Jennifer Lopez's children don't get excited when she's on TV as they'd rather watch cartoons.

The singer-and-actress has three-year-old twins Max and Emme with her estranged husband Marc Anthony.

She is a judge on the singing contest American Idol, and is currently filming her second season of the show. She loves the job, but her children aren't so impressed.

"They do [watch,] but they really don't. They'll see it for a second and go, Oh, mommy,'" she explained. "And then they'll go watch Dora the Explorer, or whatever something else."

Jennifer is joined on the judging panel by Randy Jackson and Steven Tyler.

She enjoys working with the men but thought carefully about signing on for another series. Jennifer initially didn't realise what an emotional toll American Idol would take on her.

"You ask a fighter right after the fight if they're ever going to fight again and they're like, No, never!'" she told Access Hollywood. "You need to go a few months to recuperate. [Last season] was a rollercoaster ride in the sense that I'd never done live television. That was a first for me, but it wasn't just live TV, it was everything I was doing with it."

Jennifer split from Marc last year and is now dating her backing dancer Casper Smart.

The break-up was seemingly amicable, with the former partners working together on a new reality TV show called Q'Viva!

Appearing on Late Show this week, Jennifer attempted to tell host David Letterman what went wrong in their union.

"Communication It's just like you're talking and you don't agree on something and then you're like, 'Oh be quiet!'" she giggled.

"Marc would say be quiet to you?" David asked.

"No!" she quickly interjected.