Jennifer Lopez empathizes with Britney

NEW YORK - It seems like a lifetime ago that Jennifer Lopez was dating Ben Affleck as a paparazzi frenzy surrounded the couple. Now, happily married to Marc Anthony, Lopez has mostly been left alone, but as she told “Access Hollywood’s” Shaun Robinson, Jennifer can understand what Britney Spears is going through.

“I would assume somebody like you can empathize with what she is going though because of the intense media pressure,” Robinson asked Lopez.

“Absolutely,” Jennifer replied. “Scrutiny — very, very difficult.”

“What does it feel like? Like when it was at its most intense what did that feel like?” Shaun asked the couple.

“It feels disgusting,” Anthony replied. “It feels disgusting, period! You feel like prey. You feel like a slab of meat.”

When Lopez and Anthony first started dating, they couldn’t go anywhere without being followed. Now they live their life with much more freedom from the lens.

“You can (put a stop to it),” Lopez told “Access.” “Actually, he helped me with how to do that and you don’t entertain it.”

“You don’t play that game,” Anthony added. “You don’t feed the beast!”

“Feeding the beast” is how Anthony and Lopez refer to over-aggressive paparazzi who stake out their home.

“If I am going to go out to the gym, I’ll make sure they don’t get a picture,” Lopez said. “If they’re gonna hang out at my house all day they’re not gonna make any money. They’re gonna have to go down the road to somebody else’s house.”

“Why,” Robinson asked. “Because you take a different exit?”

“Yeah,” Lopez replied. “We are creative with how we do it. They just won’t get a shot, however we can do that. People keep buying the pictures. It’s a machine!”

A machine with an elaborate network of spies.

“(They have) this whole network of walkie-talkies and blocking streets,” Anthony said. “Unbelievable!”

The couple is committed to their 3-year marriage and their upcoming En Concierto Tour, kicking off in Atlantic City, Sept. 29.

And did we mention Anthony’s tattoo?

Anthony has one on his wrist.

“He’s had that for a while,” Lopez said of the tattoo he had done of her name, during the first year of their marriage.

“It’s so I can see it. And when I’m like that on stage ya’ll can read it,” Anthony noted.

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