Bennifer 2.0 is destined for divorce, Jennifer Lopez’s first husband has said.
Ojani Noa, 48, claims his ex-wife “loves being in love” but loses interest after the passion in their marriage fades, The daily mailreported
Noa, who met J-Lo when he was a Cuban refugee waiting tables in Miami, has kept a low profile since his year-long union with Jenny del Block dissolved in 1998, reported the New York Post.
She told the network that her recent nuptials with Ben Affleck brought back a number of old memories.
“Ben is husband number four. I was husband number one and he told me I was the love of his life. When we were in bed on our wedding night, he said we were going to be together forever,” she said.
In addition to being married four times, Lopez, 53, has been engaged six times, including twice to Goodwill Hunting actor, about 20 years apart.
Noa fled Cuba in an inflatable boat when she was 15 and survived the 150-kilometer journey to the United States. He found work washing dishes at Lario’s On The Beach restaurant on Gloria Estefan’s Ocean Drive at age 22.
“Miami was buzzing. I did some modeling. I hustled. I wanted the American dream, and I found it when Jen walked into Lario’s house,” he said.
“I had no idea who she was. Our eyes met and I thought she was the most beautiful woman I had ever seen.”
The next night, Lopez returned to the bar and Mr. Noa served her another customer’s fries after she said they looked “delicious,” according to the report.
“I fell in love. She was wearing a white top and pants, and I remember thinking she had the best body I’d ever seen. He later told me he knew that first night he was going to marry me,” Noa recalled.
Later that night, the duo partied at a club called Commune, according to Mr. Noa.
“When we got to the club, my friend Leo took Jen to the dance floor and I thought, ‘Man, you’re a lucky guy.'” Then (her friend) said, “When they get back, take Jen out there.” It’s you he cares about.
“They come back and I take her hand and lead her to the floor, and there’s a slow song. It was electric. She was shaking and she said, ‘You make me nervous.’
“We could both feel the romantic energy. It was instant and intense. Like it was growing through our bodies. I said, ‘I feel the same way you do.’ I lifted her chin and kissed her, she to be a kiss as if we had known each other forever.
As the two shared a kiss goodnight, a passerby exclaimed “Oh my God, that’s Jennifer Lopez from ‘Money Train,'” Noa recalled. “That’s when I realized maybe it was someone.”
“The next morning my pager goes off. Jen was supposed to see me before her flight. The door comes out and I open it and she falls into my arms. We kissed and as I went with her limo, he looked back like in the movies and I thought, ‘That’s it.’ That’s crazy,” Noa said mail.
While Lopez was in Los Angeles, Mr. Noa spoke to her often from the restaurant’s pay phone, he said mail. When he returned to Florida, the actor invited him to be his date for the blood and wine premiere
“I rented a cheap dress. We got to the red carpet and there were all these flashing lights and screaming fans. I started to feel sick. I walked down the carpet holding her hand and then stood next to her while gave interviews
“I heard her say, ‘Jack, I want you to meet my date, Ojani.’ I turned around and she introduced me to Jack Nicholson. Then she said, ‘This is Michael,’ and it was Michael Caine. I felt like if I was in a movie. A few years ago I was on a boat in the ocean running away from Fidel Castro, and now I’m on a red carpet. Michael Caine was lovely. He said, ‘Don’t worry, you’ll get used to it’ .
After the premiere, the couple consummated their relationship, Noa told the network.
“That was the first time we made love. It was perfect. She was perfect. Then we stood there and she said, ‘I want you to be in my life forever.’ I love you.’ I felt like Mr. Cinderella,” he said.
Noa said he believed the relationship worked because he wasn’t impressed by her celebrity.
“She’s a traditional girl. She comes from a humble Puerto Rican family. She wanted someone to protect her, someone to stand up for her. We totally fell in love,” she said, according to the article.
“I quit my job and moved to LA. We lived in a nice apartment. But soon we moved into our first house and then the houses kept getting bigger. He loved that I was a rafter of Cuba. I never wanted anything from her. I always worked and had my own money,” she said of life with the Bronx native.
“We had been together for about six months when he arrived selena. We went to San Antonio, Texas for the shoot and every night we would come back to the hotel and she would collapse into my arms full of insecurity. She didn’t think she was good enough. In the middle of the night he burst into tears. I comforted her and said she was the best, I was killing her.
“She loves shopping, and when she wasn’t filming we went to the local mall. One day we went into a jewelry store and she started looking at rings. She pointed to one and said, “I love this one.”
“She left and I pretended I had to go to the bathroom. I went back to the store and told the girl to put her aside. I had money saved up. I had been working as her personal trainer, but I also had money as a model. The ring was US$15,000 (A$21,400), a fortune at the time. I hid the ring in a plastic bag behind the sink.”
According to the report, Noa proposed to Lopez at the closing party of the critically acclaimed film.
“Everybody was cheering. I got down on one knee and gave her the ring. She was crying and laughing and she said ‘Yes!'” he recalled.
Tensions developed when Lopez’s mother chastised her for choosing to get married in Florida instead of the Bronx, according to the article.
“Jen would be crying the whole time. Her mom was yelling at her and yelling at her, trying to get her to move. So I called Lupe (Jen’s mom, Guadalupe Lopez) and said, ‘You have to stop that.” It was a big mistake. From then on there was tension between Lupe and I.”
Lopez soon began to change with increased money and fame, the jilted lover said.
“She went from Jen to being J-Lo, this huge business that brings in millions. She had all these new people around her, all wanting to make money off of her. I called and an assistant was like, ‘Sorry, she’s not available.’ .
When Mr. Noa was tasked with launching Lopez’s Los Angeles nightclub, he was seeing posted pictures of his wife with Puff Daddy, who was producing some of his music in New York, according to the article.
“I called Jen and asked her why she was going out with him on dates and she said, ‘It’s just business.’ This is what they tell me to do.’ She was jealous and shouted: ‘But you’re married!'”
“We wanted children, we talked about having them. Then he told me he couldn’t have a baby because it would interfere with his career,” he lamented.
Noa and Lopez went on Oprah, where she denied the marriage was in trouble.
“Our whole life became a lie,” said Noa, recalling that she lost 17 kg due to the stress of the facade.
“We went to the Golden Globes and sat down with Jack (Nicholson). He said, ‘You look so happy.’ I said, ‘It’s not what it seems.’ He told me to stay there. I never to think I’d be getting relationship advice from Jack Nicholson.”
After 11 months, the couple divorced and Lopez publicly dated Puff Daddy soon after.
Mr. Noa kept $50,000 in a settlement agreement and continued to wear his ring while the two remained close, according to the report.
“There were times he told me he wanted to get back together. In quiet moments he would say, ‘I need you in my life.’ I don’t want to lose you,” Mr Noa recalled.
Lopez’s brief marriage to Chris Rudd dissolved and Affleck first popped the question before he had officially split from his backup dancer.
Two years later, in 2004, Lopez got hitched to Marc Anthony. The couple stayed together for 10 years.
The actress hired Mr. Noa to manage a restaurant in Los Angeles around 2002, but fired him three years later. He sued her, settled down and moved to Florida where he has not remarried, according to the article.
Mr. Noa said he believes he could have lasted with Lopez if it weren’t for “parasites who feed on celebrities” and media reports that characterized him as a “penniless bartender,” the report said.
“I wish her and Ben the best, but I’m not convinced it will last,” Noa said.
“I think she’s someone who will be married seven or eight times. I don’t see her ever settling down with just one person. She strives to constantly move forward in her professional life, which is why she’s had a three-decade career, but she’s also moving forward in his private life”.
“If Ben has Lupe on his side, maybe he has a chance,” Noa said mailsmiling
This article was published by the New York Post and reproduced with permission