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Jennifer Lopez has had a difficult start to 2024 as the release of her underwhelming album This Is Me… Now was then followed up by the cancelation of multiple tour dates due to low ticket sales.
While Lopez is (or perhaps was) a big enough star to co-headline a Super Bowl halftime show, her fandom has proven to be nowhere near as passionate as the likes of Taylor Swift, Beyonce, or even Britney Spears.
Despite that not having the most loyal legion of fans, recent months have felt like a new low for J. Lo, with one brand expert telling the Daily Mail that it’s due to her not “keeping with the times.”
“The backlash against J Lo has for sure been bubbling for a while. In the last decade, despite her love life being well broadcasted, there was still an air of mystery around her, as a mega superstar,” Emily Austen, head of the PR agency EMERGE, said.
“The first big moment for the backlash came as the Superbowl documentary, Halftime, aired in 2022. Her behavior seemed uncompromising and whingy, having to share a stage with Shakira. Her grievance about it wasn’t expressed eloquently and made her seem unlikable.”
Far more interesting is the role that Austen believes Ben Affleck and his famously miserable face are playing in this, as she believes the optics of their marriage have “shattered the fourth wall” that successful celebrities possess.
“In the shadow of beloved and long suffering Jennifer Garner, much of the imagery we have seen from J Lo has been mundane – car rides with Ben, curb side arguments, fast food takeaways. Often looking miserable. This has shattered the fourth wall, one which we’d all bought into. We didn’t want her to be a normal person.”
In addition to her personality seemingly wearing thin on the public, there’s also the hard fact that her artistic choices have been questionable, such as releasing a documentary about her relationship with Ben Affleck titled The Greatest Love Story Never Told and a bizarre self-funded movie to accompany her recent album.