Jennifer Lopez: I Overcame 'Challenging' Relationships

By Howard Breuer

10/22/2008 at 02:35 PM EDT

Jennifer Lopez says that when it came to becoming happy and fulfilled in a relationship, she was a late bloomer.

"I have been in a few challenging ones," Lopez, 39, said Wednesday at The Women's Conference in Long Beach, Calif. "I have been in relationships that can make you doubt who you are and what you are capable of, and doubt what you deserve. It took me a bit little longer to get it right."

The actress, who didn't single out any of her exes, has been married twice and famously dated Sean "Diddy" Combs and Ben Affleck before quietly marrying Marc Anthony, 40, with whom she had twins.

Raising children, she told the conference being attended by 14,000 women and hosted by California First Lady Maria Shriver, "can make you more aware and more loving, and make you aware there's nothing they don't deserve. Your eyes open. Your heart opens."

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