Jennifer Lopez Chats Big With W Magazine, Lensed By Inez & Vinoodh

Singer, actor, American Idol judge, mom and businesswoman Jennifer Lopez fronts the May issue of W Magazine. Lopez is lensed by Inez van Lamsweerde & Vinoodh Matadin, styled in Chanel, Fendi, Rochas and more by Edward Enninful. / Makeup by Yadim; hair by Shay Ashual

W recaps Lopez's exceptionally full roster of projects:

 . . . the final season of American Idol, on which Lopez was a judge, was about to end; she has a three-year residency at the Planet Hollywood Resort & Casino in Las Vegas, where her extravaganza show resumes May 22; and Shades of Blue, a cop drama on NBC, of which Lopez is a producer and also the star, had just been picked up for a second season. All that, and yet the previous night, the main topic, as it often is with Lopez, had been her fabulous self. “Do you think the Kardashians stole your jam with having a great ass?” Andy Cohen, the host, asked on air. Lopez smiled. “I think I paved the way for them,” she said. “Just another innovation that I’ve given to the world!”

There’s a central dichotomy with Lopez: At 46, she’s both glamorous and endlessly industrious: a red-carpet star who convincingly portrays a single, blue-collar mom of a 16-year-old on TV. What’s more, her love affairs with powerful men as varied as Affleck, Sean “Puffy” Combs, and her ex-husband, the singer Marc Anthony, have all played out in public, making her seem at once formidable and approachable—a kind of people’s diva. “I’ve been in the grind and the game for a long time. At a certain point, people respect you when they see you fall down and get back up. The more you’re in this life, the more they celebrate your triumphs.” Lopez paused. “When it comes to work, I never get tired. But with personal failures, I have thought, This is too hard. When my marriage ended, it was not easy to find forgiveness. It wasn’t the dream that I had hoped for, and it would have been easier to fan the flames of resentment, disappointment, and anger. But Marc is the father of my children [8-year-old twins], and that’s never going away. So, I have to work to make things right. And that is, by far, the hardest work I do.”