In her Netflix documentary Halftime, Jennifer Lopez has admitted to facing difficulty with comments on her body that stemmed from a 2002 interview with Billy Bush.
Despite the interview occurring 20 years ago, Lopez still felt it was a step too far when the host quizzed, “People have raved about it for years. How do you feel about your butt?”
Lopez proceeded to address the remarks that were consistently made about her during a segment in her documentary.
“I grew up around women with curves, so it was nothing ever I was ashamed of,” Lopez explained.
“It was hard when you think people think you’re a joke, like you’re a punchline. But I wound up affecting things in a way that I never intended to affect them.
“No matter what I achieved, their appetite to cover my personal life overshadowed everything that was happening in my career.
“I just had a very low self esteem. I really believed a lot of what they said, which was that I wasn’t any good – I wasn’t a good singer, I wasn’t a good actress, I wasn’t a good dancer, I wasn’t good at anything. I just didn’t even belong here why wouldn’t I just go away.”
The revelations also drew a comment from Lopez’s current partner Ben Affleck, who offered some insight into what the situation was like when the pair were first together.
“I said to her once, ‘Doesn’t this bother you?’,” Affleck recalled. “And she said, ‘I’m Latina, I’m a woman I expected this. You just don’t expect it. You expect to be treated fairly’.”
