J-Lo told Vanity Fair magazine that she split with the Latin heartthrob because he was not treating her in the 'right way' and she had enough self-respect to 'walk away'.
Lopez and Anthony, who have three-year-old twins together, announced last month that they were ending their marriage after seven years.
'To understand that someone is not good for you, or that the person is just not treating you in the right way, or that he is not doing the right thing for himself, if I stay, then I am not doing the right thing for me,' Lopez, 42, told Vanity Fair.
'I love myself enough to walk away from that.'
And Lopez, who has now been married three times, says she is not ruling out taking the plunge again in the future.
'Sometimes it doesn't work and that is sad,' she said. 'But I remain an eternal optimist about love, I believe in love. It is still my biggest dream.'