‘I was the pioneer’: Ex Miami waiter talks about being Jennifer Lopez’s first husband
He came before Cris Judd, Marc Anthony and Ben Affleck.
Jennifer Lopez’s first husband is talking yet again about his whirlwind romance with Jennifer Lopez, who is in the midst of her fourth divorce, ending Bennifer 2.0 for good.
“I was the first, the pioneer,” Ojani Noa tells The Daily Mail in a lengthy interview.
The 50 year old recounts how the two famously met in 1996, locking eyes at the Estefan-owned restaurant, Larios On The Beach, where he was a waiter.
Lopez, in town shooting the thriller “Blood and Wine” with Jack Nicholson and Michael Caine, came in to eat.
“She was the most beautiful woman I’d ever seen,” remembered the Cuba native of the 55 year old. “She had an incredible body too. She still does.”
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The rising Hollywood star returned the following the day and Noa says her assistant requested that he serve their table.
“She didn’t really speak -Spanish and my English wasn’t that good at the time,” the personal trainer revealed. “But we would talk and laugh together.”
They had such great chemistry that Lopez invited her new friend to the movie’s wrap party, and sparks flew.
JLo was living in Los Angeles, so they began a long distance relationship.
“My phone bills were crazy, but we got to know each other more,” said Noa, who went on to marry the entertainer at his friend’s backyard in Miami in February 1997.
Things went south quickly, with the blessed union only lasting 11 months.
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Lopez has said in past interviews that the brief marriage to Noa (and later dancer, Judd, nine months) ”didn’t really count.”
Noa feels differently.
“I was there at the beginning of her career supporting her, -dealing with her anxieties and insecurities,” said the former model who was famously barred from releasing a JLo sex tape and tell-all book. “I was a really good husband because I believe in marriage. When we divorced, I was heartbroken. I feel when she got what she wanted, I was no longer needed.”
The bit actor, who has never married again, has some advice for the mother of two if she ponders taking the plunge again.
“Take 12 months off,” he said. “If she meets someone new, [she should] maybe keep it private and not get -married again.”
