A flawless-looking Jennifer Lopez covers Vanity Fair‘s 6th Annual Style Issue this month.

In the first interview since her split with third husband Marc Anthony, Lopez, 42, opens up about the failed marriage. “Sometimes it doesn’t work—and that’s sad. But I remain an eternal optimist about love. I believe in love,” she says. “It’s still my biggest dream. I am positive—determined to move forward with my life, bring up my babies, and do the best job I can as a mother, entertainer, and person. I now look forward to new challenges. I feel strong.”

She continues, “I’m a hopeless romantic and passionate person when it comes to love; it’s not that I didn’t love myself before. Sometimes we don’t realize that we are compromising ourselves. To understand that a person is not good for you, or that that person is not treating you in the right way, or that he is not doing the right thing for himself—if I stay, then I am not doing the right thing for me. I love myself enough to walk away from that now.” She said she and Marc fought about everything. “Marriage is tough. It’s not going to be perfect. It’s definitely challenging.”

Love aside, Lopez also reveals she tried using nannies for twins Max and Emme, but “it wasn’t for me.” Instead, family and friends help with the kids.

The American Idol judge (official word of her return is coming any day now) insists she didn’t have fertility treatments (“Twins run in my family,” she said). She also said she hasn’t had any plastic surgery. “But I don’t know how I’ll feel about it when I’m 50,” she admitted.

Vanity Fair says Lopez also opens up to contributing editor Lisa Robinson about her life with Anthony, her relationship with Diddy and breaking off her engagement to Ben Affleck. She also addresses those diva rumors and shares her attitudes toward money, fame and love.

Bookmark to: