Jennifer Lopez Confirms She’s Leaving ‘American Idol’1 Day After Steven Tyler Announces Departure

'I honestly feel that the time has come that I have to get back to doing the other things that I do that I put kind of on hold because I love ‘Idol’ so much,' Lopez said Friday morning
Jennifer Lopez is the latest judge to flee “American Idol.”The Bronx-born singer made the announcement Friday during “On Air with Ryan Seacrest,” one day after fellow judge Steven Tyler also confirmed he’s stepping away from the show.
“I honestly feel that the time has come that I have to get back to doing the other things that I do that I put kind of on hold because I love ‘Idol’ so much,” Lopez, 42, tells Seacrest, who also hosts the Fox singing competition.
“You have a lot of other responsibilities, and a lot of other things that you do and you have to pay attention to that too,” Lopez adds. “I could keep just doing ‘Idol’ for the rest of my life, but that would be giving up a bunch of other things. We had an amazing run.”
She admits it was a rough decision to made.
“It’s just been a really long thought process,” Lopez says. “I’ve been telling the absolute truth in the sense that I really have been torn since we spoke about it, even before the finale, like what are we going to do next year.”

Jennifer Lopez performs onstage during 'American Idol' in May. (Mark Davis/Getty Images)
But Lopez pointed out she had originally only signed on to do one year of the show, but stayed for two.
“I didn’t know I would be so moved emotionally by working on the show and working with the contestants,” Lopez says. “It was just such a lovely surprise in my life to do it.”
The show’s third judge, Randy Jackson, may also be on his way out.
He plans to leave his judging job, and move into a mentoring role on “Idol,” a source told Us Weekly.
Mariah Carey is in serious talks to step into one of the empty judge’s seats, according to the magazine.
Lopez left open the chance to make appearances on the show in the future.
“I feel like no matter what you guys need over there, I’m always going to be here,” she told Seacreast. “If you call me and say, ‘We need you to come for the first show,’ I’m like, ‘Yes ok!’ ‘We need you to come and be a mentor.’ ‘Alight.’ I feel like there’s just that tie there.”