Why Drake And JLo's Relationship Was A Total Sham
Celebrity relationships are a mixed bag. Some stars like to plaster their romances all over the place. Others prefer to keep their relationships completely on the down-low. And then there are those that pass relationships off as the real deal when they really aren't nearly as amorous as these so-called lovers would have us to believe. Cringe-worthy PDA moments, over-the-top declarations of love on social media, and extra paparazzi shots can stir up a lot of publicity at convenient times like, say, when someone is dropping new music. If that sounds familiar, it's probably because it perfectly describes the suspected motivation behind Jennifer Lopez and Drake's "relationship."
The musicians were first linked romantically in late 2016, and they seemed to confirm the reports with matching loved-up Instagram posts that December. Nothing but saccharine moments followed, but then, cupid suddenly cut and ran. So, what was really up between these two? Let's take a closer look at why a whole lot of people think Drake and J. Lo's relationship was totally bogus.
No strings attached
Although their relationship lasted less than two months, Drake and Lopez pulled off some signature boyfriend-girlfriend moves. They posted cuddly photos together. He dropped a stunning $100,000 on a platinum and diamond Tiffany Victoria necklace for her, took her on whimsical outings, and cheered her on at work. Things were seemingly so serious that Lopez even started rocking Drake's gold chain. However, the pair was supposedly never actually official, according to People. An insider told the publication "it was never very serious" — that they had just been having fun together. Whatever that means.
"It was and is fun when they see each other," the source explained. "They love hanging out and making music together. She has great respect for him and his talent and he does for her as well." According to Capital Xtra, they were also having fun working on a song sampling Black Coffee's funky house song "Superman."
She kind of admitted it was
Over the course of her relationship with Drake, Lopez stayed conspicuously tight-lipped on the subject, but in an interview with Entertainment Tonight, some key info slipped out from the "Ain't It Funny" singer's lips. She suggested that the whole situation was not really what it seemed, telling the outlet that they'd simply been working heavily on music. "He just asked me to do a song with him and that's what we've been doing," she said. Lopez made a similar comment in an interview with Ellen DeGeneres. When prodded about her time with Drake, she told the host (via Entertainment Tonight), "He sent me a song that he wanted me to be on, and then I got on the song, and yeah, we have a song together."
Those conversations might not have been all that telling if an insider hadn't made similar comments to People, alleging that the two superstars spending time together was nothing more than a collaboration. "They're making beautiful music together," the source dished. "They are spending a lot of time together and really enjoying each other, but right now it's about the music."
He was romancing other women
They might have seemed like a picture-perfect couple, but Drake was reportedly dating other women at the same time that his was snuggling up with Lopez. In January 2017, just weeks after he and the "Get Right" singer were first linked, Drake was spotted romancing French artist and former adult film star Sophie Brussaux at a Japanese restaurant in Amsterdam. Drake wasn't exactly being coy during the outing. Multiple photos show him cozying up to Brussaux as she intimately touches and flirts with him. And that wasn't all. According to the Mirror, they were spotted going back to his hotel room, and you-know-what allegedly happened. Actually, that night is apparently when she conceived Drake's son, Adonis, who was born nine months later, on Oct. 24, 2017.
"I don't ever want the world to be angry at his mother," Drake said of his rendezvous with Brussaux on LeBron James' The Shop (via Time). "We have found ourselves in a situation and we are both equally responsible and now, like, I'm just really excited to be a great father."
On the rebound
Drake and Rihanna might be officially donezo now, but from the early 2010s to late 2016, he appeared absolutely smitten with her. In August 2016, only three months before he started hanging with J. Lo, he professed his love for Rihanna at MTV's Video Music Awards, telling the audience she was someone he'd "been in love with since [he] was 22 years old," per USA Today. That would've been ten whole years, if you're doing the math here, and (to us) that translates to a "I really only have eyes for you" kind of deal.
Meanwhile, Lopez had been seeing her then-longtime beau Casper Smart. At some point, both relationships fell apart and DraLo became a thing, but sources close to the singer told E! News that Lopez might've just been passing the time with Drake until she and Smart reconciled. It seems like that insider may have been onto something because in 2017, Lopez seemingly called the rapper a "booty call" during a performance in Las Vegas after "Hotline Bling" started playing.
Coincidence? We think not
If you're somehow still not convinced that this relationship was the ultimate finesse, get this: The convenient Dec. 28, 2016 announcement about this relationship came in the wake of the anniversary of one of the most memorable moments of Jennifer Lopez's career: the infamous New York City club shooting.
On Dec. 27, 1999, Lopez and then-boyfriend Sean "P. Diddy" Combs were inside a New York nightclub when gunfire broke out and multiple people were injured. They were later arrested fleeing the scene with a gun in the trunk, per CNN. While Lopez was ultimately absolved, it's still a controversial event people tend to remember each year. On Dec. 29, 2016, radio host Funkmaster Flex pointed out that it'd been 17 years since the shooting. Then he roasted Drake and J.Lo for dropping their relationship announcement that same day. Flex tweeted, "Doggy saved the pic for the anniversary and everything!!! Haaaa! Wow!" And the plot thickens...
It's not like publicity stunts are beyond them
Frankly, we wouldn't put desperate stunts like this to grab the public's attention past Lopez or Drake, especially since both have been accused of publicity stunts in the past. In 2016, the "Nonstop" rapper was blasted on Twitter for using his relationship (or lack thereof) with Rihanna to drum up publicity after he made countless public love declarations for the bad gal, including that he wanted to "go half" on a baby and calling her "the greatest entertainer in the world," per Us Weekly. Meanwhile, Rihanna was reportedly reluctant to make things with Drake official. Eek.
Lopez has been called the "queen of fake romance items," at least according to Radar Online. An insider even alleged that her current (as of this writing) relationship with former baseball star Alex Rodriguez is not what it seems. "Another PR stunt like when she was dating Drake!" the source said.
Take all this as you will. Perhaps we're way off track here. One morsel of evidence that works in DraLo's favor: The duo never released that music it was supposedly making. Were there professional endeavors actually just a cover for authentic, albeit short-lived, personal pursuits? Hmm... that's a story for another day.