Jennifer Lopez’s Sisters: All About About Leslie and Lynda

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Jennifer Lopez grew up with sisters Leslie Ann Lopez and Lynda Lopez in the Bronx. Nicole Briese is a contributing writer at PEOPLE. She has been working at PEOPLE since 2022. Her work has previously appeared in Us Weekly, Brides and MTV News.

Jennifer Lopez may be a household name, but to her sisters, Leslie Ann Lopez and Lynda Lopez, she’s just “sis.” “She’s a famous movie star to all of you, but not to me,” Leslie told Oprah Winfrey in 2002, adding, “She’s still my sister. Still my little pain in the butt sister.”

Born to Guadalupe “Lupe” Rodriguez and David Lopez on July 24, 1969, Jennifer is the middle child of the family. She arrived two years after Leslie, who was born on Nov. 20, 1967, and two years before Lynda, who was born on June 14, 1971.

The sisters have remained extremely close over the years, with Jennifer and Lynda even attending a 2023 Met Gala afterparty together in matching black gowns. “When I moved out to L.A., one of the things I missed most was my friendship with my sisters, especially Lynda,” Jennifer told Arianna Huffington in a 2015 interview.

So who are Jennifer Lopez’s sisters? Keep reading to find out everything there is to know about Leslie Ann and Lynda Lopez.

They grew up in the Bronx

Jennifer, Leslie and Lynda grew up in the Bronx neighborhood of New York City with “Lupe” and David. According to the Marry Me star, the three Lopez girls shared a bed, as the young couple, who reportedly split in 1999, couldn’t afford a larger space.

“She was a young mom,” Jennifer told ET in 2020 of Lupe, who had all three girls by the time she was 25. “She got married when she was 20. She had my sister when she was 21.”

Jennifer added: “We all grew up together. It was like living with a teenager, to be honest.”

Despite Lupe’s young age, Jennifer and Leslie agree that their mother encouraged a strong sense of independence in all three of her daughters. “She instilled in us to be self-sufficient, not depend on anybody and just make our own way in the world,” Jennifer said in a 2013 interview with the United Nations Foundation.

Leslie is a music teacher

Jennifer’s not the only one with pipes in the family: Her big sister Leslie has been singing since she was 16 years old. Having played the role of Julie in a high school rendition of the Rodgers and Hammerstein play, Carousel, Leslie went on to study opera and musical theater. She has been a music educator for more than two decades, according to her bio for Choral Composer/Conductor Collective, a choral group of which she is a member.

Lynda is an Emmy-winning journalist

Lynda, who worked in radio broadcasting before becoming a VJ for VH1’s The Daily One and later, an on-air news correspondent, won an Emmy award for outstanding single morning news program for her work as a co-anchor on WB 11 Morning News.

Jennifer was the Lopez sister “ringleader”

Leslie revealed in a 2002 interview with Winfrey that when it came to Lopez family shenanigans, Jennifer was the mastermind. “As a kid, Jen was the ringleader,” Leslie revealed. “Any plan that was concocted was usually her idea” — including the time Jennifer jumped out of the window of their tri-level Bronx home to win a water fight. “Whose idea was it to jump out the window onto that roof? It was Jennifer’s. … Who nailed me from the roof?” Leslie asked.

“That would be Jen,” Lynda conceded.

According to the youngest Lopez sister, her older siblings also used to team up against her. “When we were kids, the two of them would beat up on me,” Lynda once revealed to Jennifer’s Shades of Blue costar Ray Liotta. “‘Cause I’m the youngest.”

Jennifer was quick to defend herself, adding, “We were all very close in age. She’s a year and a half younger than me, okay?”

Jennifer and Lynda are best friends

While Jennifer is tight with both of her sisters, she told Huffington that she and Lynda have a special bond. “We’ve always kind of been very close,” The Wedding Planner star said of their relationship. “We’ve just always kind of been best friends.”

Lynda, who reportedly worked as Jennifer’s executive assistant on the set of her 2019 film Hustlers, called her big sister “somebody I could lean on.” “I always felt like I had someone there to take care of me,” she told Huffington of the “Waiting for Tonight” singer.

She also posted a super sweet birthday tribute to Jennifer via Instagram in July 2021, which read, “My original BFF, I love you more than words can say. Not only are you the most fun, and my ride or die, You light the world and show me what’s possible and are my inspiration always.”

Lynda ended her message: “Sometimes I can’t believe I was so lucky that God put the beautiful soul that is you into my life.”

Jennifer’s twins and Linda’s kids are six months apart

The two women also have a connection in their kids, who were born less than a year apart. Jennifer’s twins with ex-husband Marc Anthony, Maximilian “Max” David Muniz and Emme Maribel Muniz, arrived to the former couple in February 2008.

Lynda’s daughter Lucie Wren Lopez-Goldfried, meanwhile, was born in August 2008 to her and ex-boyfriend Adam Goldfried.

”During that time [Lynda and I] started talking every day, sometimes staying up until the wee hours of the night discussing how having children would change our lives and what we were going to do,” the Selena actress has said of their shared pregnancies, per the The Arizona Republic.

Both Jennifer and Lynda have since split from Anthony and Goldfried. Jennifer finalized her divorce from the “I Need to Know” singer in 2014 and remarried Ben Affleck in August 2022.

Leslie sang in a movie

Like her famous sister, Leslie has also appeared on the big screen: The teacher was credited as an opera singer in the 2021 film, The Man in the Attic.

The musician also appeared in a short documentary by her child Brendon Scholl called Draw with Me about their experience using art as an outlet while navigating their journey as a trans nonbinary individual.

Lynda and Jennifer teamed up to found a charity foundation

In 2009, Lynda and Jennifer founded the now-defunct Lopez Family Foundation. “The programs are …really concentrated on health for women and children and newborns,” Lynda told Arianna Huffington in 2015.

According to the journalist, the sisters’ first program was for a telemedicine satellite system in Puerto Rico that connected its patients with doctors at the Children’s Hospital in Los Angeles. “They can get] genetic disease diagnosed, treated, cured—those mothers are getting that care so that they have peace of mind,” Lynda said of the program.

She added: “We just wanted to give that to more women and more mothers.”

Jennifer publicly supported Leslie’s child Brendon when they came out as transgender

Jennifer introduced the world to Leslie’s second-born child, Brendon, in a July 2017 Instagram post that included their preferred gender-neutral pronouns and lauded their accomplishment of being chosen to represent their school at the Global Young Leaders Conference in Washington D.C. “Brendan is strong and smart and loving and…obviously a leader!!,” Jennifer wrote at the time, adding, “Titi Jenn loves you!”

Brendan, who was honored by The Trevor Project in 2018 for their documentary short, Draw with Me, told The New York Post how much Jennifer’s post meant to them, saying, “When I saw the post, I was smiling like a complete doofus.” They added, “I was so happy that other family members support my identity and support how I feel.”

Leslie told the publication how strong Brendon is, stating, “There were times when they didn’t want to be alive—when they believed it was easier not to be here. I’m proud of them for being true to themselves.”

Lynda edited a book about Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

In 2020, Lynda edited and wrote the introduction for a book of essays about Representative Alexandria Oscasio-Cortez called AOC: The Fearless Rise and Powerful Resonance of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. “I was fascinated with her from the minute that I found out about her during her primary run,” Lynda told Emperifolla.

She added that Ocasio-Cortez’s prominence is “a very big deal for those of us who grew up and did not see many people like her who were in power or elected or are leaders.”