Pop Icon Grapples with Emotional Transition as Children Prepare for University
Jennifer Lopez is facing a significant emotional shift as her 18-year-old twins, Max and Emme (who now uses the name Oskar), prepare to leave home for college this summer. The singer and actress, 56, shared her feelings of anguish and apprehension about the impending “empty nest syndrome” during a recent appearance on Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen.
Lopez described the upcoming departure as an “emotional time,” reflecting on the close bond she has shared with her children. “It’s been the three of us,” she stated. “People have come in and out of my life, but it’s been the three of us. They’ve always been there, and I’ve always been there. I just never thought they would not be there. I just never thought that far ahead.”
Reflections on Motherhood and Independence
The transition highlights the profound psychological impact of children leaving home, a phenomenon known as empty nest syndrome. While not a clinical diagnosis, the feelings of grief, loneliness, and a potential loss of purpose can be significant for parents, particularly those who have been primary caregivers.
Lopez acknowledged her twins’ growing independence, noting that she has strived to provide them with “roots and wings.” She also observed that her children tend to learn more from her actions than her words. “They do what they see you do. It’s not so much what you tell them all the time,” Lopez explained. “Even though I’m trying to download everything I’ve ever learned in my life, every lesson I’ve ever learned, to them right now before they leave in August… I still feel like who you are as a person, how you act, what they see you do, if you work hard, they become more hard workers.”
Despite their individual ambitions to forge their own paths, Lopez has noticed her children adopting some of her positive traits. “They mimic you in this weird way and learn from you, even though they act like they’re opposite [to] you,” she said. “My kids [are like], ‘I don’t want to be anything like you. I want to have my own path.’ … But I also see them… not mimic, but just pick up things that are the good traits about you.”
Anticipating the Change in Her $18 Million Mansion
The prospect of navigating her spacious $18 million mansion in Hidden Hills, California, without her children present has clearly weighed on Lopez. She previously shared on Jimmy Kimmel Live! in May that she had been “crying for two months” in anticipation of her twins’ graduation.
The emotional weight of this milestone was evident when she described the effort it took to write messages in her children’s yearbooks. “When I tell you, the tears… two days it took me to write those things,” she recounted.
Lopez’s next acting role will be in the psychological thriller The Last Mrs. Parrish, with a release expected later this year or early next year.
