Beniffer 2.0 is destined to divorce, Jennifer Lopez’s first husband said.
Ojani Noa, 48, claims his ex-wife “loves to be in love” but loses interest after passion in her marriage is at a low ebb, The Daily Mail reported.
Noa — who met J-Lo when he was a Cuban refugee waiting table in Miami — has kept a low profile since his one-year association with the former “In Living Color” Fly Girl was dissolved in 1998. He told the outlet her recent marriage to Ben Affleck brought back a wave of old memories.
“Ben is husband number four. I was husband number one and she told me I was the love of her life. When we were in bed on our wedding night, she said we would be together forever,” he told the outlet.
In addition to being married four times, Lopez, 53, has been engaged six times, including twice to the “Good Will Hunting” actor, some 20 years apart.
Noa fled Cuba on an inflatable boat when he was 15 and survived the 90-mile journey to the US. At age 22, he found work doing dishes at Gloria Estefan’s Ocean Drive restaurant Lario’s On The Beach.
“Miami is buzzing. I’ve done some modeling. I hurried. I wanted the American dream — and I found it when Jen walked into Lario’s,” he reportedly said.
“I had no idea who she was. Our eyes met and I thought she was the most beautiful woman I’d ever seen.”
The next night, Lopez came back to the bar and Noa served her fries from another customer after saying they looked “delicious,” the report said.
“I was beaten. She was wearing a white top and pants, and I remember thinking she had the best body I’d ever seen. She later told me that that first night she knew she was going to marry me,” Noa reportedly recalls.
Later that night, the duo partied at a club called Commune, according to Noa.
“When we got to the club, my friend Leo took Jen to the dance floor, and I thought, ‘Oh man, you’re lucky.’ Then [her friend] said, “When they get back, take Jen outside. She’s interested in you.’
“They come back and I take her hand and lead her to the floor, and a slow song comes on. It was electric. She trembled and said, “You’re making me nervous.”
“We could both feel the romantic energy. It was direct and intense. As if it flowed through our bodies. I said, ‘I feel the same as you.’ I lifted her chin and gave her a kiss – it was a kiss like we’d known each other forever.”
As the two shared a goodnight kiss, a passerby exclaimed, “Oh my God, that’s Jennifer Lopez from ‘Money Train,'” Noa recalled. “Then I realized she might be someone.”
“The next morning my pager goes off. Jen had to see me before her flight. The door opens and I open it and she falls into my arms. We kissed and as she drove off in her limo she looked back like in the movies and I thought, this is it. This is crazy,” Noa told the Mail.
While Lopez was in Los Angeles, Noa spoke to her regularly from the phone booth at the restaurant, according to the Mail. When she returned to Florida, the actress invited him to be her date for the premiere of “Blood and Wine”.
“I rented a cheap suit. We got on the red carpet, there were all those flashing lights and fans screaming. I started to feel sick. I walked across the carpet holding her hand and moved to the side while she gave interviews.
“I heard her say, ‘Jack, I want you to meet my date, Ojani.’ I turned and she introduced me to Jack Nicholson. Then she said, ‘This is Michael’ – and it was Michael Caine. I felt like I was in a movie. A few years earlier, I was on a dinghy 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 outlet.
“That was the first time we made love. It was perfect. She was perfect. We lay there after that and she said, ‘I want you to be in my life always. I love you.’ I felt like Mr. Cinderella,’ he reportedly said.
Noa said he believed the relationship worked because he was unimpressed 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 fell completely in love,” the article said.
“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 got bigger and bigger. She loved that I was a balseros [rafter] from Cuba. I never wanted anything from her. I’ve always worked and had my own money,” he said of living with the Bronx native.
“We were together for about six months when she got ‘Selena’. We went to San Antonio, Texas for the shoot and every night we came back to the hotel and she threw herself into my arms full of uncertainty. She didn’t think she was good enough. In the middle of the night she burst into tears. I comforted her and said she was the best, that she killed it.
“She likes to shop and when she wasn’t filming we would go 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 that one.”
“She left and I pretended to go to the bathroom. I snuck back into the store and told the girl to put it aside. I had saved money. I worked as her personal trainer, but also had modeling money. The ring cost $15,000, 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 wrap party for the critically acclaimed film.
“Everyone was cheering. I got down on one knee and handed her the ring. She cried and laughed and said ‘Yes!’” he recalls.
Tensions arose when Lopez’s mother scolded her for deciding to marry in Florida rather than the Bronx, according to the article.
“Jen would be in tears the whole time. Her mother called and yelled at her, trying to persuade her to change the location. So I called [Jen’s mother Guadalupe Lopez] Lupe and said, “You’ve got to stop this.” That was a big mistake. From that moment there was tension between me and Lupe.”
Lopez soon began to change with increasing money and fame, the crazy lover reportedly said.
“She went from Jen to J-Lo, this big company that brought in millions. She had all kinds of new people around her, all of whom wanted to make money from her. I would call and an assistant would say, ‘Sorry, she’s not available.’”
When Noa was tasked with launching Lopez’s nightclub in LA, he would see published photos of his wife with Puff Daddy, who, according to the article, produced some of her music in New York.
“I called Jen and asked why she was dating him and she said, ‘It’s just business. This is what I’m told to do.’ I was jealous and would yell, “But you’re married!'”
“We wanted children, we discussed having children. Then she told me she couldn’t have a baby because it would hinder her career,” he complained.
Noa and Lopez went to Oprah, where she denied that the marriage was in trouble.
“Our whole lives became a lie,” said Noa, recalling losing 40 pounds from the stress of the facade.
“We went to the Golden Globes and sat with Jack [Nicholson]. He said, “You look so happy.” I said to him, “It’s not what it seems.” He told me to stay there. I never thought I’d get relationship advice from Jack Nicholson.”
After 11 months, the couple divorced and Lopez publicly dated Puff Daddy shortly after.
Noa was left with $50,000 in a settlement agreement and continued to wear his ring while the two stayed close to each other, according to the report.
“There were times when she told me she wanted to get back together. In quiet moments she would say, ‘I need you in my life. I don’t want to lose you,” Noa reportedly recalled.
Lopez’s brief marriage to Chris Rudd dissolved and Affleck posed the question for the first time before she officially broke up from her backing dancer.
Two years later, in 2004, Lopez would be paired up with Marc Anthony. The couple stayed together for 10 years.
The actress hired Noa to run a restaurant in Los Angeles around 2002, but fired him three years later. He sued her, settled and moved back to Florida, where he did not remarry, according to the article.
Noa said he believes he could have gotten by with “Jenny From The Block” if it weren’t for “parasites that feed on celebrities” and media reports that characterized him as a “destitute waiter,” the report said.
“I wish her and Ben the best, but I’m not convinced it will stay that way,” Ojani said.
“I think she’s someone who will marry seven or eight times. I never see her settling down with one person. She forces herself to constantly move forward in her professional life, which is why she has had a career spanning three decades, but she also continues in her private life.”
“If Ben has Lupe around, he might have a chance,” Ojani said, smiling to The Mail.