Jennifer Lopez has amassed millions of dollars and millions of fans. She has dated and married A-list celebrity men. She has given birth to twins. It all sounds like a charmed life, right? In her new tell-all memoir True Love, J-Lo opens up about her personal struggles. Ms. Lopez has been married three times. The first two each lasted less than a year, while the third marriage lasted more than seven years. To her credit, Lopez writes at some length about the naïve, emotions-based view of the meaning of love she embraced for most of her adult life.

[Each marriage had one thing in common]: They all had a passionate intensity that I mistook, every time, for my happily ever after. Reality is hard to see through the adrenaline rush of a new love. It's easy to project your hopes and dreams onto a relationship when it's new and exciting.

I was lucky—or unlucky—enough to be with men who were really intense about their feelings for me. They did some crazy things, and I mean crazy things. Like releasing hundreds of doves outside my window, buying me a Bentley or two, giving me rare diamonds, throwing me giant parties, or sending me private jets to sweep me off somewhere … And I loved it. It was intoxicating when it was happening. When a man does something like that, it's easy to think, Wow, look how much he loves me! But passion is a pendulum that swings both ways. As beautiful as it can be it can also get very intense … How can you turn your back on a love so big, so amazing, so real? The problem is, it wasn't real love; it was passion. I just didn't know the difference yet.