Jennifer Lopez Just Revealed This ‘Heartbreaking’ Truth About Raising Her Children—We’re So Sad For Her!

Jennifer Lopez, 52, just opened up about raising her 13-year-old twins, Emme and Maximilian, and what she said pulled at our heartstrings! The Marry Me star sat down for the February cover story interview with Stellar Magazine and talked about how her relationships with each child are beginning to change as they go through adolescence. Lopez shares the twins with her ex-husband Marc Anthony, and pointed out that she “misses” when they were younger as they are now just a few years shy of early adulthood.

“It is the most heartbreaking time,” the singer said. “I thought I’d been heartbroken before— no— this is the worst.” She continued, “They just need to find their own way. They love you, you’re their mom, you’ve taken care of them and now they need to have their own identity. They’re becoming their own little people,” she explained.

As many parents can probably relate, JLo mentioned that her kids’ teenage years are so difficult since their individual identities are forming and they need more time alone (and less spent with her) to find themselves.

“It’s hard, because they’ve been your babies all that time,” Lopez added. “That’s part of being a parent— it’s being strong enough to let them go, let them have their moment, and let them see you and criticize you and make fun of you. […] All of the things that teenagers do to their parents. It’s like, wait, I thought we were best friends, I thought you loved everything I did.”

Last week, the “On the Floor” hitmaker stopped by The Tonight Show and told host Jimmy Fallon more about her children and also paid homage to her own mother, Guadalupe Rodriguez who was in the audience. (So sweet!)

“You know, they go from, like, being these babies and then when they turn, like, 11 1/2, 12, they become, like, adult people in a little body,” she said to Fallon about Emme and Maximilian.”What they do is that they need to like, distance themselves a little bit. You know, it’s like, ‘It’s my life. I have my own identity I am who I am. This is how I feel about the world. This is what I think.'” She then joked, “And I’m like, ‘Come up baby, do you want to sit on my lap?’ and they’re like ‘Mom, stop. Stop touching me.'”

Lopez then warmed viewers’ hearts even more by talking about what her mother means to her and how she supported her childhood dream all the way to where she is today.”I always wanted to sing, I always wanted to dance. My mother loved musicals you know, she showed me them from when I was very, very little, and I just had all these dreams of, like, doing that, and so, I’m [now] doing it,” she said.

“I mean, I grew up in the Bronx. We really didn’t have a lot. You know, this is a dream come true, everything I do every single day, I feel so incredibly blessed. I feel so lucky to be doing what I’m doing.” (And we feel lucky to watch, JLo!)