Jennifer Lopez says that there were two significant “taps” that led to her relationship with retired New York Yankees superstar Alex Rodriguez. Last winter, she was having lunch in Beverly Hills when he walked by. She had previously met him on a baseball diamond, when her then-husband Marc Anthony threw the first pitch at a Mets game. But now, years later, the divorced Lopez said she walked up and tapped Rodriguez on the shoulder. That led to their first date.
The second tap, Lopez and Rodriguez told Vanity Fair, was more metaphorical. Rodriguez announced his retirement from baseball in 2016, when he was four short of 700 home runs. He said, “Baseball has a funny way of tapping you on the shoulder when you least expect it and telling you that it’s the end.” Now, a year after retirement, he says, “I’m thinking about one door closing and another opening, and if that first door doesn’t close, well, there isn’t that second tap.”
The two say that they’re very similar. They are both Leos, they are both from New York, both Latino, among many other similarities. But Lopez told Vanity Fair that “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 says that they both had ups and downs and challenges in their professional and personal lives, and they’ve both done a lot of work on themselves.
Though they both hit major hardships, the two are both supporting each other as they hit new highs. Lopez is touring her smash show All I Have and launched her fragrance Glow by J.Lo, and Rodriguez is investing in many businesses and will be the first Latino businessman to be a shark on Shark Tank.
The couple is also prepared to help others. Days after Hurricane Maria struck Puerto Rico the pair—through personal donations, a benefit concert and telethon, and just calling friends—raised more than $36 million in relief efforts.
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