Why You Won't See Alex Rodriguez in Jennifer Lopez's “Halftime” Documentary

In Jennifer Lopez’s new documentary, “Halftime,” the multihyphenate lets fans in to about seven action-packed months in her life, from July 2019 to February 2020. The documentary begins with her 50th birthday in July 2019 and goes all the way to her Super Bowl halftime performance in 2020. That time also covers the release of her film “Hustlers,” her Golden Globes nomination, and her Oscar snub. At the end, the film jumps forward to January 2021, when Lopez performed at the presidential inauguration.

The documentary can be an odd watch for people who’ve followed Lopez’s personal life closely because while all this was going on, her then-fiancé, Alex Rodriguez, was glued to her side. He celebrated at her lavish birthday party, attended the Golden Globes with her, and posted many behind-the-scenes videos of her Super Bowl rehearsals. But in “Halftime,” Rodriguez isn’t shown as present during any of these moments. It seems that any footage of him with J Lo or alone was left on the cutting room floor.

Lopez briefly addresses her relationship history in the film. The doc shows a brief shot of Lopez and Rodriguez walking outside with paparazzi taking photos, alongside images of Lopez and her other exes. “I’ve lived in the public eye. One of the things I’m proud of is that I’m able to hold it together in front of everybody without anybody knowing how I feel. Like even now, I’m not gonna get into what my relationships were like,” Lopez says over the footage. “But in how it relates to me and the journey that I’ve been on, I had to learn that the key was not so much about other people but about yourself. It’s about being your own keeper and not looking for somebody to give you a home but making your own home.”

It seems Lopez didn’t want her documentary to touch on her relationships at all, though her current fiancé, Ben Affleck, does appear briefly in an interview in the footage. But it’s odd for a documentary about a certain time in Lopez’s life to basically ignore a relationship that was a major part of her world during that era. Lopez hasn’t otherwise addressed why Rodriguez was cut from the documentary completely. The pair split in April 2021 amid cheating allegations.

Rodriguez hasn’t commented on the film. According to his Instagram, ARod is currently in Capri, Italy, with his daughters. He did post about a documentary on his Instagram Stories, but he was referring to “The Captain,” which is about his former Yankees teammate Derek Jeter. Coincidentally, that doc, like “Halftime,” also premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival.