J.Lo and A-Rod have talked about getting engaged to one another multiple times before sealing the deal over the weekend.
Jennifer Lopez and Alex Rodriguez finally made it official on Saturday when the power couple announced their engagement -- and gave everyone a look at Lopez's stunning new engagement ring.
But Lopez and Rodriguez's engagement isn't exactly a surprise to some fans, who have predicted the two would go the distance since they began dating in 2017. The 49-year-old singer and the 43-year-old former baseball pro themselves have talked about getting engaged to one another multiple times before sealing the deal over the weekend.
"I do believe in marriage,” Lopez -- who's been married three times -- told Harper's BAZAAR last March. “I would love to grow old with somebody in a committed relationship -- but I’m not forcing anything right now."
"... When I was younger I spent a lot of time being half happy and half not happy,” she also added about being content at this point in life. “[Now] I know who I am and what I want. I also know my strengths and weaknesses. It took me a long time to get to a point where I could say something nice about myself. I’m glad I can do that now."
Still, it appeared Lopez was dropping some serious hints to Rodriguez about taking their relationship to the next level. Last April, ET was exclusively on the set of her music video for her Spanish-language single, "El Anillo" -- which translates to "The Ring," -- which raised eyebrows due to the lyrics.
In the song, Lopez sings: "Nunca había sentido algo tan grande/Y me vuelve loca tu lado salvaje/Tú me has dado tanto que he estado pensando/Ya lo tengo todo, pero/¿Y el anillo pa' cuando?" The lyrics translate to "I have never felt anything this grand/Your wild side drives me crazy/You have given me so much that I have been thinking that I have it all, but/When will I get the ring?"
However, the superstar told ET at the time that she wasn't pushing for Rodriguez to propose after a year of dating.
"It's more about the value of it. It's kind of like, 'If you want me in your life, you have to give me the respect and place in your life that I deserve,'" she explained. "And I think a ring sometimes is a symbol of that but it's more of a symbolic thing."
"Listen, I didn't write this song," Lopez added with a smile. "Somebody wrote it for me specifically, which I thought was really funny. Not because I'm thinking of doing anything like this, but because it's a funny thing and I played it for Alex and I was like, 'Are you cool with this? I think it's kind of funny.' He's like, 'Yeah, I'm totally cool with it.'"
Later, during her appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, she laughed off all the engagement furor caused by the song.
“No pressure!” Lopez said, laughing. “The song is definitely about that, it is, but I felt like it was kind of something that all women get to a point where they say, ‘OK, what’s up?’ [points to ring finger] Like, we’re good, everything’s great, what’s going on? Am I staying or am I [going]?’”
She also noted that she doesn’t think it takes long to figure out if your partner is the one.
“I feel like you know fairly quickly, so the rest is just you being scared and whatever,” she said. “But don’t go by me! I’ve made tons of mistakes.”
But even Lopez's World of Dance family started getting in on the engagement talk between the power couple last May, when ET spoke with Jenna Dewan and Ne-Yo at the NBC Upfronts in New York City.
"I mean, I'm sure that's happening," Dewan said.
"If you've ever seen the two of them together, it's pretty much the next step," Ne-Yo echoed. "They're, like, annoyingly cute. Like, stop touching each other."
Lopez has also talked about how she would like to be asked for her hand in marriage. During her appearance on the Today show last May, she was asked about rapper 2 Chainz's epic proposal on the Met Gala red carpet that year, and noted while the moment was "amazing," she was looking for something different.
"I think I would want it to be a tiny bit more intimate," she said. "But you know what, this is amazing, I'm sure she had a Cinderella moment."
But last June, she noted that she and Rodriguez were still taking their time with their relationship.
"I've made plenty of mistakes in my past and ... we're mature now," she explained during her appearance on Good Morning America. "We're grown-ups and we're going to take our time and we're going to do things at our own pace. And our life right now is incredibly wonderful. Between our kids and our work, we're truly blessed. We don't need anything more right now."
Still, the couple stirred up engagement rumors last July, when Lopez shared a pic on Instagram of herself snuggling up to a shirtless Rodriguez on the beach. Fans were quick to notice that she was wearing a ring on that finger.
Rodriguez later clarified that while he did buy her a ring and that the piece of jewelry had "significance," the two weren't engaged.
"I gave her the ring maybe four or five months ago," Rodriguez said on the Today show one month later. "I got her that ring. She loved it."
By November of last year, Lopez was still playing it cool when it came to engagement talk. When she appeared on The Ellen DeGeneres Show, the host playfully bombarded her about making it official with Rodriguez.
"I don't know," she said coyly when asked if they were getting married.
She, was, however, much more vocal about her potential engagement ring when DeGeneres said Rodriguez was going to give Lopez "something romantic, thoughtful, but inexpensive" for Christmas.
"Did he say inexpensive?" Lopez jokingly shot back with a look of disbelief. "That's not gonna work... Come on. We don't work overtime for all that... Smart and thoughtful I'll take. Romantic, I'll take."
Clearly, Rodriguez took the hint. The former pro athlete proposed with a massive sparkler that is estimated to be worth over a million dollars, jewelry expert Kathryn Money, Vice President of Strategy and Merchandising for jewelry company Brilliant Earth, told ET on Sunday.
Lopez also hilariously tagged DeGeneres in her engagement post after all of the host's engagement prodding, and the comedian has already responded.
“Yes. I’ll be your Maid of Honor," DeGeneres quipped.
Watch the video below for more on Lopez and Rodriguez's happy news.
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