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JENNIFER LOPEZ is an actress, singer, record producer, American Idol judge and fashion designer. Born in the Bronx, a poor area of New York, J-Lo was virtually broke when first living in Hollywood. She's had a high-profile private life - relationships include hip-hop's Sean "P Diddy" Combs and actor Ben Affleck. She's now married to her third husband, singer Marc Anthony, with whom she has three year-old twins, Emme and Max and is currently promoting her album Love? and latest single, I'm Into You. Here, the 41-year-old talks to GARTH PEARCE about what she learned from her mum. "MY mother, Guadalupe, taught me all about clean living. I have never taken a drug, never smoked a cigarette and do not drink at all. My mother embedded it all in to us when we were young."I don't think my wish to be a dancer had anything to do with it - my mother just said no to drinking and drugs. She would say: "Drugs kill you and ruin your brain" - that kind of stuff. "I am not saying it makes me a better person not to drink or smoke, it's just that I don't do it. "I am a good girl in the sense that I was raised a Catholic. My mum and dad had three girls, my older sister, Lesley, me and my younger sister Lynda. It was a case of keeping us on the straight and narrow. "When people ask me who I am, I just say that I am a simple girl from the Bronx who worked really hard. "Those basic values were drummed into my head: "Be good. Work hard. Do the right thing. Don't hurt anybody." "My exuberance and love of music came from my mum. Home alone at night, she'd entertain us. Mostly things from her own childhood, like The Shirelles, The Ronettes and The Supremes."She'd sing. We would act out plays or watch musicals. She loved the movie West Side Story and knew it by heart. I think maybe Mum was a frustrated entertainer and I am living her dream. "I fell in love when I was 15, in high school, with a local boy, David Cruz. "My best girlfriend and his best guy friend were dating and they wanted us to get together. "He fell in love with me at first sight. I thought to myself: "He is all right." This was January and, in February, he sent a dozen roses to my house. In the Bronx, that was unusual. "I wrote him a card saying: "We may not be together now, but who knows what the future holds?" It was very sweet and he became my boyfriend, on and off, for nine years! "I moved to LA to appear in the TV show In Living Color and I did date guys there. But I thought: "I want my baby back." "I really struggled, financially, and was down to my last dollar on occasions. "There were lots of tearful calls to my mum who kept me going with her encouragement. "Any man who has known me would say that my worst fault is being a pain in the ass when it comes to being alone. "We've all had a love of our life and failed love affairs. I am just the biggest romantic - it's really sad. I tell people that, but nobody listens. "After a while, people are together and they get blas� about the other person in their life. "So you have to invent little things to keep the spark alive. "It's like a fire you have to keep burning. You keep throwing logs on the fire. "And if the logs don't work, throw a match in there - or add lighter fuel! "I was very careful about my behaviour in Hollywood because I did not want to let anyone down. When I had my first big love scene on a film, with Wesley Snipes, (Money Train, 1995) I even asked for pillows so our bodies would not touch. "I called them Love Pillows and the wardrobe department made me three, in various sizes. The little itty bitty one went down there, the rest spread over my body. "Wesley was cool about it. I've obviously loosened up since then with the love scenes I've done on movies but that is how I felt at the time. "I would also bring my mother to my film sets. I made no apologies for that. My family is all I have. "I wasn't one of those pretty girls, growing up. I was very tomboyish and quite tough. That toughness has kept me going. "As my mother said, right at the very start: "Fame never lasts for ever." "I remember when I was doing Monster-In-Law, with Jane Fonda. She came on the set and Mum got on so well with her. I have a beautiful photograph of the two of them together. "For me, strength and confidence comes from my upbringing. "My mum taught me that I could do anything I wanted to do - even be President of the United States. My sisters feel exactly the same about life. "I now want to be as good a mum to my children as my mother was to me."