Jennifer Lopez & Marc Anthony's Marriage Was Messier Than Anyone Realized

Amid their divorce due to "irreconcilable differences," Jennifer Lopez and Marc Anthony worked to get along and keep the reasons for their separation low-key for the sake of their twin children, Emme and Max. However, they couldn't prevent some of the more controversial aspects of their cohabitation from coming to light, proving that their marriage was messier than anyone realized.

Although a look inside Lopez and Anthony's relationship reveals they seemingly enjoyed a long honeymoon period, according to the Daily Mail, the couple reached their first breaking point in 2008, when Lopez's mother moved into the mansion Lopez and Anthony shared on Long Island at that time to help care for the couple's twins. As filmmaker Ed Meyer, an associate of Lopez's first husband, Ojani Noa, made clear in the same report, Lopez also became upset with Anthony when she found out that he owed millions in unpaid taxes to the state of New York. Likewise, the area in which they established their permanent family home after the twins grew up also became an issue, as Lopez wanted to reside in Los Angeles, while Anthony wanted to remain in New York. 

Over the years, Lopez revealed more details about her marriage to Anthony. In a conversation with coach Jay Shetty on "Coach Conversations," Lopez confessed that she didn't feel like she loved herself during their marriage. While she didn't name Anthony specifically, she did mention that early on in her late 30s, when she went to therapy after her breakup, the concept of loving herself started to make sense and made Lopez realize she hadn't felt that way up until then.

Sadly, these weren't the messiest problems of Jennifer Lopez and Marc Anthony's marriage, though. Lopez's stylist, Phillip Bloch, added further details about the couple's breakup in conversation with the Daily Mail, revealing, "Marc is very controlling. In the beginning she liked that because he stood up to her, and in the early days he was very much in love with her and she was with him." Lopez addressed this issue in her book, titled "True Love," although without specifically naming Anthony. Thus, in an excerpt shared by HuffPost, she confessed that she has been "in relationships where I have felt abused one way or another: mentally, emotionally, verbally."

That's not all Lopez revealed in her book. According to Hola!, she admitted the main reason she married Anthony is because she didn't want to feel alone after her first breakup with Ben Affleck. Despite this, Lopez and Anthony have tried hard to find a way to keep the past from getting the best of them. Now, they have nothing but good words for each other when asked about the subject and proving with actions that, although both have moved on with their lives — with Lopez being the most public about her relationships — they would always continue to be present in each other's lives. 

And although a post by Lopez on Father's Day hinted that it hasn't always been easy to get along and remain present in the lives of their children, both have managed to prevent their problems from entering the public spotlight and affecting the twins. Therefore, it's clear they now have a good relationship full of love and mutual respect.