Jennifer Lopez is fighting the stigma of dating younger men
When Jennifer Lopez started spending time with Drake at the end of last year, they joined the list of "are they or aren't they?" couples. (As in, are they dating or not?) All it took was a little probing from Ellen DeGeneres on Tuesday, and J.Lo opened up a bit about what exactly she and Drake have been up to—and the stigma attached to older women dating younger men.
DeGeneres led into her interrogation by bringing up Lopez's Valentine's Day performance in Vegas. "Who did you spend Valentine's night with after the show? This guy, right here, was it this guy?" DeGeneres pressed, while displaying a photo of Lopez and Drake on the screen. Lopez insisted the two were simply collaborating on a new song.
DeGeneres then showed another photo of the two locked in a hug. "Is that how you write a song?" she asked.
"We were just hanging out," Lopez answered.
"I hang out with a lot of friends, and we never hang out like that," DeGeneres joked.
See photos of Jennifer Lopez:
The singer got serious when DeGeneres mentioned that "people make a big deal" about the fact that the singer dates younger men (she is 47; Drake is 30).
"O.K., first of all, stop," Lopez said. "It's not like you have to be younger, it's not about that. I just meet people, and if I go out with them, I go out with them, and if I like them, I like them, and if I don't, I don't. It's just about the person. It's about who they are. It has nothing to do with age."
More: The 20 Most Satisfying TV Kisses of All Time
Lopez's recent romance with 29-year-old Casper Smart was a favorite topic of conversation about May-December love. The two, who broke up in August, are 18 years apart in age. In April of 2012, her friend Benny Medinatold Vogue that though Lopez understood the significant age difference in the relationship, her main concern was that she was happy.
"She's not oblivious to her own reality right now, as in, 'Damn, I'm 42 with a 24-year-old,' Medina said at the time. "She was just like, 'It's not even the age, Benny. It's actually that I just came out of a relationship [with ex husband Marc Anthony] where I felt like I was kind of not getting what I needed.' "
Lopez told DeGeneres that after she dated Smart, she got labeled as a woman who goes after younger men. In her opinion, that label—and the stigma surrounding it—should not exist.
"If they're older, they're older. If they're younger, they're younger," she said. "It doesn't matter. It's whether or not I'm attracted to them or not, attracted to their spirit, their soul, whatever their energy is."
Watch it here.
See J.Lo's recent look at the GRAMMYs:
More from Vanity Fair:
Film's Sexiest Little Black Dresses
