There’s no doubt that the past few months have been a battle for Jennifer Lopez as she continues to deal with the fallout of her marriage to Ben Affleck while reportedly being forced into ‘panic mode’ after a series of unexpected professional setbacks.

For the first time in a shining career that has spanned nearly three decades, culminating in the ultimate Hollywood fairytale when she married Ben, AKA ‘the one that got away’, back in 2022, we recently reported that for the first time, Jennifer, 56, has been left feeling ‘vulnerable’. 

Now as she continues to struggle to deal with life post-divorce, last week delivered yet another blow as Jennifer’s former co-star, Wednesday star Luis Guzman, appeared to throw shade at her acting skills. 

Appearing on chat show Hot Ones last week, Luis – who starred alongside Jennifer in 1998 thriller Out of Sight – was asked by co-star Emma Myers to use ‘one word’ to describe the famous Hollywood legends he’s previously worked with, including Adam Sandler and Catherine Zeta Jones, who he described as ‘amazing’ and ‘bellissima’ respectively.

When she reached Jennifer however, Luis shrugged and said, ‘OK’. 

His reaction then caused fans to speculate online, with one commenting, ‘The JLo jab had me weak. I wasn’t expecting that blunt of an answer but then again it’s Luis.’ 
And now a source tells Closer that this latest public humiliation has left Jennifer ‘feeling like an outsider’ and has left her threatening to ditch the ‘toxic’ bubble Hollywood altogether. 

The insider says, ‘The break-up with Ben is at the heart of it, she just wants to run away from that pain, but the other factor that spurred this on is the way the public and the industry has been treating her. 

‘Five years ago, when she was getting all that praise for Hustlers, she felt like the days of being looked down on by her peers in the industry were over. But that has not proven true at all. If anything she feels more like an outsider than ever.

They add, ‘I mean even someone as C-List as Luis Guzman feels comfortable publicly insulting her, it’s appalling. She’s pretty bewildered and feeling like there’s no point even trying to impress these people anymore, she’s over it.’ 

And Luis’ snub comes after weeks of hurdles for the star. 

While in recent months Jennifer has thrown herself into a full-on revenge tour, complete with snogging, sexy outfits and some seriously raunchy on-stage antics, last month she was dealt yet another devastating blow after it was revealed that she had been ‘dumped’ by her record label, BMG. 

The news came after her much-anticipated comeback album, ‘This Is Me…Now’ struggled in the charts, only reaching number 55 in the UK and number 38 in the Billboard 200, and was widely considered a commercial flop.

Now, as an independent artist for the first time, it was reported by a US publication last week that JLo is in a ‘really tough place’ as her team struggle to shift tickets for her upcoming residency at Caesar’s Palace in Las Vegas, which is due to commence in December and will span across the New Year.

The run marks the first time JLo is set to return to tour in the US since cancelling her tour last year, and while her sales have reportedly been slow, Dolly Parton’s stint at the famous hotel, which runs for two weeks before JLo, is said to have sold out within a day, with resale value now as high as $10,000.

And to add insult to injury, when she headed out to enjoy some retail therapy last fortnight she was also shockingly turned down from entering a Chanel store in Istanbul after sales assistants failed to recognise her.

And while many celebrities have moved away from Hollywood, buying properties abroad – including Nicole Kidman, who is currently purchasing a property in Portugal, Brad Pitt, who bought a vineyard with Angelina in France and George and Amal Clooney, who own property in London and Italy – Jennifer has never moved outside of the US. 

Historically, her extensive property portfolio, worth up to around $100 million, has all been based stateside, and the singer, who shares twins Max and Emme, 17, with ex Marc Anthony, preferring to retreat to the likes of Miami or the Hamptons. 

However, with the pressure of her recent struggles only mounting in recent weeks, the source now reveals that Jennifer is looking at real estate in remote locations over 8000 miles from Hollywood. 

‘She’s always had this fantasy of getting away from it all and living a quiet life somewhere totally off the map, like Bali or even a small town in Italy,’ the insider explains. 

‘No one has ever taken her seriously because she always talks about it as this sort of bucket list thing she wants to check off ‘one day,’ versus really wanting to do it ‘now.’ But she’s been so beaten down the last couple of years so who can blame her?
‘She’s spending hours looking at listings online and talking about what it would be like to start a new life somewhere that’s totally isolated, where she could live without people judging her every move.’ 

A move to Bali – which would mean a flight time of at least 20 hours from Hollywood – would certainly be a change of pace for Jennifer who has spent the past 30 years building her triple-threat career. 

And there’s no doubt that Jennifer welcomes not only the luxuries, but the attention that Hollywood brings. 

During her Prime documentary, The Greatest Love Story Never Told , Ben, who first dated Jennifer back in 2002, even hinted that her love of the limelight had contributed to their split. 

‘You don’t marry a boat captain and then say you don’t like water,’ he quipped when discussing the dynamics of their different approaches to fame. And now the source says that her fans could be the one remaining force majeure to make her stay put. 

‘The truth is she’s addicted to the attention, she’s one of those people that can’t live without it. Without an audience she hardly knows what to do with herself so no one is really buying into this idea of her running away to live a life in obscurity,’ the insider says.  

‘If you ask Ben he will flat out tell you that’s why he had to leave her, he simply couldn’t handle her obsession with her own fame.’

They continue, ‘She’s built her entire identity around being JLo, it’s what gives her a sense of self-worth, so it’s impossible to imagine her simply disappearing from the public eye, like she’s threatening. The odds that she’ll ever quit Hollywood for good are pretty much zero. Don’t try telling that though, she’s adamant she’s serious this time.’