Jennifer Lopez recalls sexist joke about her butt: ‘It’s hard when’ people think ‘you’re a joke’

In Jennifer Lopez’s new Netflix documentary, “Halftime,” the superstar gets personal about tabloid culture and body image.

Lopez reflects on the sexist coverage she experienced in the late ’90s and early naughties, particularly regarding her buttocks. Television hosts made jokes about the singer’s butt, and she often had to answer questions about her body. Shows a daunting interview with Billy Bush.

“What do you think of your butt?” Bush asked in 2002.

“Are you kidding me? You didn’t just ask me that question,” Lopez replied, shocked.

“I did,” Bush added.

At halftime, Lopez said she’s always been proud of her physique, but acknowledged the constant scrutiny she sometimes receives.

“I grew up around women with curves, so I’ve never been ashamed of that,” she explained.

But from South Park to the MTV Music Video Awards, Lopez has been a topic of conversation behind the scenes. When she wore that infamous green Versace dress in 2000, the attention to her buttocks only grew.

“It’s hard when you think people think you’re a joke, like you’re a joke,” she admits. “But I end up influencing things in a way that I never intended to influence them.”

Lopez – and that Versace dress – is the reason Google Images was born. The singer originally wore the plunging gown to the Grammys with Pops, which was just the beginning of another media storm.

Thanks to her high-profile connections, the Hustlers star is a tabloid fixture. Lopez, who is engaged to Ben Affleck (again), said in the documentary that she almost quit because of the brutal media coverage. She’s been called “leading lady,” “ambitious” and “Hollywood’s most famous serial bride” just to pick up a few headlines, despite her sizzling career.

“No matter what I’ve accomplished, their desire to cover up my personal life overshadows everything that’s happened in my career. I just have low self-esteem,” Lopez admitted. “I really believe a lot of what they say, which is that I’m not good – I’m not a good singer, I’m not a good actor, I’m not a good dancer, I’m not good.”

Affleck makes his only appearance in the documentary to reflect on what he witnessed when they first got together in 2002-2004.

“I used to say to her, ‘Doesn’t this bother you?’ She said, ‘I’m Latina, I’m a woman I expected to be.” You just don’t expect it. You expect to be treated fairly,” he recalls.

Lopez says “many times” she wanted to give up and quit.

“I had to really figure out who I was and believe in that more than I believed in anything else,” she shared.