Jennifer Lopez has opened up about some of the challenges of raising teenage twins.
The 53-year-old singer and actor recently posed for the cover of Vogue Mexico and Latin America, where she detailed her relationship with her 15-year-old twins, Max and Emme. The Mother star, who shares her twins with ex-husband Marc Anthony, explained how they’ve started to question her choices as they’ve grown older.
“You will always adore your children. There is an acceptance they have of you,” Lopez said. “And then as they get older, they start to wonder, ‘Why are we doing this? Why is my mom doing that? Do I have to do it too?’ That’s where they start to challenge you.”
She continued: “You probably remember when you were a teenager and you gave your mom a hard time. And I don’t think it’s because they’re not good kids. They just want to know, to learn, they want answers.”
Lopez has previously spoken about the difficulties of raising teenagers in the spotlight. In May, the Hustlers star explained why her teenagers “don’t want to talk” to her anymore during an appearance on The View.
She noted that she’s been more of the “bad cop” instead of the easygoing parent when it comes to raising her children with husband Ben Affleck. “I remember my mom saying to me, ‘I’m always the bad guy, I got to discipline you,’” she said about her mother, Guadalupe Rodríguez. “And there is some truth to that. You get a little bit of the brunt of it.”
The Marry Me actor then shared how her mother’s parenting wisdom has stayed with her, as her twins have started to spend less time with her. “I’m experiencing this now, you know, we all experience it for the first time with our own kids,” Lopez explained. “And you’re just like, ‘Oh, this is what she was talking about.’ This is the time where your kids don’t want to talk to you. And they’re kind of individuating from you.”
She continued: “And it’s all necessary. And intellectually, I understand it, but my heart, my heart hurts.”
After she and Ben Affleck tied the knot in 2022, Lopez blended her family with Affleck, who shares three children with his ex-wife, Jennfier Garner: Violet, 17, Seraphina, 14, and Samuel, 11.
While speaking to Today host Hoda Kotb last month, Lopez gave insight into her blended family with Affleck. “Well, he’s a wonderful, wonderful father,” she said. “And a father figure to [Max and Emme] as well, because he has his own three beautiful children, and then there’s us.”
“He’s fantastic. He really steps up to the challenge of what that is and what that means,” she continued. “And they love him. They love him. And they appreciate him, and so do I.”
The Shotgun Wedding star even showed her appreciation for the Gone Girl actor when she posted a steamy shirtless selfie of Affleck in honour of Father’s Day.
