Jennifer Lopez And Alex Rodriguez: Strange Things About Their 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? 

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.

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?

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?

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.