The 43-year-old revealed to an American magazine that before her fame and fortune, she was in fact homeless.
Explaining that her mother didn't approve of the superstar's decision to pursue a dancing career, Jlo told how she had to sleep on the floor of her dance studio after they fell out.
'My mom and I butted heads,' she admitted.
'I didn’t want to go to college - I wanted to try dance full-time. So she and I had a break.'
'I started sleeping on the sofa in the dance studio. I was homeless, but I told her, "This is what I have to do."'
And the now mother-of-two's risk paid off.
'A few months later, I landed a job dancing in Europe,' she added.
'When I got back, I booked 'In Living Color.' I became a Fly Girl and moved to L.A. It all happened in a year.'
Speaking about the adjustment of the move from The Bronx to LA, she revealed:
'I hated L.A.,' she says. 'I was asking, "Where’s the store for milk? Don’t you guys walk on the street?"'
Despite getting used to the California way of living, the superstar will always stay loyal to her roots.
'Now I love Los Angeles, but it doesn’t give me strength the way the Bronx did. All the strength that I needed for life, I got from that neighborhood,' the I'm Real star explains.
And the hard working star hopes to pass on her work ethic to 5-year-old twins Max and Emme.
'I think a lot about teaching my kids to work hard. I’ve learned something about kids - they don’t do what you say, they do what you do,' she says.
'I watched my parents. My dad worked nights, and I was aware of how much he was doing for us.
'My mom was a Tupperware lady and also worked at the school. I always felt that I couldn’t let them down. And I had a natural discipline from early on. I was always training for something.'
Worth over £100 million, with countless movie and song hits, and a 25-year-old dancer boyfriend, she can now safely tell her mum it has paid off.