Jennifer Lopez on Vogue April 2012,

The 42-year-old superstar graces the cover of April Vogue and sat down  for an in-depth interview

with writer Jonathan Van Meter. Van Meter brought up Anthony ‘drinking cans of beer and chain-smoking Newports’ at a photo shoot with the fashion magazine seven years earlier, which Jennifer responded with: 'He’s still doing it! Look we are total opposites that way. I’m used to that from growing up where I did.  The men kind of drink beer and smoke cigarettes, and women kind of like…don’t. But those things were not the issue so much. It became about something else,' she added.  

'Without going into detail…it’s just really, really sad.  

'And look, we are still going through it, and it’s emotional sometimes and difficult.'

She added: 'We’re still friends – and we’re parents but it’s going to take time. It’s tough. 

'But for the most part, I feel very proud of the way we’re handling it. I really do. We are doing the best we can for the kids.'

Jennifer, who did the interview the day she appeared on the Ellen DeGeneres Show with Anthony, also explains that their split hasn't been as easy as it seems.

'What you saw today, on Ellen, it’s very dignified and trying to be above all the emotions and pain that come along with a divorce and a family breaking apart. This is grown-up stuff.  It’s real, serious, grown-up stuff.'

She told Van Meter that she wants to keep her romance with 24-year-old dancer Casper Smart private. She said: 'He’s adorable.  But you already see that. He’s a good egg.  I don’t want to talk about it too much.  It’s my private thing.'

However Lopez' manager Benny Medina broke ranks to explain why the singer fell for her much younger boyfriend Casper Smart.

The executive, who is godfather of his business partner and friend's twins, said it was the dance choreographer's magic hands that made her melt.

He told Vogue: "She’s not oblivious to her own reality right now, as in, 'Damn, I’m 42 with a 24-year-old. Why?' 

'We talked about it yesterday. She was just like, "It’s not even the age, Benny. It’s actually that I just came out of a relationship where I felt like I was kind of not getting what I needed.  And I’m open!'

So somebody who steps in right now and is actually touching me in a way – it’s very fertile ground!"

Medina continues,  'The thing that I always sort of wished is that she would give herself time to just naturally meet someone, instead of having obsessive guys pursue her. The ease with which that obsession becomes a relationship I think sometimes works against her ability to have a real meaningful relationship. And she never half does anything. When she commits to anything in her work, her life, or her relationships, she is in it.'

Read the rest of J-Lo's in-depth interview April 2012 issue of Vogue.