Just call Jennifer Lopez‘s 10-year-old daughter, Emme Muñiz, Miss Independent! During a new interview with U.K. magazine Red, the singer gushed about her little girl and noted that Emme once said she wasn’t sure she ever wanted to get married.

“My daughter is eons above me already,” Jennifer, 49, said. “She said to me when she was 8, ‘I don’t know if I want to get married, Mommy.’ And when she said that I was like, ‘YES!’ Because I’ve been teaching her to love herself since she was little.’“

Jennifer recalled growing up with “fairy tale” views about marriage and remembered thinking that if she had a husband then she would be happy. ”‘A Prince is going to save you,’ ‘Wait for true love and that’s what makes you happy,’ ‘If you’re not married, you’re not happy,’” Jennifer said she heard as a little girl. But now, she knows that you don’t have to be married to find true happiness.

“Everyone wants a fairy tale. They all want a romantic comedy, a happy ending. We all do,” she previously explained to USA Today about her fans pressuring her to tie the knot with her boyfriend, Alex Rodriguez. “But it’s not a movie, even if you see us on Instagram or on the shows.” After J.Lo previously went through three divorces from Ojani Noa, Cris Judd and Marc Anthony, she’s decided to now take things slow with Alex. “We’re happy,” she admitted. “We’re taking it day-by-day. And it’s great.”

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The star also recently told People that she enjoys her life with Alex, 43, and wouldn’t want to change a thing. “The exciting part of our love is that we’re both very aware of how lucky we are to have found each other,” she said. “We love each other and we love our life together.”