Jennifer Lopez and Alex Rodriguez are gushing about how their love blossomed as the cover stars in the newest issue of Vanity Fair. Find out who approached who and more inside…
Was it love at first sight for Jennifer Lopez and Alex Rodriguez? Not exactly. They met 12 years ago when JLo’s then husband Marc Anthony was tapped to throw the first pitch at a New York Mets game.
Years and a couple divorces later, Jennifer Lopez and Alex Rodriguez became an item and made it super official when they showed up together at the Met Gala in May. Now, they’re sharing intimate details about their love in the newest issue of Vanity Fair. And this spread is BOMB.
The 48-year-old entertainer and the 42-year-old retired MLB player are now the epitome of coupledom. But, their love story is unconventional. (Who wants that perfect love story anyway?) The “Shades of Blue” star saw what she wanted and went after it…even though she claims to be super shy.
“It was just one of those things where you feel compelled to do something you wouldn’t normally do,” Jennifer Lopez shared. “I almost yelled out ‘Alex,’ but I am the shyest person when it comes to things like that.” When she went outside, he was still there, facing away from her. “I could literally just have walked away, but I walk over and tap him on the shoulder and say ‘Hey.’”
“I had just come from a promo for my show, Shades of Blue [in which she plays N.Y.P.D. detective Harlee Santos], so I’m dressed like my character, like a boy—Timberlands, jeans, curly short hair. He looks at me. I say, ‘It’s Jennifer.’ He says, ‘You look so beautiful.’ ”
That’s right girl. Get your man. Not mad at all.
That shoulder tap was the beginning of their love story and now they’re inseparable. They're literally the male/female versions of each other, so it makes perfect sense (on paper at least).
The power couple gushed about their first date at Hotel Bel Air. JLo was convinced it was a real date while A-Rod wasn’t too sure.
“He was sitting there in his white shirt, very confident and manly, but then he was just so talkative!” she says. “I think he thought I was going to be this loud person, but I’m not. I just listen. So he’s talking, talking about his plans, about how he had just retired from baseball, about how he saw himself getting married again, all these things you wouldn’t normally talk about on a first date. I don’t know if he thought it was a date. I thought it was a date. Then I knew he was nervous because he asked me if I wanted a drink. I said, ‘No, I don’t drink,’ and he asked if I minded if he had one. He was nervous, and it was really cute.”
“I didn’t know if it was a date,” Rodriguez says. “Maybe we were seeing each other at night because of her work schedule. I went in uneasy, not knowing her situation.”
He continues: “It would be incredibly productive for me to sit with one of the smartest, greatest women in the world, especially for a guy like me who is coming through tough times, rehabbing himself, re-establishing himself to folks out there. I thought it would be a win-win no matter what.”
YESSSS! They killed this Mario Testino shoot.
“She told me around the third or fourth inning that she was single,” Alex says. “I had to get up and go re-adjust my thoughts. I went to the bathroom and got enough courage to send her a text.”
“So I’m sitting there and he’s walking back, and I get a text,” Lopez continues. “It says . . . ” She looks significantly at Rodriguez. “You can tell her!” he says. “ ‘You look sexy AF,’ ” she tells me. They both laugh. “And then it took a turn,” Lopez says. “The fire alarm went off, and we had to evacuate.” I laugh, thinking she’s being metaphorical. “No, really,” she says. “The fire alarm went off!”
After their first date, they realized they have A LOT in common where they can almost relate on a “twin” level considering how they both grew up and came into fame at a young age.
“We are very much twins,” Alex says. “We’re both Leos; we’re both from New York; we’re both Latino and about 20 other things.”
“I understand him in a way that I don’t think anyone else could, and he understands me in a way that no one else could ever,” JLo says. “In his 20s, he came into big success with the biggest baseball contract [at the time]. I had a No. 1 movie and a No. 1 album and made history. We both had ups and downs and challenges in our 30s, and by our 40s we’d both been through so much. And more importantly than anything, we had both done a lot of work on ourselves.”
Listen, we're just trying to find out equal out here. These two might have just laid the blueprint.
Read their full joint interview here.
Photos: Mario Testino via Vanity Fair