Jennifer Lopez calls her children "the coconuts".

The 'American Idol' judge gave three-year-old Max and Emme - her twins with estranged husband Marc Anthony - the nickname when they were babies because she felt they resembled the hairy fruit.

She explained: "The twins are so good, they're about to turn four. They're my coconuts, that comes from when they were little and in their cribs and started growing hair, it looked just like a coconut to me, they both look like coconuts.

"I have this beautiful necklace which was given to me at Christmas, there are two coconuts and their initials on it."

Jennifer - who is now dating dancer Casper Smart - also revealed her former boyfriend P. Diddy gave her the best advice she has ever received when she was beginning her career, even if he didn't express his message very kindly.

She told TV talk show host Jay Leno: "I had a lot of mentors, Puffy aka Diddy now, when I first met him I was making my first album and he gave me a lot of insight into the music business, he helped me a lot.

"He did say one thing to me that was funny, I was recording music for my first album and I played a song for him and said, 'What do you think' and he said, 'I hate it. It's not good, it won't be a hit,' and I said, 'I love it', standing up for myself,' and he said, 'Good, you can listen to it in your living room because you're the only one.'

"It stayed with me because he's right - as an artist it's not just about touching you, everybody has to relate to it, that's the main thing so i really learned from that, even though he was tough with the message.

"[But] the song was still on the first album."