Jennifer Lopezhas made no secret of the fact that shelovesbeing a mom — and the more the merrier.
Crediting her 11-year-old twinsEmme Maribel and Maximilian “Max” Davidwith teaching her the meaning of true love, she has also embraced being a supportive presence in the lives of fiancéAlex Rodriguez‘s two daughters:Ella Alexander, 11, andNatasha Alexander, 15.
“We all just grow closer,” Lopez tells PEOPLE in this week’s cover story of her happy blended family with the MLB legend, 44. “When we got engaged, they were super happy … they know there is nothing but love for them always.”
So would theHustlersstar consider expanding their brood? “I want to!” Lopez, 50, tells PEOPLE in the issue, where she and three other stars are celebrated asPEOPLE’s People of the Year.
“I don’t know that it’s in God’s planbut I would like to try. I’m so open to it!” she adds.
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Jennifer Lopez.Miller Mobley

Jennifer Lopez wearing a Michael Costello design.Miller Mobley

For Lopez, raising Emme and Max, her kids with ex-husbandMarc Anthony, changed the trajectory of just about everything in her life.
“They made my life so much better [and] them being born led me in a different direction,” she says.
“I was being careless with myself, and my heart,” Lopez adds. “The kids kind of snapped me right [out] of it because I feltso much responsibility and love for them. Love first and responsibility second. I just knew I had to be better.”
George Pimentel/Getty

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And despite juggling a dizzying schedule and enjoying a banner 2019 in her career, Lopez says the kids are her and Rodriguez’s priority and “our No. 1 job.”
For more fromJennifer Lopez, pick up the latest issue ofPEOPLE, on newsstands Friday.
source: people.com