Jennifer Lopez gave a very candid and thorough interview with the just launched new website The Daily Beast wherein she talks about topics ranging from her new experiences with motherhood, to the possibility of sending her twin children to a Scientology-based school, to what she plans to do with the money she made by selling the first photos of her kids. This new interview took place about 4 months after she gave birth to her twins and was conducted at her home. Here are pics of J. Lo at ELLE Magazine’s 15th Annual Women in Hollywood Tribute event which took place at The Four Seasons in Beverly Hills, CA last night … and portions of her new interview:

After refusing to have a nanny for the first four months of her children’s lives, she has reluctantly ceded that she may need one. “I’m trying out my first one today,” she whispers. “But I still can’t stand the sound of my babies crying without tending to them myself.” Lopez, wearing an orange Scoop T-shirt dress, looks as gratefully exhausted as any new mother. I ask her if she needs some privacy so she can nurse the twins who are beginning to squirm. “Is that something you’ve chosen to do? To breast-feed?” “No,” she says as I ask if the La Leche League has come after her for such a decision. She laughs and readjusts the twins in her arms. “No. No. Some people are radical about it. But to each his own.” “If you had had only one child would you have chosen to breast-feed?” “No … I … ah …. it’s not that … I’d rather not discuss it. It’s a whole other thing. If you want to go off-the-record I’ll tell you.” We decide to stay on-the-record … Any sort of depression is hard to imagine from a woman who seems to barrel through any sort of emotional problem. “I don’t get nervous. I don’t get depressed. Blah blah blah,” she says, but pauses to reconsider. Still staring into her daughter’s eyes, she reaches an instant, instinctual decision. She will start now, in this moment, not-lying in her daughter’s presence. “There was a time when I was very overworked and I was doing music and movies and so many things. I was suffering from a lack of sleep. And I did have a kind of nervous breakdown. I froze up on a set. Well, not on a set, but in my trailer. I was like – I don’t want to move. I don’t want to talk. I don’t want to do anything. It was on that movie Enough,” she says, referring to the film in which she played a battered wife who finally fights back. “Yeah. I did. I had a nervous breakdown” … The conversation turns to Scientology. “I know a lot of your friends are Scientologists,” I say. “Your father has been a Scientologist for about 20 years …” “More than that now,” she says. “Scientologists don’t believe in shrinks. Would you ever call on Scientology if you were having those problems again?” I ask. “I do know a lot about Scientology. And I know about the practices. I know all about what the technology is and all that kind of stuff. It’s very helpful. So in a sense, yeah, you do call on it.” “Do you consider yourself a Scientologist?” “No.” “If you were, would you be open about it?” “Yeah. I wouldn’t have a problem saying it because I know what it is. I have no problems with it and it really actually bothers me that people have such a negative feeling towards it.” “That it is too exotic? Too cultish?” “Just negative feelings.” “Would you consider schooling Emme and Max in a Scientology school?” I ask. “Yeah. I wouldn’t mind. Not at all. Because I know that the technologies that they have are very helpful… It’s all about communication. That’s the thing I really don’t like about talking about this. I do know so many great people who do do it, who choose it as a lifestyle and really follow it and it is their religion…I just wish that people wouldn’t judge it without knowing what it is.”

Interesting … she seems very open about discussing Scientology and would even consider sending her kids to a Scientology school but she does not consider herself a Scientologist. If she really is trying to combat the “negative feelings” that surround the religion, why not just come out and embrace it publicly? I suspect her career restraints are keeping her from going down that path … a path that she would happily send her kids. It’s not necessarily a bad thing (I believe everyone has a right to follow whatever religion they choose) but it is an interesting revelation. The interview goes on to discuss the huge sum of money that J. Lo was paid for the publication of the first photos of her children. She reveals that she donated a portion of the money to charity and put the rest away expressly for her children’s future. She also confesses that the whole “diva thing” is a misrepresentation of who she really is and believes that she is only a target for such classification because her success has made her “a favorite to pick on”. You can read the interview in its entirety HERE. Personally, I think it is the most candid interview I think I’ve ever read from her. She really opened up about some things in an honest and real way. What do y’all think … is this the Jennifer Lopez you thought you knew?

[Photo credit: Splash News; Source]