NEED TO KNOW
Jennifer Lopez is a mom to 17-year-old twins, Maximilian “Max” David Muniz and Emme Maribel Muniz
She shares the kids with her ex-husband, Marc Anthony, from whom she separated in 2011 and divorced in 2014
The actress revealed why she changed her parenting approach during an appearance on the Wednesday, Oct. 15 edition of SiriusXM’s Howard Stern Show
Jennifer Lopez knows the importance of being a present parent — and one important conversation with her kids that made her realize that.
The multi-hyphenate, 56, was a guest on the Wednesday, Oct. 15 episode of SiriusXM’s Howard Stern Show, and she discussed the life-changing talk she had with her 17-year-old twins, Maximilian “Max” David Muniz and Emme Maribel Muniz, during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Kiss of the Spider Woman star shares Max and Emme with her ex-husband, Marc Anthony. The couple separated in 2011 and divorced in 2014.
Jennifer Lopez/Instagram
Jennifer Lopez and her kids Emme and Max
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According to Lopez, when her twins, who are now 17 years old, were preteens, they gave her a harsh reality check about parenthood.
“They spoke to me, [and] they’re like, ‘You’re not a regular mom. You’re not here every day. You don’t drop us off and pick us up [like the other parents],’ ” she said. “And I realized how much they needed me there.”
Slaven Vlasic/Getty
Jennifer Lopez and her kids Max and Emme at a screening of “Kiss Of The Spider Woman” in NYC
Lopez said that at the time, being a single parent drove her to work more to provide for her kids until she realized that “it wasn’t just about me giving them a great life.”
“It was about me being there for them all the time,” said Lopez. “I started trying to balance that a little bit more.”
The actress said that the “wake-up call” led her and her kids to have “the best relationship now.”
“I just was like, ‘Okay, you’re gonna know — if you didn’t know before how much I love you and that you were the main thing in my life — everything I do for you, you’re gonna f—— know now,’ ” she said.
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Jennifer Lopez at the Deadline 2025 Sundance Film Festival Studio
Lopez said that proving her love to her kids is all in her “behavior,” and that those around her, including her longtime manager, Benny Medina, know “that my kids are my priority.”
“So if I say ‘I can’t do this because of the kids, they just, they don’t even touch it,” she said. “They respect it in a way that they know it’s a losing battle. There’s nothing they can say if I say no, it’s no.”
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Max and Emme were most recently spotted out with Lopez at a special New York City screening of Kiss of the Spider Woman on Monday, Oct. 6.
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