Jennifer Lopez’s first husband, Ojani Noa, who met and married the mega-star just as her career was taking off, is opening up about how her association and eventual romance with Sean “Diddy” Combs became a destructive force in their marriage.
Noa, a Cuban immigrant who met Lopez while working as a waiter in Miami, partly blames the music mogul for his 1998 divorce from Lopez after just 11 months of marriage, Page Six reported. During an interview with the Univision morning show, “Despierta America,” Noa explained the reasons for their breakup, saying “Part of that divorce was Diddy’s fault.”
“When Sony came and paid her the millions she got, there was Puffy (Combs), who was going to be one of the producers of several tracks on (her) first album, ‘On The 6,’” he told the outlet in Spanish, according to Page Six. “That’s where the deception, the lies, the separation started.”
HOLLYWOOD, CA – OCTOBER 18: Actress Jennifer Lopez (L) waves to fans as she arrives with husband Ojani Noa for the world premiere of the film “Selena” 13 March in Hollywood. Lopez stars in the title role in the movie about the superstar Latina singer, who was tragically murdered by her manager in 1995. (Photo credit should read VINCE BUCCI/AFP via Getty Images)
Noa’s comments about his short-lived marriage to Lopez come at a sensitive time for the movie star/singer/entrepreneur. Not only is she going through a high-profile divorce from husband no. 4, Ben Affleck, she’s facing scrutiny over her relationship with Combs, as the Bad Boy Records producer is locked up in federal detention and faces trial on sex trafficking and racketeering conspiracy charges. She is among a number of A-listers who moved in the rapper’s orbit and who were happy to be seen at his infamous, star-studded parties.
Combs also has been hit with more than 20 lawsuits from women and men, who claim that he and his alleged accomplices, including at least two unnamed celebrity friends, sexually assaulted them when they attended one of his parties, according to the New York Times.
The allegations cover incidents that began in the 1990s and continued through 2022, with some allegedly taking place during the time that Lopez and Combs were a high-flying celebrity couple from 1999 to 2001. This week, a 37-year-old woman filed a lawsuit in federal court alleging that, as a 13-year-old girl, she was sexually assaulted by Combs — with the help of an unnamed male and female celebrity — at a party the mogul hosted after the 2000 MTV Video Music Awards, Deadline reported.
In a 19-page court filing, the woman said the assault occurred after she went to an empty bedroom to lie down, because she felt “woozy and lightheaded” from a drink she had been given. Soon after, Combs, “along with a male and female celebrity, entered the room,” where both Combs and the other man raped her while the woman watched.
In reports on this woman’s lawsuit — which did not name names — Page Six and other outlets published photos of Combs with Lopez at the 2000 VMAs at Radio City Music Hall. Lopez was his date that night in September 2000. Dressed in a white cropped tank top, matching pants and heels, the singer won the award that night for best dance video.
Lopez has yet to address the criminal and civil allegations against Combs; he has pleaded not guilty and denied all charges against him. In 1999, Lopez also became embroiled in another criminal controversy involving Combs. They were arrested in December of that year, while fleeing a Manhattan nightclub after a shooting, which left three people injured. Combs was put on trial in 2001 for the shooting and Lopez testified, but Combs was acquitted by a jury.
DORAL, FLORIDA – MAY 14: Ojani Noa attends Official Celebrity Boxing South Florida Rumble Featuring Blac Chyna – Press Conference at Booby Trap Doral on May 14, 2022 in Doral, Florida. (Photo by Aaron Davidson/Getty Images)
Lopez’s first husband is now speaking up about the role that he believes Combs played in the demise of the marriage. Noa, a Miami-based actor and personal trainer, never married again after his divorce from Lopez.
Noa met Lopez in 1996. Then 22, he was working as a waiter at Gloria Estefan’s Cuban restaurant in Miami when Lopez came in to dine with two girlfriends. Lopez, then 28, was already a minor celebrity, having starred as a “fly girl” on the TV show, “In Living Color.” She was in Miami to film a movie, “Blood and Wine,” with Jack Nicholson and Michael Caine.
“I had no idea who she was,” Noa told the Daily Mail in an interview published several days before Combs’ Sept. 16 arrest. “Our eyes glanced at each other, and I thought she was the most beautiful woman I’d ever seen.”
Lopez returned the next night, and her friend invited him to attend a wrap party for the movie. At a nightclub, Noa said he got the chance to dance with Lopez when a slow song came on. “It was electric,” he told the Daily Mail. “We could both feel the romantic energy. It was instant and intense.”
The romance quickly blossomed, with Noa insisting to the Daily Mail that they were able to keep things pretty low-key and that she liked that he wasn’t “starstruck.” He eventually quit his waiter job and followed her to Los Angeles, where they first lived in a nice apartment, then a house, and then “the houses kept getting bigger,” Noa said in a 2022 Daily Mail interview.
A year after first meeting, Noa proposed marriage to Lopez, presenting her with a $15,000 diamond engagement ring, which for him was “a fortune.” They married in a small intimate ceremony in a friend’s Miami waterfront backyard.
In his most recent Daily Mail interview, Noa said their marriage also couldn’t withstand Lopez’s desire for public attention. After the success of her 1997 movie, “Selena,” a biopic about the Tejana singer, Lopez was “really enjoying the media attention,” Noa said. He said he can relate to Affleck’s self-described frustration with Lopez’s constant need to be in the spotlight or to share aspects of their private life on social media.
But before and after Combs’ arrest, Noa also implicated him in the demise of romance with Lopez. After their wedding, Noa said he remained in Los Angeles to open a nightclub that was part owned by Lopez. She, meanwhile, went to New York to make her album with Combs.
Noa told the Daily Mail that he became alarmed when he started to see pictures of his bride with Combs. “I rang Jen and asked why she was going out with him on dates, and she said, ‘It’s just business. This is what I’m being told I have to do,’” Noa told the Daily Mail. “I was jealous and would scream, ‘But you are married!’”
Noa also told “Despierta America” that he tried to save the marriage. “When I could, I would go to be with her,” he said, but the “deception” had started.
Even while their marriage was in trouble, Noa told the Daily Mail that he was encouraged to “fake it” in public, including when Lopez did an interview with Oprah Winfrey, and he was in the audience. The couple eventually split in 1998, and Lopez began to date Combs shortly after their divorce was finalized.
Noa told the Daily Mail that he and Lopez managed to remain friendly — at least for a while. While Lopez was dating Affeck for the first time in the early 2000s, she asked Noa to manage another Los Angeles restaurant she had opened.
But in 2005, Noa was “unceremoniously” let go from the restaurant, and he sued for unfair dismissal, the Daily Mail reported. In the “Despierta America” interview, he also expressed bitterness about how his breakup with Lopez and their court battle hurt his career, saying it undermined his chance to land several jobs.
Then again, in one of the Daily Mail interviews, he insisted that he bears his ex-wife no ill will. “There are no bad feelings at all. I would always be her friend,” he said.
