How JENNIFER LOPEZ became the new Elizabeth Taylor

At 54, Jennifer Lopez is riding high, launching her new "musical experience" This Is Me ... Now and basking in her marriage to Ben Affleck. But who is the woman behind the glamour? 

- CHRISSY ILEY

Love. Love. Love. That’s what defines J.Lo. It’s undone her so many times, yet she still believes in love even when it doesn’t believe in her – and that’s what makes her one of us. She’s vulnerable, yes. She thinks that’s what makes her real and it does, of course. But in fact, we don’t like her to be too vulnerable. We like her to experience the highs and lows of her love rollercoaster, but for her to always make it through. We like her as a survivor.

It helps that J.Lo is shimmeringly gorgeous at 54. Her fashion sense has never been to follow trends but just to look hot, while maybe having the latest Gucci or Versace in her wardrobe. It means she’s aspirational yet relatable. It also means she’s classic and ageless. Her voluminous high ponytail was created by one of the greatest hair tastemakers, Chris Appleton, who calls it “the fierce ponytail”. Perhaps she is as fierce as she is vulnerable. She certainly embraces extremes and that’s a winning combo.

She has had many loves and four husbands. She generally likes to marry the men she falls for, which has proved somewhat messy. I called her a latter-day Dame Elizabeth Taylor to her face and she loves it. She likes to change her name to theirs and be fully surrendered. Thus she is now Mrs Affleck, having married in 2022 the man she was first engaged to in 2002.

It’s an old-fashioned concept in a woman who in so many ways is a female trailblazer. I first met J.Lo in the 1990s, when I was working for Britain’s