." (The 11-month marriage was her marriage to Ojani Noa.) Lopez went on to say she and Marc Antony were married for a decade and share children.

"I was very young the first two times I tried to get married. I would say try to get married," Lopez said. She spoke about the loneliness that comes along with fame too. "It seems like in this life, you're always surrounded by people, you're never lonely, but it's very lonely," Lopez said. "So you always want somebody with you. Somebody. And so, I felt like if I got married I felt like I would always have somebody, but that's not how life works." She admitted that wasn't a solid reason for a marriage and said, "The right one is when you find somebody who really makes you better."

It's not so surprising that Lopez and Affleck split again, given the signs a breakup was on the horizon. A source told People in July 2024, prior to Lopez's divorce filing but amidst rumors of trouble in paradise, that it wasn't about the attention. "There are deeper issues," the source said. Per the New York Post, the official cause for divorce was "irreconcilable differences."