Inside J.Lo's Relationship With Her Son Maximilian

You ever meet folks who just seem naturally good at everything they do? Jennifer Lopez is one of those people. The superstar, who got her start as a dancer, has gone on to worldwide musical success, appeared in dozens of motion pictures, and even landed one of the most eligible single dads on the market when she began dating Alex Rodriguez in 2017. And if all that weren't enough, it turns out she's a pretty fantastic mom too.

J.Lo shares twins Emme Maribel and Maximilian David Muñiz with ex-husband Marc Anthony. And while we saw Lopez onstage with her daughter at the Super Bowl in 2020, a little less is known about her relationship with Max. But in scouring J.Lo's social media and watching her daily interactions with her son, you'll immediately learn she's as loving and supportive a mother as any in the world. And even with a schedule that's more demanding than most of us can imagine, Lopez still makes being Max's (and Emme's) mom her top priority, and here is the evidence why.

Jennifer Lopez — who's undergone a stunning transformation — is no stranger to tough interviews with ruthless journalists. But nothing prepared her for the hardest grilling of her life, which came at the hands of her twins Emme and Maximilian Muñiz during an interview on her YouTube channel (it's easily one of the most endearing interviews you'll ever see). Citing her boredom at answering the same questions all the time, Lopez told her kids they could ask her "anything in the world." A long pause followed, until Max broke the silence with, "Ummmmmmm...."

Max started out with some softballs, like "What did you like to do when you were my age?" (play softball) and "What did you get in trouble most for when you were a kid?" (sneaking out). But as the interview progressed, the questions got tougher, like when Emme asked, "Am I your favorite?" Ever the diplomat, J.Lo responded, "WHAT?? I don't have a favorite. I don't believe in favorites." However, she did go on to tell Max she loved his sense of humor, incredible vocabulary, and enormous heart.

Much like the childless never forget to post pictures of their happy hour choices on February 22 (National Margarita Day, duh), so too do moms always make sure to celebrate their male children on September 28, AKA National Sons Day. Jennifer Lopez certainly didn't forget, as she posted a loving Instagram tribute to Maximilian Muñiz with a caption saying, "When I see your face there's not a thing that I would change...Cause boy you're amazing just the way you are."

The video, which has thus far avoided litigation from Bruno Mars, shows J.Lo sitting at what appears to be the dinner table with Max, as he runs through baseball signs he's managed to memorize. "This is more of a test of memory for me," Max says after nailing every sign his mom rattles off. An off-screen voice, which sounds like J.Lo's husband, Alex Rodriguez, offers him $100 for getting them all right. It's a touching family moment that makes us realize moms are moms, no matter how many albums they've sold.

"Welcome to the family, @tbdpupofficial," Jennifer Lopez announced on Instagram in June of 2020, telling her hundreds of millions of followers she'd bought Maximilian Muñiz a golden doodle puppy for his 12^th birthday. The post included a playful video of Max rolling on the ground with his new best friend, saying "This is the best day! I love him!" Then, you can see the realities of dog ownership hitting the young boy all at once when he looks at his mother and says "I think he peed on me!" We've all been there, Max. We've all been there.

The post also asked for J.Lo nation to weigh in on what to name the new pet: Tyson or Yankee. Five days later, Max took to Instagram via the golden doodle's new account to announce the dog would be named Tyson. Though it's not clear if the pooch is named after boxer Mike Tyson, actor Tyson Beckford, or astrophysicist Neal DeGrasse Tyson, we'd like to think he went old school and named the dog after the woman who played Miss Jane Pittman, Cicely Tyson.

Having a new man hanging around your mom all the time is tough on any son, even if that man happens to be a 14-time all-star and three-time American League MVP. But Jennifer Lopez is a caring, considerate mom above all else, and talks regularly with Maximilian Muñiz about his relationship with the other man in her life. She told Oprah Winfrey during her 2020 Vision: Your Life in Focus motivational speaking tour that she'd had a conversation with Max about his feelings on Alex Rodriguez, and they were overwhelmingly positive. "He said something like, 'Alex is the only one who ever doesn't get mad at me,'" Lopez said during the interview, later recounted on Entertainment Tonight. 

J.Lo went on to divulge some of her everyday family life, admitting Max is the one most frequently in trouble because he constantly knocks things over around the house. "Alex had this amazing patience with him," she continued, saying both Max and his sister "really like him."

Nobody would say Jennifer Lopez and Shakira's Super Bowl performance was overshadowed by J.Lo's daughter, Emme Muñiz. But her cameo may have been the most impressive surprise of the night that wasn't the Kansas City defense. Still, Emme isn't the only Muñiz kid who can sing, and J.Lo makes a point of showing the world her son has a pretty solid set of pipes too.

In September of 2019, the Hustlers star posted a video on Instagram of Maximilian Muñiz doing an acoustic version of Vance Joy's "Riptide," with his sister joining on ukulele. "My heart can't take it," Lopez wrote in the caption. Then in February of that year, Lopez posted a birthday photo montage of her son on Instagram as well. That's endearing enough, but it's especially heartwarming when said video is set to Max singing "Life Ain't Perfect," from The Amazing World of Gumball. 

Not that anyone should be surprised the child of two world-renowned pop stars can sing. But it's nice to see his mom already supporting his talent.

Imagine you're going to see your kid play Flying Monkey #4 in their school's production of The Wizard of Oz. Then right before the show, this couple walks in and sits down right in front of you. And the dude's head is big. Like "Did you play baseball in the mid-2000s" big, so now you have crane your neck around him. Then just as your neck is getting used to the pain — around the time the house lands on the Wicked Witch of the East — the woman holds up her phone to record the little munchkin singing, "She's really most sincerely dead!" and now you can't see anything. You spend the rest of the performance in silent resentment, muttering, "Who do these people think they are, Jay-Z and Beyoncé?" 

The next morning, neck still sore, you turn on Today and see a video that looks a lot like last night's Wizard of Oz show, and you realize the cell phone that was blocking your view was recording something now on national TV. And you were pretty close in your assessment of who these people thought they were. 

Yep, in February 2020, Jennifer Lopez shared a clip of her son performing in his school's production of The Wizard of Oz, and it was pretty adorable. "The littlest munchkin," she wrote on Instagram. "#proudmama."

2019's breakout hit Hustlers proved that Jennifer Lopez is a talented actress. But the stripper-as-godmother role almost didn't happen, as J.Lo was trying to balance time with her family, and came perilously close to turning it down. "We were supposed to do it last summer, and I had worked so much," she told Variety. "I was like, 'I have to stay home with my kids and Alex.'"

But director Lorene Scafaria had written the role specifically for Lopez, and was willing to delay production so her star could do the film. "I think people forget that she's such a gifted actor," Scafaria revealed. "The role fits her like a glove, but it's also a glove with spikes on it." 

It turned out to be a brilliant move, as shortly after the film premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival, People crowed, "Hustlers gets glowing first reviews: Jennifer Lopez 'will be nominated for an Oscar.'" The Hollywood Reporter and the Daily Beast joined in the Oscar buzz, but sadly she was snubbed that season.

If you sat looking at your save the dates for May 23, 2020 with a tear running from your eye, know you're not alone. Jennifer Lopez and Alex Rodriguez were set to tie the knot that day too, according to Glamour, after he proposed to her on vacation in March of 2019. But as Lopez revealed on The Ellen DeGeneres Show, "We'll see what happens now.... I really don't know what's gonna happen now as far as dates or anything like that."

One thing J.Lo does know: who the person walking her down the aisle will be. Before the pandemic, the former In Living Color fly girl told Entertainment Tonight that Maximilian Muñiz would be the one giving her away. At the time, she added she didn't have any "firm plans" as to where or when the wedding would be. And nothing has been said publicly to improve the status of that statement.

Anyone who's ever tried to get a 12-year-old to dress up for a staged family photo knows it's right up there with getting them to do math homework or clean their room. It probably makes matters a little easier, however, if you have famed photographer Ryan McGinely helping you give directions. That was the case in August of 2020, when Jennifer Lopez took to the hills with her mother and her children to shoot the "Coach Family" campaign for the high-end fashion brand (via Elle). The photos were meant to "celebrate stories of togetherness, and the power of modern families-those we are born into and those we choose over time," according to a Coach press release.

The photos show the family on a hilltop eating what looks like a picnic lunch of pizza and salad. Maximilian Muñiz is also seen posing on a tire swing with his back to the camera while his mom gives him a push. The campaign was part of Lopez's role as a Coach brand ambassador, and also included a photo set with actor Michael B. Jordan

As all of us who've felt guilty for skipping a day on the elliptical and eating pasta were made painfully aware during the 2020 Super Bowl, Jennifer Lopez celebrated her 50th birthday in 2019. But when you look like that with half a century and two kids behind you, who's counting? 

J.Lo commemorated the occasion at Gloria Estefan's Miami mansion, where according to TooFab, the Monster-in-Law star was serenaded by Ashanti, Fat Joe, and DJ Khaled. Although, if it was anything like literally every other DJ Khaled performance, it probably wasn't so much serenading as a lot of yelling, "You da BEST!"

The talk of the night, however, was Lopez's children, who both contributed musical numbers to the revue. Emme Muñiz was seen on designer Michael Costello's Instagram stories singing Diana Ross' "Do You Know Where You're Going To," before doing her own take on "Hard Knock Life" with a couple of friends. Maximilian Muñiz also got into the musical spirit, doing a cut from Hamilton's "My Shot," which garnered him a standing ovation from the star-studded crowd.

Jennifer Lopez is pretty public about her prioritization of family in her life. Work-life balance is of the utmost importance, and she told Variety in 2019, this was the first time she felt her personal and professional lives were both humming along perfectly. Alex Rodriguez is a big part of the reason why, she said, but judging by her kids' constant presence on her social media, it seems her effort to spend time with them is a major factor too.

This was demonstrated beautifully in January of 2020, while Lopez was busy rehearsing for the halftime show at the Super Bowl. She posted a picture on Instagram of herself in bed with Maximilian Muñiz and his sister Emme Muñiz, captioning it, "Break from rehearsal for homework and snuggle time." Granted, Emme may well have been taking a rehearsal break too, though that wasn't common knowledge at the time. But it still showed that even as J.Lo prepared for the largest TV audience of her career, making time for snuggles was still important.

Like so many families who were forced to spend "quality time" together during the height of quarantine in the spring of 2020, Jennifer Lopez learned a lot about her pre-teens, thanks to her newfound spare time. In a cover story for WSJ Magazine, the Selena star said she enjoyed being home with Maximilian and Emme Muñiz, and that it gave her a chance to discover the parts of their lives they enjoyed and the parts they did not. "It was just a real eye-opener and a reassessment, to really take a look at what was working and what wasn't working," she revealed. "You thought you were doing OK, but you're rushing around and you're working and they're going to school and we're all on our devices." 

Lopez went on to say she felt like the kids had aged three years during lockdown, and they'd become little adults by learning that the lavish life they had could be taken away from them in an instant. "They've been given a dose of the real world," she Continued. "They had to grow up...so did we."

Outside of maybe Amish communities, you'd be hard-pressed to find a parent in the past decade who hasn't used an iPad as a babysitter when you need a little peace and quiet. But while Jennifer Lopez certainly hasn't kept her kids away from electronics, she goes to great lengths to make sure they don't spend their lives with their faces buried in screens. "I've got to get them off those electronics for the rest of the day," she told WSJ Magazine. "I let them have them in the morning on the weekends but then I've gotta snatch 'em."

If you don't believe everything you read, you'll see her constant struggle during a YouTube video, in which Maximilian and Emme interview their superstar mom. At about the 4:25 mark, Emme hands Max a phone, and the kid immediately loses interest in whatever his mom was talking about. It takes about ten seconds for Lopez to look at him and say, "Are you listening to me?? Either one of you?? Give me this phone."

The Lopez-Rodriguez household is a blended family, with twins Emme and Max Muñiz joined by A-Rod's daughters Natasha and Ella Rodriguez. And the kids have gotten along swimmingly. People spoke with the couple for a cover story in 2018, where J-Rod gushed about how great their children get along. "I was so loving to his kids and he was so loving and accepting of mine, and they embraced each other right away," Lopez explained. Her baseball-playing beau added that the kids had become "best friends," and that is what kept the family grounded.

Like a lot of families, the Lopez/Rodriguez clan took the extended togetherness time that quarantine afforded to make dance routines for social media. This video, posted in March of 2020 to A-Rod's Insta, originally appeared on J. Lo's TikTok, and showed the family doing identical moves to the song "Something New." The former Seattle Mariners No. 1 pick leads off the parade, followed by his kids, the Muñiz twins, and J. Lo. Appropriately, he captioned it, "Worst to Best."