Jennifer Lopez Hints She Didn't Learn Her Lesson With Ex Ben Affleck The First Time Around - & Is SUPER 'Excited' About Being Free Of Him!

Jennifer Lopez has been on quite the journey lately… and now, she’s opening up all about it!

On Wednesday, Interview Magazine published a new conversation that the superstar singer had with comedian Nikki Glaser about a range of topics. (Yes, that same Nikki Glaser who has already been tightly linked to J.Lo amid the pop star’s ongoing divorce.) The convo occurred because J.Lo is in the middle of promoting her upcoming film Unstoppable, which hits theaters in early December. (And yes, that’s the film being made by the production company owned by Matt Damon and J.Lo’s ex Ben Affleck — awkward!!)

Anyways, speaking of Ben, the Waiting For Tonight singer actually got remarkably candid about their divorce during this new feature! It was very inneresting, to say the least!

During the chat — which was conducted back on September 10 but only just published now, BTW — Glaser asked the 55-year-old star about her ongoing quest for self-discovery amid the ups and downs of both career trials and love life labors. Lopez replied:

“It’s a lifelong process. I think that’s what I love about life: that there’s no arrival point. There’s only getting better and growing if you want to. It’s either growing or dying, and I don’t want to do the dying part.”

Can’t argue with that! But then, Jen got a little cryptic. The singer-slash-dancer-slash-actress admitted that she still hadn’t learned some of life’s lessons as new tribulations have been thrown at her in recent months and years:

“And yeah, there’s times when I thought I figured it out, and then life goes, ‘Let’s send you another thing and see if you fall for it. Let’s see if you really have learned that lesson.’ And I hadn’t.”

Hmmm… Could she be talking about Ben there?!?! And the couple’s high-profile divorce?? Uh, yeah! We think so!

As for her dating life, tho, Jenny From The Block did indicate that she was really “excited” to be single and free and on her own once again! She said that she’s “not looking for anybody” right now, tho. And she explained that at this point in her life, she has moved past all those “different challenging situations” she’d found herself in before:

“Now I’m excited, when you say you’re just going to be on your own. Yes, I’m not looking for anybody, because everything that I’ve done over the past 25, 30 years, being in these different challenging situations, what can I f**king do when it’s just me flying on my own … what if I’m just free?”

The pop star wasn’t done there, either! Lopez confirmed that she still has some work to do on herself. To that end, she admitted that she has pushed herself to look “inward” rather than “blame everybody else” for her failings:

“The work is figuring yourself out. It’s looking back at the feelings underneath and the belief systems that we have about ourselves that make us make certain choices and create certain patterns in our life. And so, when you get to a point where you think that you’ve learned the lessons, and then it blows up in your face again, you realize, ‘Okay, I haven’t, so what is it that I need to look at right now?’ I would say, never stop looking inward, because it’s so easy to blame everybody else.”

Definitely a worthy attitude!

Jennifer also circled back and took another shot at the end of her ill-fated time with Ben, too. Alluding to the sudden realization that she needed to “go off and be on my own” during this most recent tumultuous summer, she explained:

“But you have to be healthy. You have to be complete, if you want something that’s more complete. You have to be good on your own. I thought I learned that, but I didn’t. And then, this summer, I had to be like, ‘I need to go off and be on my own. I want to prove to myself that I can do that.'”

Hmmm…

And when the 40-year-old comedian asked if that was hard, Lopez shot back with a very strong confirmation:

“It was f**king hard! It feels lonely, unfamiliar, scary. It feels sad. It feels desperate. But when you sit in those feelings and go, ‘These things are not going to kill me,’ it’s like actually, I am capable of joy and happiness all by myself… Being in a relationship doesn’t define me.”

Wow! Strong words from a woman who wants to give off a strong, newly single vibe. But of course, she does admit it hurt her hard, too saying that even though she doesn’t “regret” going through the pain of love:

“It almost did [take me out for good]. But now, on the other side of it, I think to myself, ‘F—, that is exactly what I needed. Thank you, God. I’m sorry it took me so long. I’m sorry that you had to do this to me so many times. I should have learned it two or three times ago. I get it. You had to hit me really hard over the head with a f—ing sledgehammer. You dropped the house on me. Don’t have to do it again.”

You can read the full Interview chat HERE. Thoughts?? Share ’em (below)…

P.S. Read one of the more heartbreaking quotes HERE and see all the hot shots from the spread HERE!

[Image via MEGA/WENN]