TOPSHOT – Jennifer Lopez and Alex Rodriguez arrive for the 2018 Met Gala on May 7, 2018, at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. – The Gala raises money for the Metropolitan Museum of Arts Costume Institute. The Gala’s 2018 theme is Heavenly Bodies: Fashion and the Catholic Imagination. (Photo by Hector RETAMAL / AFP) (Photo credit should read HECTOR RETAMAL/AFP/Getty Images)

 

This month, Jennifer Lopez and Alex Rodriguez got engaged after two years of dating, although the couple have known each other for much, much longer.

As A-Rod recently revealed, he first met his now fiancée 20 years ago when she signed an autograph for him, a treasured item he kept all these years. In the years since, they moved in the same circles but never went on a date until 2017, when they were both single at the same time and had been around the block of life a few times.

And according to an insider who spoke to the New York Post’s Page Six, Jennifer and Alex are both deeply grateful they didn’t date when they were younger.

“Both of them fully admit that if they’d [gotten together] 10 years ago, it just wouldn’t have worked,” the friend of Rodriguez said.

“They were just different people back then.”

In a recent interview, Lopez said the pair’s maturity and wisdom as a result of their age – she’s 49, he’s 43 – was the secret to their relationship success.

“When we met, we’d both already done a lot of work on ourselves,” the Waiting For Tonight singer said.

“Everybody has flaws, and the people I want in my life are the people who recognise that and are willing to work on those flaws,” she explained.

“It’s super-important: someone who’s willing to look at themselves and say, ‘OK, I’m not great here’ or ‘I could do better there.’”

If you haven’t seen the photos of their engagement yet, stop what you’re doing and look right now.