Jennifer Lopez and Marc Anthony were the picture perfect family as they frolicked on the beach with their adorable twins yesterday. Anthony joined Lopez in Malibu as she worked on a Gucci photo shoot with two-year-old Max and Emme.

Despite having been married for six years the couple looked like newlyweds, sneaking kisses during breaks and strolling the beach hand in hand. When they weren't locking lips the love struck singers played the role of devoted parents, paddling in the sea and swinging their children around in the air.

Lopez is clearly a loving, hands on mother and looked a far cry from the demanding diva she has often been portrayed as. She credits the birth of her children with changing her: 'There's nothing as huge as giving birth to another human being and having to be responsible for another life,' she says. 'There's you before kids and there's you after kids - and they're not the same you.

'[Parenthood] totally changes your perspective on everything. You don't come first anymore, there's someone else you care about more than yourself.' Lopez says she loves having twins, and the only thing she regrets is that she didn't do it earlier: 'I was in denial that I was even pregnant,' she tells Parade. 'So when I found out I was having twins I kind of just laughed and went, "like, of course this would happen."

I started giggling and Marc started crying and it was joyous. The best part about having two babies at once, a son and a daughter, is mostly everything. You're just having that feeling of love inside you all the time and motherhood is such a fulfilling place to be. I kind of wish it would of happened to me earlier in life.'

Before finally finding love with Anthony, Lopez suffered through a string of highly public break-ups and romance woes. The 40-year-old has been married twice, to Cuban-born waiter Ojani Noa and backup dancer, Cris Judd. In addition she had a two-and-a-half-year relationship with hip hop mogul Sean 'Puff Daddy' Combs and was engaged to be married to actor, Ben Affleck. Lopez and Anthony were married on June 5 2004 in a secret ceremony at her home attended by just a handful of close friends and family.

They renewed their vows in Las Vegas in October 2008 at Caesar's Palace Forum penthouse. Lopez says her two failed attempts at matrimony have made her able to appreciate how happy she is with Anthony: 'I've [gotten married] three times,' she says. 'And two times were, you know, not good for me or for them.

'I'm going to take it seriously, we are going to go through hard times, but we're going to work through them, and that's what we to do. Everything is great about my marriage. First and foremost we love each other. 'We honestly believe we make each other better people, we force each other to be better, and I think in a relationship that's how it should be. You shouldn't be with somebody if he makes you less than who you are.'