Jennifer Lopez in depressing misery before Marc Anthony

Jennifer Lopez has exclusively revealed that she was "miserable" before her blossoming and steady relationship with Marc Anthony.

While the tabloids kept their obsession with the star, she has revealed that she started to lose her own identity, following the release of her biggest album to date, J.Lo in 2001.

After splitting with Ben Afflick, J Lo started dating Marc Anthony in 2004, and with that, took control of her life, and started her long road to happiness.

"I think there was a time in my life when things got really, really loud, and it was during that whole J-Lo period up until about three years ago - and when I say J-Lo period, I mean the album," Lopez explained in an interview with Parkinson.

"Things were just crazy, I was on the cover of tabloids every day for two years - it was just insane. I was really struggling at that time and I kind of went away, got married and started working on different kinds of music - I did my first Spanish album. I realised who I am."

She added: "[Marc] was great because he's been performing since he was very young, he's an amazing singer and an amazing performer and has credibility, but he has also lived a very quiet life. He showed me, when he came into my life, how miserable I was."