Redbook
Jennifer Lopez says in a new interview that she's embraced her latest role, Mom, with all her heart. In the May issue of Redbook, Lopez, 40, reveals how profoundly she feels that her 2-year old twins, son and daughter Max and Emme, have changed her life.
"[Motherhood] really does change your whole perspective on life for the better." the singer-actress says. "I definitely feel like I've grown up, and I can't help but be a different person now that I've had kids."
J.Lo admits she now puts everything, including her career, second. "My main priority now is that my kids are happy; that's my No. 1 focus in life," she says. "Are these little people happy, content, and getting everything they need? Everything after that is secondary. Before, my work was my main priority, even above myself."
While it took Lopez a little while to get used to taking care of twins (she admits she relied on husband and experienced dad Marc Anthony, 41, for diapering tips when the twins were newborns), she's not only learned the ropes, but has learned other valuable lessons along the way. Lopez says that her children "taught me what loving someone is and what it should feel like."
As Lopez has an increasingly busy agenda -- with a new album (titled Love?, now dropping this summer after a record label shake-up), a new movie (The Back-Up Plan, a rom-com about a single woman who falls in love after conceiving via artificial insemination), a recent Saturday Night Live gig hosting and singing (did you see her funny take on the new "We Are The World"?), and guest-starring on TV (How I Met Your Mother and soon, Glee) -- she grapples with the working-mom dilemma of being away from Max and Emme in order to sustain a professional career.
"You feel guilty whenever you can't have your kids right there with you on your hip," says Lopez, who also acknowledged she wasn't prepared for feeling that type of guilt about pursuing motherhood and professional goals simultaneously. "You don't know about it because nobody ever tells you. I think it's because women are a little ashamed to admit it."
Plus: Is Jennifer Lopez's Daughter a Diva in Training?
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