Lopez has been in the process of changing and evolving, she tells me, sharing that her new line of ready-to-use cocktails is part of a larger change in her lifestyle and personal goals. She says that she is shedding some of the rigidity of her in favor of a more cheerful and playful side, a version of herself that family and close friends have nicknamed “Lola” in the past, but has kept hidden from the rest of the world for a long time.
“Lola existed when I was twenty years old,” says López. “I was the girl who danced on the table…and then I became a super focused, Type A, overachiever workaholic.” However, over the past 10 to 15 years, she’s realized that softening up a bit could do her soul good. Today, at 53, JLo is proud to bring more balance into her life in an effort to (proverbially) “dance again.”
“I realized that my life was happening to me, now I am in my fifties, my children are growing up,” says López. “I needed to find more balance and learn to enjoy myself a little more and relax, and I also needed to stop testing myself and putting all that pressure on myself that we as women do in the middle of our lives, when we are at the height of our careers, raising children and being superwomen.” She realized that what Lopez needed most was to relax and have fun.
“I got to this different point in my life where I was like, ‘I need to laugh more,’ ‘I need to dance more,’ and these are the keys to life and happiness.” -Jennifer Lopez
And yes, drinking the occasional cocktail has become a part of it. Although Lopez has been adamant about avoiding alcohol in the past (largely for health reasons), she tells me she’s begun to enjoy a glass of rosé (or the occasional White Russian or fruity splash) now and then in recent years. The decision wasn’t so much “I started drinking” as it was “My ideas about life started to change,” she says. “I got to this different point in my life where I was like, ‘I need to laugh more,’ ‘I need to dance more,’ and these are the keys to life and happiness.”
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Her Delola cocktails are a reflection of this carefree spirit, reminiscent of her long-hidden alter ego “Lola” (hence the name, a portmanteau of “de” and “Lola” meaning “from Lola” in Spanish).
Although Lopez prides himself on the fact that Delola’s first releases—three fruity spritzes flavored with natural botanicals like elderflower, passion fruit, and hibiscus—are lower in alcohol and sugar than some of their counterparts, there’s no denying that their alcohol content negates any potential health benefits. (No doubt recent science has squashed earlier notions that a small amount of alcohol is good for you.) But to focus on that is to miss Lopez’s point with the release, which is more about the possibility of finding a moment of joy when pouring the occasional drink or opening a bottle with a group of loved ones.
While Lopez once believed in an all-or-nothing approach to wellness, she’s now wholeheartedly embracing balance, not only when it comes to alcohol consumption, but also in terms of exercise, sleep, and everything else she does to care for her body. “Before, I was like, ‘I have to work out every day, and I have to do this other thing, and I have to sleep so much,’ and that worked for me for a long time,” she says, “but I got to a point where I started wondering, ‘Why do I make all these rules for myself?'”
For the next act of her life, Lopez says, if she “has anything else to offer the world,” it’s the importance of being balanced and consistent when it comes to wellness. “You don’t want to not exercise at all, and you don’t want to exercise every day; you mean, ‘Let’s see if I can work out three or four days a week.'” And the same goes for his approach to sleep: “Sometimes you’re going to bed late and sometimes you’re going to get up really early and you might not get the hours you need, but that’s okay.”
As an impetus for this new, laid-back approach to wellness, Lopez cites the natural changes that come with aging. “It’s about being in tune with yourself and learning to change along with those changes, which I think is the hardest thing for people to accept,” she says. You have to be comfortable getting to know yourself, she adds, to embrace every part of yourself. And as for Lopez in the future? That’s going to sound like a little less “JLo” and a little more “Lola.”
