She may be Jenny From the Block, but that doesn't mean her childhood home in the Bronx holds only sweet memories. For an interview in W magazine's August issue, Jennifer Lopez returned to the house she grew up in, "a white two-story surrounded by an ornate metal gate" that sits next to a vacant lot -- and the emotions that accompanied her visit were complicated to say the least.
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Spying a back window, she laughingly recalled, "I would look out that window to see if my boyfriend was coming, and then I'd run out the door." But asked if she wanted to knock on the door of her former home, the singer-actress replied, "No. I don't want to go inside. The last time I was in there was when my mom and dad called us home to tell us that they were separating after 33 years of marriage. I think that's why I was nervous about coming here today."
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"It's like seeing someone from the past -- you're afraid to run into them because you never know if it's going to be 'wow' or very difficult. This is a combination of both," she continued of revisiting her old stomping grounds. She left home when she was 18 to pursue a dancing career and told the magazine that she was even homeless for a few months. "My mom [Guadalupe Rodriguez] and I butted heads. 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.' "
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The "Live It Up" singer, who has 5-year-old twins, Max and Emme, with ex Marc Anthony, also touched upon that dress -- the infamous green Versace gown with the plunging navel-grazing neckline that she wore to the Grammys in 2000. She said she was "surprised by the reaction." "When I came onstage with David Duchovny, who was the biggest star in the world then, he said to the audience, 'Nobody is looking at me,' " Lopez said. "This loud sound started from the back of the room -- it was kind of like a roar, over me in the dress. When I went to my seat, I said, 'What’s the big deal?!' [Then-boyfriend] Puffy and Benny [Medina, her manager] were waiting, and they said, 'You have to take pictures in that dress.' "
This article originally appeared on Usmagazine.com: Jennifer Lopez on Her Infamous Versace Dress at 2000 Grammys: "I Said, 'What's the Big Deal?' "