How Did JLo & ARod First Meet? Here’s The Touching Story Behind Their Romance

Jennifer Lopez and Alex Rodriguez just got engaged, and fans can’t stop raving about it. The two started dating two years ago and quickly became one of the most admired celebrity couples.

But not many people know the inspiring story behind J.Lo and A-Rod’s celebrated romance. According to Harper’s Bazaar, “their love story is so romantic and unexpected” it will leave you gasping in awe.

As many fans will remember, Jennifer Lopez and Alex Rodriguez made their first public appearance as a couple at the 2017 Met Gala. The pair wowed everyone when they showed up together at the star-studded event, making a glorious debut on the red carpet, as previously reported by The Inquisitr.

But the platinum-selling artist and the former New York Yankees baseball player actually met a long time before that. The two first laid eyes on each other in 2005, but it wasn’t until 12 years later that they were reunited and went out on their first date, revealed Harper’s Bazaar.

The 49-year-old singer and the 43-year-old retired baseball star first crossed paths 14 years ago, when Rodriguez was still playing for the Yankees. In fact, JLo first met ARod at a baseball game.

On May 21, 2005, the singer went to the Yankees vs. New York Mets game at Shea Stadium with her then-husband, Marc Antony. There, Jennifer and Marc were officially introduced to Alex — and the trio even posed for a few snapshots together on the baseball field ahead of the game.

At the time of their first encounter, the Second Act actress had been married to singer Marc Anthony for a year. The two stayed together for 10 years before eventually splitting up in 2014. Marc is also the father of Jennifer’s 11-year-old twins, Max and Emme.

After their first meeting, JLo and ARod lost touch with each other, but eventually reconnected at the beginning of 2017. According to Harpers’ Bazaar, the two bumped into each other in a restaurant in February and immediately hit it off.

“I was having lunch somewhere and I saw him as he passed by,” Lopez told Ellen DeGeneres in April of 2017, when the singer first told the story of how she met her current fiancé.

“Afterwards, I went outside, and for some reason I felt like tapping him on the shoulder.”

Soon after being serendipitously reunited, Rodriguez worked up the courage to invite her to dinner and the two have been inseparable ever since. However, that first step didn’t come so easy for the former athlete. In their joint 2017 interview with Vanity Fair, ARod confessed that he wasn’t sure whether their first night out was actually a date.

“I didn’t know if it was a date. Maybe we were seeing each other at night because of her work schedule. I went in uneasy, not knowing her situation.”

Not long after that, JLo and ARod made their official debut at the Met Gala on May 1, 2017.

The couple naturally bonded over the many things they have in common.

“We’re both Leos, we’re both from New York, we’re both Latino… and about 20 other things,” Rodriguez told Vanity Fair.

Their list of common interests also includes their passion for fitness and a healthy lifestyle. The two regularly hit the gym together and enjoy training side by side.

Their strong compatibility eventually helped them create an amazing family — one that truly appears to be loving and close, judging by an adorable photo posted by A-Rod to Instagram last November. In the beautiful black-and-white snapshot, the pair is pictured together with their four children — JLo’s twins, Max and Emme, and ARod’s two daughters, 14-year-old Natasha and 10-year-old Ella.

The athlete’s daughters were born from his previous marriage to Cynthia Scurtis, whom he divorced in 2008, after being together for five years. Meanwhile, JLo has been married three times and engaged one other time, as covered by The Inquisitr.

On their two-year anniversary, which they celebrated on February 4, the “Waiting for Tonight” singer penned a heartfelt message to Rodriguez, in which she described their evolving romance as “two years of fun and adventures.”

ARod returned the very romantic favor with a heartwarming message shared to Instagram.

“We are meant to be, and how much you mean to me cannot be put into words,” he wrote in his post.

“Where this road will take us next is unknown but there is no one else I would rather have by my side.”

It seems that now their journey together has led to a new exciting chapter in their lives, as ARod eventually mustered up the courage to propose to JLo. However, one might argue that their story began more than 20 years ago, as revealed by ARod last year.

In October, ARod melted hearts when he unveiled a signed photo of J.Lo, which he had been keeping since the ’90s. The athlete told his Instagram followers that he was lucky enough to have gotten her autograph a long time before the two were ever romantically linked and that he had treasured the photograph ever since.

As Harper’s Bazaar points out, their love story “was written in the stars from the start.”