Although she doesn’t claim any physical abuse or name any abuser, singer Jennifer Lopez writes in her new book, True Love, that she felt abused in some of her past relationships.
“I’ve never gotten a black eye or a busted lip, but I’ve felt abused in one way or another: mentally, emotionally, verbally.”
True Love didn’t start off as a book chronicling the ups and downs of her love life. Lopez started it as a fan book, a “diary of the years as [she] went on tour.”
“But it turned into something else,” she told People Magazine. “As I started looking at things, it helped me face a lot. I would never go into specifics about my relationships, and I don’t. But the idea was that I learned something.”
Lopez, who has been married three times and has been through several media-hungry relationships, says that she has learned a lot about love and standing up for oneself.
“Every day that you don’t walk out that door,” she writes, “every day you accept things in your partner and in yourself, is a day that you’re saying it’s okay.”
Lopez’s last marriage was to singer Marc Anthony from 2004 to 2011. The two have 6-year-old twins together. According to Lopez, Anthony is very supportive of her new book.
“He read it and said, ‘Wow, I didn’t realize you were going through this whole journey.’ We try to be supportive of each other. We feel that’s the best thing for our kids.”
Since Anthony, the 45-year-old has dated Casper Smart, a former back-up dancer, but the two broke up in June.
A source told People Magazine that “the relationship had just run its course.”
“I’m learning to set up boundaries, you know what I’m saying?” said Lopez, who says she is now single. “I call myself a W.I.P. – a work in progress. I’m still learning and growing every single day.”
True Love hits bookshelves on November 4.