All the Times Jennifer Lopez and Alex Rodriguez Have Gushed Over Each Other

On approaching Rodriguez 12 years after they first met

"It was just one of those things where you feel compelled to do something you wouldn't normally do," Lopez told Vanity Fair. "I almost yelled out 'Alex,' but I am the shyest person when it comes to things like that … I could literally just have walked away. But I walk over and tap him on the shoulder and say 'Hey.'"

On their chance encounter

In fact, the reason Lopez was so nervous to pluck up the courage to talk to Rodriguez that day was because she was dressed as her character from Shades of Blue.

"I had just come from a promo for my show, Shades of Blue, so I'm dressed like my character, like a boy — Timberlands, jeans, curly short hair. He looks at me. I say, 'It's Jennifer.' He says, 'You look so beautiful,'" she said.

On how their first date went

"He was sitting there in his white shirt, very confident and manly, but then he was just so talkative! I think he thought I was going to be this loud person, but I'm not. I just listen," Lopez said to Vanity Fair. "So he's talking, talking about his plans, about how he had just retired from baseball, about how he saw himself getting married again, all these things you wouldn't normally talk about on a first date. I don't know if he thought it was a date. I thought it was a date."

The moment Rodriguez found out Lopez was single

During that awkward date-or-no-date, Lopez finally dropped the bomb that she was single. At that point, "I had to get up and go re-adjust my thoughts," Rodriguez said. "I went to the bathroom and got enough courage to send her a text."

"So I'm sitting there and he's walking back, and I get a text," Lopez continues. "It says ... 'You look sexy [as f—].'"

On how they 'make each other better'

"I'm in a good relationship. I feel like I can say that for the first time — I don't know — maybe ever," Lopez told HOLA! USA. "And not that I didn't have great relationships, full of love and adventure, but this is the first relationship I've been where I feel like we really make each other better. We complement each other, and there's really pure, true love. Just wanting to support the other person and make them happy. So there's a different selflessness in the love that's beautiful and different. And healthy!"

On why their relationship works

"If you want to be together, you are together … Our kids get along really well, we're both from New York, we're both Latin, we're both in our forties, we're really enjoying life, but she really is one of the most impressive and smartest human beings I have ever met," Rodriguez told Extra.

On what makes Rodriguez a catch

"I feel really lucky right now," Lopez told Extra. "He's a loving father. He's a generous human being with his family, with his friends, with me. He's caring and sweet and capable and responsible and just all the beautiful things you would want a man to be."

On what Rodriguez's daughters think of Lopez

As it turns out, A-Rod's daughters, Ella and Natasha, admire J.Lo to the max.

"She is such a great role model. They look at her like she's the Messiah … When they're in Las Vegas, I don't think they leave Jennifer's side," he told PEOPLE.

On what Lopez looks forward to after her shows

Rodriguez frequently beams with pride stage-side at Lopez's concerts, and she revealed in an Instagram caption of a photo of the two of them that his being there is her favorite part of the night.

"Favorite part of my night last night… first face I see coming off stage," she wrote alongside heart emojis and the hashtag, "amor amor amor."

On being kindred spirits

"I understand him in a way that I don't think anyone else could, and he understands me in a way that no one else could ever," Lopez told Vanity Fair. "In his 20s, he came into big success with the biggest baseball contract [at the time]. I had a No. 1 movie and a No. 1 album and made history. We both had ups and downs and challenges in our 30s, and by our 40s we'd both been through so much. And more importantly than anything, we had both done a lot of work on ourselves."

She continued, "The most impressive thing to me was how he did pick himself up and take that opportunity to make himself a better person. The hardest times prove who you are. That's what I love and admire the most about Alex. He doesn't let anything beat him. He just comes back stronger."