Jennifer Lopez And Alex Rodriguez: Strange Things About Their Relationship

Jennifer Lopez and Alex Rodriguez were two celebs no one saw getting together.

While Lopez frequently sings about passion, lust, and devotion, her personal love life hasn't been quite as melodic. A series of heartbreaks, broken engagements, and failed marriages would sour almost anyone to the mere thought of falling in love again. However, the dual-threat entertainer allowed cupid's arrow to strike her once again when she began a relationship with former New York Yankees baseball player Alex Rodriguez in February 2017.

Rodriguez confirmed he was smitten with Jenny from the block during a March 2017 appearance on The View. "We're having a great time. She's an amazing, amazing girl," he told the co-hosts of the daytime talk show.

The feeling is definitely mutual. As of this writing, the couple has taken their love bonanza to the airwaves and to various publications, continuously gushing about how infatuated they are with one another. But that doesn't mean we haven't noticed some peculiar details about their liaison. From Lopez using her music to send A-Rod messages to a cheating scandal that erupted just months after the pair went public with their romance, here are some of the strange things about Jennifer Lopez and Alex Rodriguez's relationship.

The first time Jennifer Lopez and Alex Rodriguez came face to face, it wasn't love at first sight. In fact, the year was 2005, and Lopez was very much married to her then-husband, Latin crooner Marc Anthony, while Rodriguez was married to his then-wife, Cynthia Scurtis.

While attending a New York Yankees versus New York Mets game where Anthony was throwing out the first pitch, Lopez and Rodriguez met for the first time, and photographers even captured the exact moment when the destined lovers exchanged pleasantries with a friendly handshake. She and Anthony even posed for a picture with Rodriguez sandwiched in between them — awkward, though their relationship was strictly platonic at the time. 

Twelve years later, the pair would go on their first real date. Lopez told Vanity Fair that she brought up their fated first meeting at the ballpark during their dinner conversation. "You don't have to say you remember if you don't," she told Rodriguez. "Shea Stadium, during a subway series," he responded.

This totally sounds like the makings of a blockbuster rom-com, doesn't it? 

When Rodriguez was a guest on The Ellen DeGeneres Show, he was more than willing to take us for a walk down memory lane to discuss how he and Lopez reconnected after so many years.

The baseball icon told DeGeneres the it all started when he was out at lunch, and someone tapped him on the shoulder. "I turn around and I do not recognize this person and it's Jennifer, but she's dressed up as Harlee from Shades of Blue," he recalled of Lopez and her costume. "It took me about four or five seconds and she says 'It's Jennifer. It's Jennifer.' I go, 'Oh my god, Jennifer. You look so beautiful.'" Earth to Alex!

In his defense, Lopez told Vanity Fair that she was dressed like a "boy" that day, complete with an outfit consisting of Timberland boots, jeans, and a curly short hair 'do. So, we'll begrudgingly cut Rodriguez some slack.

After saying goodbye, he went home and contacted the songstress that same night and, as they say, the rest is history.

For their first date, they met up at the Hotel Bel Air for dinner, but Rodriguez wasn't sure if it was a real date or just a casual meet-up between acquaintances. So he began blabbing to keep his nervousness at bay. "So he's talking, talking about his plans, about how he had just retired from baseball, about how he saw himself getting married again, all these things you wouldn't normally talk about on a first date," Lopez told Vanity Fair. "I don't know if he thought it was a date. I thought it was a date ... He was nervous, and it was really cute."

It wasn't until later that evening when Lopez made an announcement that took Rodriguez by surprise. "She told me around the third or fourth inning that she was single," he said. "I had to get up and go re-adjust my thoughts." 

After regaining his composure in the men's room, Rodriguez walked back to their table and shot Lopez a text that would change both of their lives. "It says... 'You look sexy AF,'" Lopez recalled. Um, yeah, we're sure his "thoughts" weren't the only things that needed to be re-adjusted at that exact moment, if you catch our drift.

That message, complete with a modern-day chat acronym, was the driving force that kicked their relationship up a notch. Some girls would've been completely turned off by such a brazen text message, but Lopez was obviously digging his bold digital flirtation.

After teaming up with Skrillex and writer Poo Bear, Lopez was played "about 20 different songs." When she heard the words for the track "Us," her mind instantly thought of her beau. With lyrics such as, "Feelin' you go on and touch my love / Throwing it now, here you go, catch up / Could it be us?" she told Us Weekly, "When I heard this one I was like, 'Oh, this is relevant!' Alex and I were just getting to know each other. And I was like, 'Oh, my God, could this be? Could this be us?'"

Since things worked out in her favor, this entire story is a lot less cringey. But now that their relationship is headed in the right direction, Lopez dedicated a second track to the leading man in her life: the 2018 song "El Anillo," which translates to "the ring."

"We go to the studio and she says, 'I want you to read the paper,'" Rodriguez told told Jimmy Fallon about the first time he was made aware of the song. "And I go, 'Babe, it sounds like they're talking about us.' And she goes, 'Yeah, they made it for me.'"

Will Rodriguez get inspired by "El Anillo" and pop the question, or will he run for the hills? We'll find out soon enough.

The "Dear Ben" singer has gone through a series of failed relationships and engagements that've all played out in the public eye, and she even has a few divorces under her belt, as well. Her first marriage to Ojani Noa ended in 1998. She then moved on to backup dancer, Cris Judd, but she filed for divorce in 2002 less than a year after tying the knot. Next up was her 2004 wedding to her long-time friend, Latin singer Marc Anthony. We thought for sure Lopez had found her happily ever after, so we were completely shellshocked when Anthony filed for divorce in 2012. 

Despite her rocky relationship history, Lopez is actually open to the idea of walking down the aisle for a fourth time. "I do believe in marriage," she told Harper's Bazaar in March 2018. "And I would love to grow old with somebody in a committed relationship. But I'm not forcing anything right now."

Even if a fairy-tale wedding never happens, the couple is already bonded through a staggering real estate purchase — a staggering $15.3 million New York City apartment, according to Street Easy. 

With millions tied up in a brand new home, we guess the wedding will have to wait, but we can't help but think they're doing things a bit backwards — putting the cart before the horse, no?

A fitness model named Lauren Hunter claimed she began dating the former baseball player back in 2011. They allegedly kept in touch after Rodriguez began dating Lopez, exchanging a bunch of naughty text messages, according to The National Enquirer.

After the bombshell dropped, the couple put on a united front. "Jennifer knows what's going on. Alex has been very honest," a source close to the "If You Had My Love" singer told People magazine in June 2017. "She doesn't believe he has gone behind her back since they started dating. They both have a past. Jennifer is focused on now and her future with Alex."

But if she thought Hunter was a distant memory, she was wrong. Lopez reportedly found out Rodriguez was still in touch with the woman as recently as February 2018. "Someone went to Jennifer with new details that Alex was still texting with Lauren, and that's what made Jennifer lose it," an insider told In Touch. "Of course, he said it wasn't physical, and maybe it wasn't, but in Jennifer's book, that's still cheating. They were head-over-heels in love and planning to get engaged. Now Alex's actions have jeopardized everything."

Since his ex-wife also accused him of cheating on her with Madonna, we hope he's ready to clean up his act and shelve his reputation as an alleged philanderer.

As an eligible and hunky bachelor, Rodriguez has enjoyed a string of high-profile relationships with a bevy of beautiful celebrities, including actress Kate Hudson. But none of them have even come close to the way he feels about the "Let's Get Loud" artist.

Friends of the athlete told People magazine, "A-Rod has always been taken with the beauty and personality of Jennifer Lopez ... She is his dream girl." Aw shucks, how sweet is that?

Well, a dream girl deserves a dream proposal and a dream engagement ring, right? Well, don't hold your breath on that one. During his appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, Rodriguez sarcastically told the talk show host, "I will say this, when [the engagement happens], Jimmy, you'll be the first to know."

So what's the hold up? If Lopez were truly everything he ever wanted in a woman, he wouldn't think twice about putting a ring on it, right?

After Hurricane Irma ripped through Puerto Rico in 2017, leaving the U.S. territory decimated and without power for months on end, Lopez sprung into action to help the people of the Caribbean island. The Puerto Rican-American singer and actress hosted a benefit telethon, One Voice: Somos Live! A Concert for Disaster Relief, in October 2017 to raise money for those in need. And, of course, Rodriguez was right by her side during the entire event.

But she also enlisted the help of her ex-husband, Marc Anthony, who's the father of her two children, twins Maximilian and Emme. Granted, he only appeared via satellite from his sold-out concert in Miami, but it's still a bit strange that her current and former flames were on our screens at the exact same time.

The threesome, along with their host of celebrity friends and donors, raised more than $35 million from donations, pledges, and their own contributions, including $9 million from their benefit show, according to Billboard. So, they definitely came together for a good cause. 

Perhaps Jennifer Lopez and Alex Rodriguez get along so well because they're so much alike. Rodriguez told Vanity Fair, "We are very much twins," and went on to describe all of their uncanny similarities. "We're both Leos; we're both from New York; we're both Latino and about 20 other things," he said.

Lopez backed up his claims by dishing about their intense connection. "I understand him in a way that I don't think anyone else could, and he understands me in a way that no one else could ever," she said. "In his 20s, he came into big success with the biggest baseball contract [at the time]. I had a No. 1 movie and a No. 1 album and made history. We both had ups and downs and challenges in our 30s, and by our 40s we'd both been through so much. And more importantly than anything, we had both done a lot of work on ourselves."

There's nothing wrong with the couple having an insane amount of things in common, but we wonder if dating someone who mirrors you will be a recipe for heartache or if it will be prove to be the winning formula for J-Rod? Only time will tell.