Jennifer Lopez has gone makeup-free on Instagram Stories to admit she has been crying since her twins left for college.
The “Office Romance” star, 57, appeared on the platform Friday with bare skin while running through her skincare routine and opening up about the emotional shift. She shares the 18-year-old twins, Max and Emme Muñiz, with ex-husband Marc Anthony.
“I’m sitting here, being an empty-nester and crying and thinking about them, and looking at baby pictures of them, and all that stuff,” she said on Instagram Stories. Lopez added that she is “so excited for them to step into this new era.”
The performer explained that she has been focusing on daily routines to stay grounded now that her children are away at school. “Those routines are the things that are going to keep me kind of sane, working out, doing my skincare routine, caring for myself, with the newfound kind of space that’s in your life,” she continued on the platform.
Lopez’s raw admission follows a summer of milestones for the family. The singer took Max and Emme on a road trip through Italy before the fall semester began, posting a carousel of holiday photos with the caption, “Road tripping with my coconuts before they head off to college 😭.”
The vacation came after both teens wrapped up high school with separate graduation ceremonies. Lopez was photographed wiping away tears while watching Max graduate in June, with her parents Guadalupe Rodríguez and David Lopez, manager Benny Medina, and Emme all in attendance. The following month, the family gathered for Emme’s graduation, where Ben Affleck’s son Samuel, 14, showed up to support his former step-sibling.
The twins’ academic futures are now taking shape on opposite coasts. Emme is studying theater and studio arts at Sarah Lawrence College in New York. Max’s chosen school has not been publicly disclosed, though Lopez told Extra in June that both teens “got into all five colleges that they applied to.”
“I am so proud that they set goals for themselves,” she told the outlet at the time.
The empty-nester chapter marks another personal transition for Lopez, who filed for divorce from Affleck last August after two years of marriage. The couple had blended their families during their relationship, with Affleck sharing three children with ex-wife Jennifer Garner.
Lopez has long been vocal about motherhood shaping her priorities. In past interviews, she has described her twins as her “whole world” and credited them with keeping her grounded through decades of career highs and tabloid scrutiny. The Italy road trip she documented this summer included stops in cities like Milan and Venice, with the family sharing meals and sightseeing before the college drop-offs.
The skincare-focused Instagram Stories update offered a rare unfiltered glimpse of the star, who has built a beauty empire including her JLo Beauty line. Rather than promoting products, she used the platform to process the emotional reality of her newly quiet household.
Her candidness drew immediate engagement from followers navigating similar life stages. The tears she shed on camera echoed the ones she could not hold back at Max’s June graduation, where photographers captured her dabbing her eyes in the audience.
For Lopez, the fall season now means adjusting to a home without the daily chaos of teenage schedules. She has indicated that structure—workouts, skincare, self-care—will anchor her through the transition.
The “Let’s Get Loud” singer is scheduled to appear at the Intuit Dome in Los Angeles on November 2 as part of her ongoing concert engagements.