Jennifer Lopez and Her Mom Stopped Speaking Because of Her Career

Jennifer Lopez and her mom, Guadalupe Rodríguez, have a close relationship. Rodríguez has supported Lopez throughout her career, and Lopez said that part of her drive is born from a desire to make her parents proud. Still, Rodríguez hasn’t supported all of Lopez’s choices. When Lopez informed her mother she was going to leave college to pursue a career in show business, she was not happy.

Jennifer Lopez said her mom wasn’t initially thrilled with her chosen career path
Lopez’s parents were caring but strict; they wanted the best for their three daughters. Therefore, when Lopez told her mother that she was going to pursue a dance career, they clashed.

“My mom and I butted heads,” Lopez told W Magazine in 2013. “I didn’t want to go to college — I wanted to try dance full-time. So she and I had a break.

Lopez moved out of her family’s home and began sleeping on the couch in her dance studio. While she didn’t like the rift between herself and her mother, she wasn’t willing to give up her dreams. Luckily, her dedication paid off.

“I started sleeping on the sofa in the dance studio,” she said. “I was homeless, but I told her, ‘This is what I have to do.’ A few months later, I landed a job dancing in Europe. When I got back, I booked In Living Color. I became a Fly Girl and moved to L.A. It all happened in a year.”

Once Rodríguez accepted her daughter’s chosen career path, she pushed her to be the best she could be. She encouraged her to develop a thick skin and not give up in the face of rejection.

“My mom gave me some good career advice,” Lopez told Cosmopolitan in 2013. “When I first started, I went to my first show in Europe. I called her crying because I didn’t get a solo, and she was like, ‘You’re in a tough business. Don’t ever call me crying again; toughen up.’”