Jennifer Lopez Addresses Alex Rodriguez's Past Doping Scandal: 'Everybody Has Flaws'

The triple-threat star also explains why her relationship with the former MLB star is different from all the others.

Jennifer Lopez fully accepts Alex Rodriguez, flaws and all.

The triple-threat star covers the December issue of InStyle, and while she poses nearly nude for the magazine in a striking green sequin cloak-like clothing item, she also bares a lot in terms of her personal life.

After dating Rodriguez for over a year and a half, Lopez credits their openness on Instagram for why they aren't necessarily at the center of tabloid fodder. "Now people get to see that this guy they thought was this hard-nosed athlete is, like, a goofy dad who loves his kids and celebrates his girlfriend," she says of her guy.

Lopez says being at the center of tabloid attention back in the day was "worse then" maybe fans thought. “It was just crazy. Now at least I can show you who I am a little bit," she says, noting that social media has served as a form of accountability for tabloids. "Back then you just believed anything you read on the cover of a tabloid. Many times it wasn’t true, or it was like a third of the truth."

As for why her relationship with Rodriguez, 43, is different than her other high-profile romances, Lopez explains, "When we met, we’d both already done a lot of work on ourselves."

Anthony Maule/InStyle
Anthony Maule/InStyle

For instance, now the 49-year-old entertainer is aware that everyone has a past, including Rodriguez, who was involved in a doping scandal in 2013 and 2014.

"Everybody has flaws, and the people I want in my life are the people who recognize that and are willing to work on those flaws," Lopez says of Rodriguez's controversy when he played pro baseball. “It’s super-important: someone who’s willing to look at themselves and say, ‘OK, I’m not great here’ or ‘I could do better there.'"

Anthony Maule/InStyle

Lopez loves to gush over her guy, and has done so countless times when speaking with ET.  Here's a look at one of our latest interviews with the Second Act star: 

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