TONY DURAN

If Jennifer López was an international superstar with hit movies, chart-topping albums, famous boyfriends, it all paled in comparison to what she went through as part of the media blitz simply known as “Bennifer.” Not since Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton shocked the world with their relationship half a century ago has a celebrity couple so captivated the public and dominated the news. And like Taylor, Jennifer also had a list of marriages and stormy relationships to her credit. To prove the point, there’s the impetuous wedding with the Cuban waiter Ojani Noa, the short marriage to dancer Cris Judd and also a long romance with the rapper and music mogul Sean Diddy Combs, for whom she even had to spend a few hours in jail.

Surviving the media glare–and the disastrous reaction to the film on which Jen and Ben first met, Gigli–made her even more interesting when she recoiled from the spotlight and quietly married Marc Anthony. “I honestly have to say that my own trials and tribulations were really hard, especially living in the public eye. That experience made me seek more peace, more truth, more honesty, more goodness in my life. It has made me want more. And if it wasn’t for that experience, who knows what I would have done, who I would have been– hopefully still a nice person but maybe not in as good a place as I am now.”