Here’s what Lopez, 49, has recently come to realize: that J. Lo — the artist, the brand, the astonishingly dewy face and buffed physique — is even more valuable than the entertainment industry has given her credit for. Which is not to say she is after a bigger paycheck, exactly — although as the chorus of her recent single with Cardi B and DJ Khaled goes, “Yo quiero dinero.” But like a lot of people in her world who have experienced Hollywood inequity, what she is demanding, vocally all of a sudden, is her fair share. “I want what I deserve,” she said.

To hear her tell it, that stance has been hard-won. Over the last few years, as a divorced parent, she took painstaking stock of her trajectory, and decided she could level up.

“Understanding my own worth and value as a person made me understand it differently in my work, as well,” she said. It “has been a long journey for me. And so I’m very proud to stand in the shoes of, yes, I think I do deserve more. All artists do deserve more. We are the scarce asset. They can’t do anything without us. They have no product. So we have to understand that.”

That Lopez now openly mentions private equity as breezily as other actresses discuss character development may be thanks to Rodriguez, 43. The Yankee-turned-sports commentator is a longtime investor with a sizable real estate portfolio spread across 14 states — A-Rod Inc. He had organized several of her meetings that day, and some for himself.