J. Lo & A-Rod's Relationship History Is So Hard To Look At Now
On the off chance that you were not already convinced they were destined for each other, Jennifer Lopez and Alex Rodriguez's relationship history serves as cold, hard proof. I mean, to be totally honest, I don't even believe in soulmates. But their relationship history was so adorable, it almost felt meant to be — that is, until Page Six and TMZ reported their breakup on March 12. The following day, J.Lo and A-Rod released a statement to CNN, TMZ, and People to clarify that they're "working through some things" and are still together.
But on April 15, Lopez and Rodriguez announced their split in a joint statement issued to TODAY. This split comes after the pandemic pushed the couple to postpone their nuptials twice and a cheating scandal arose in which Southern Charm star Madison LeCroy alleged she FaceTimed the athlete.
Lopez and Rodriguez's power couple story dates back decades. See, Rodriguez had a crush on Lopez back in the early '90s when he was just starting out his baseball career and she was a full-blown pop star. Then, in 2005, they finally met when Lopez's then-husband Marc Anthony was throwing the first pitch at a Yankees versus Mets game. A full twelve years later, they went on their first date. They got engaged in 2019 and reportedly considered buying the Mets.
Here's everything else that happened in between:
Rodriguez was a fan of Lopez's since (at least) the early 2000s.
In October of 2018, Rodriguez did the world a favor and posted an adorable throwback picture. The picture in question featured an autographed photo of Lopez.
He wrote in the caption:
#TBT to almost 20 years ago when a big time global pop superstar signed a pic for a young ball player #lifecanbeafunnythingsometimes #pictureperfect #keepsake #jlo
In May of 2005, they finally met.
The two first met at a Yankees game at Shea Stadium, which is now Citi Field, in Queens, New York. Lopez was there with her then husband Marc Anthony, who was throwing the first pitch at the Yankees-versus-Mets game. (Rodriguez was a star player on the Yankees at the time.)
Lopez and Rodriguez had a quick handshake and, luckily for the human population, there's photo proof. "We shook hands, and it was this weird electricity for, like, three seconds... Three to five seconds of looking at somebody right in their eyes, and getting stuck," Lopez told Sports Illustrated in June 2019 of her handshake with Rodriguez.
They had their first date 12 years later.
In April of 2017, during an appearance on The Ellen DeGeneres Show, Lopez told the host that her first date with Rodriguez came about after they ran into each other at a restaurant. Lopez saw him while she was eating a salad and tortilla soup at a restaurant in Los Angeles, she tapped him on her way out, and they talked for a bit. Then, remembering he had her number because he had "asked for a referral" a while back, she told him to text her.
He texted asking her to dinner. Ba da bing, ba da boom. It was a date.
Their first date took place in February of 2017, and they opened up about it in an October 2017 joint interview with Vanity Fair. First off, Rodriguez was nervous. "I didn’t know if it was a date. Maybe we were seeing each other at night because of her work schedule," he said. I went in uneasy, not knowing her situation."
Lopez noticed his nerves. "I think he thought I was going to be this loud person, but I’m not. I just listen. So he’s talking, talking about his plans, about how he had just retired from baseball, about how he saw himself getting married again, all these things you wouldn’t normally talk about on a first date," she remembered. "I don’t know if he thought it was a date. I thought it was a date. Then I knew he was nervous because he asked me if I wanted a drink. I said, ‘No, I don’t drink,’ and he asked if I minded if he had one. He was nervous, and it was really cute."
Needless to say, it was a date. And it went well.
A month later, Rodriguez confirmed their relationship.
"It's obvious, we've been having a great time," Rodriguez gushed during an appearance on The View. "She's an amazing girl and one of the smartest human beings I've ever met and also an incredible mother."
By May 2017, they hit up their first Met Gala together.
I'll just let your eyes drink them in:
June 2017 was a big month for them.
First, Lopez posts the first-ever picture of their families bonding to her Instagram, alongside this super cute caption:
Happy Sunday everybody!! #sundayfunday 💙💙💙💙💙💙📷@lacarba
Also, they go to Paris together:
I told you! Big month!
In October 2017, they shared the cover of 'Vanity Fair.'
In the Vanity Fair cover story, the two explained what makes them such a perfect match.
“We are very much twins,” Rodriguez explained. “We’re both Leos; we’re both from New York; we’re both Latino and about 20 other things.”
“I understand him in a way that I don’t think anyone else could, and he understands me in a way that no one else could ever,” Lopez chimed in. “In his 20s, he came into big success with the biggest baseball contract [at the time]. I had a No. 1 movie and a No. 1 album and made history. We both had ups and downs and challenges in our 30s, and by our 40s we’d both been through so much. And more importantly than anything, we had both done a lot of work on ourselves.”
They celebrated their first anniversary in February 2018
"What was I doing one year ago today? I was with Alex," Lopez recalled during an interview with Entertainment Tonight. We had just met and, you know, it was good. It was a good night."
"It's crazy. We both are so happy about our lives right now and where we're at professionally, as well as personally," she continued. "You know. Just things seem to be flowing in a really beautiful way. We both have a lot of support for each other and a lot of love for each other."
And a month later, Lopez said she was down to get married.
But she played it cool. "I do believe in marriage, and I would love to grow old with somebody in a committed relationship," she told Harper's BAZAAR. "But I'm not forcing anything right now. It's good, it's healthy; we communicate well. We understand each other's lives in a way that most other people couldn't."
May 2018 marked their second Met Gala together.
And they were just as cute as ever:
They spent Thanksgiving 2018 together with their kids.
That Thanksgiving morning, Rodriguez posted a picture of himself and Lopez in bed with their children alongside this caption:
🍁🦃🍽 ...Thankful for mornings like this with the ones I love most. I am truly blessed. #HappyThanksgiving to all of you and your families. #gratitude 📸: @lacarba79w
A month later, Lopez teared up while talking about Rodriguez.
"He’s come into my life and really contributed in such a way. He’s so supportive, he’s so loving," Lopez tearfully gushed during an appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon. "He’s one of these people, he’s like, ‘Shine, be the best.’ Some people try to dull you down, try to squish you down and he’s so not like that. And it’s just so refreshing. It’s just such a beautiful thing."
May 2019 marked their first Met Gala as an engaged couple.
They looked fabulous:
They went big for their 2019 birthdays.
Lopez turned 50 on July 23, 2019 and Rodriguez turned 44 on July 27 that same year.
Rodriguez celebrated his bride-to-be by posting a video of their epic celebration alongside this caption:
TONIGHT was a Jenny from the Block party, and we took it from the Bronx all the way to the 305!!! 🎉 🎊Happy 5-0, @JLo. 🎂 Te amo mucho.
For her part, Lopez surprised Rodriguez with a giant cake at one of her concerts:
In September 2019, they had their engagement party.
The party was hosted by lyricist Carol Sager and her husband Bob Daly. Lopez posted an adorable shot of herself and Rodriguez from the party alongside this caption:
Thank you Carol and Bob for the most beautifully elegant night...we love you 🌸 💗#engagementparty@carolebayersager@arod
In November 2019, Lopez did some adorable gushing to 'GQ.'
"We're really alike in our drive, in our ambition. He's an athlete. He wanted to be the best. I'm the same way. I just want to be great at what I do. We're both like that. We're both super-hard workers," she shared with the publication. "We're driven by our passions. And we have a tremendous amount of respect for each other. Everybody in the room can be talking, and if he says something, I key in on it, and if everybody in the room is kinda in his ear and I go, 'I don't think that's the right thing,' he'll hear me; he'll listen. He knows I only have his best interest at heart, and I only want him to thrive and succeed and to be his best self. And I believe that he wants that for me. He wants me to be seen and to get what I deserve. Like, he's made his half a billion. And he's like, 'I want you to have that.'"
In Dec. 2019, Rodriguez hilariously crashed one of Lopez's SNL skits.
Watch and prepare to majorly LOL as Lopez considers leaving Rodriguez for a roadie named "Chad," played by Pete Davidson:
They tried to buy the Mets.
On April 27, Forbes claimed Lopez and Rodriguez were reportedly talking to a Taiwanese billionaire about helping them out with the money to buy Rodriguez's favorite baseball team, The New York Mets.
While their initial bid reportedly didn't work out, the New York Post claimed on May 29 that Lopez and Rodriguez are "now working closely with very senior bankers at JPMorgan Chase on a new bid to buy the Mets."
Their wedding got postponed twice.
On May 7, E! News reported Lopez and Rodriguez would have to postpone their wedding, which was reportedly scheduled for summer 2020. "They have been struggling for weeks over this decision, but with no return to normalcy in the near future, the couple felt postponing the wedding was the safest and smartest choice," a source reportedly told the publication. "Guests have recently been notified that the wedding will not be happening in late summer as anticipated."
During a May 26 interview with The Today Show, Lopez admitted she's "a little heartbroken" about postponing her nuptials due to the coronavirus epidemic. "I’m a little heartbroken because we did have some great plans but I’m also like, you know what? God has a bigger plan so we just have to wait and see,” she said. “Maybe it’s going to be better. I have to believe that it will be.”
On Dec. 2, Lopez revealed their second wedding plans also fell through. “We had to cancel the wedding ... because of COVID, because of the quarantine," she told Access Hollywood. "And we actually did it twice, which people don’t know.”
Cheating rumors swirled around Rodriguez.
In January 2021, Southern Charm star Madison LeCroy claimed she had an affair with "a very famous, married ex-MLB player" while she was dating her co-star Austen Kroll.
While she didn't name names, by February, she claimed she FaceTimed Rodriguez. "He contacted me, and yes, we DMed, but other than that there was nothing … I've never seen him [or] touched him," she told host Andy Cohen.
A source reportedly close to the former baseball star denied he even knew LeCroy, but added, "Look, does this mean he didn’t DM her and liked a photo or two? I guess not, but he doesn’t know her — and he definitely didn’t hook up with her.”
Lopez was apparently not bothered by the situation. A source reportedly told E! News, "Everything is fine with [Jennifer and] Alex. She doesn't let the cheating rumors get to her and chooses not to pay attention."
Sources reported their breakup, but the couple denied it was true.
On March 12, a source reportedly claimed to Page Six that the cheating rumors were the final straw for the singer. “The Madison LeCroy scandal was the reason they finally broke up. There were already problems, but Jennifer was really embarrassed by it.”
The next day, J.Lo and A-Rod released a statement to outlets like CNN, People, and TMZ, saying that they "are working through some things" but are actually still together. Photographers caught Rodriguez outside a gym in Miami, where he confirmed, "I'm not single," and appeared to be on a phone call with a person he referred to as "baby." Meanwhile, Lopez made her feelings clear in an epic TikTok in which she slammed tabloid headlines about her rumored breakup by saying, "You're dumb." Amid all this, LeCroy has shuttered her Instagram comments.
Lopez and Rodriguez announced their breakup.
On April 15, the pair announced they had broken up in a joint statement to TODAY:
We have realized we are better as friends and look forward to remaining so. We will continue to work together and support each other on our shared businesses and projects. We wish the best for each other and one another’s children. Out of respect for them, the only other comment we have to say is thank you to everyone who has sent kind words and support.
While this might be the end of their romantic relationship, hopefully, this power couple can continue supporting each other as friends.
Editor's Note: This story was updated on April 15 to include their breakup.
This article was originally published on
