Did Jennifer Lopez Insure Her Butt for a Billion Dollars?

Singer, dancer, and actress Jennifer Lopez came to fame not only for her performances but also for her figure. Did she insure her greatest physical assets for a billion dollars? Her derriere attracted much admiration and attention in the press and online, becoming its own meme. Her dimensions may have been the inspiration for a surge in women seeking surgical implants to enhance their buttocks.

In 1999, tabloids on both sides of the Atlantic, The Sun in London and the New York Post in the US, ran articles claiming that Jennifer Lopez had indemnified her body—her entire body, please note—to the tune of $1 billion. Although pound-for-pound in these reports the singer's breasts fetched a more generous appraisal than her butt ($100 million per breast vs. $300 million for legs and buttocks combined, according to the Post), it wasn't long before word on the street had it that the "abundant butt" alone was valued at a cool billion dollars.

Lopez has denied the stories, but her denials are short of categorical. "I don't know where they got it from," she said to reporters when questioned about the tabloid allegations in 1999. "When I heard the story I thought it was very funny."  Noncommittal as that was, her agent's response was also tepid and not even a denial: "At this time we cannot confirm or deny this information."

These statements ran under unequivocal headlines such as "Lopez Denies Insurance for $1 Billion" and "Lopez: I'm No Billion-Dollar Babe," so you might conclude that the singer and the publicist gave journalists the impression that the stories were not true.

The closest to a straightforward public disavowal appeared in an August 2000 interview with BeatBoxBetty.com in which Lopez was asked to name the wildest rumors she had heard about herself. "The craziest," she said, "was the billion-dollar-butt one. It was on the front page of the paper, here in New York. I happened to be in New York that week. It was funny." "So you haven't insured your body?" pressed the interviewer. "I think that's what I'm trying to say here," Lopez replied.

Business Insider ran a story in 2010 listing 20 celebrities who allegedly insured body parts, including Jennifer Lopez. The word allegedly is significant, and similar lists get circulated and reproduced in many places online. A more credible list comes from insurer Lloyd's. They list the following:

• Legs: Betty Grable was the first to make news about insuring her famous legs. Others include dancers Rudolph Nureyev and Michael Flatley and soccer's David Beckham.
• Breasts: Dolly Parton insured her ample bosom.
• Hands: Guitarist Keith Richards of the Rolling Stones
• Taste buds: Food critic Egon Ronay
• Smile or teeth: Ken Dodd, and America Ferrera, whose smile was insured by Aquafresh White Trays
• Mustache: Australian cricket player Merv Hughes