Lopez was born and raised in the South Bronx, New York City to Puerto Rican parents Guadalupe Rodríguez, a kindergarten Teacher, and David Lopez, a computer specialist. She has two siblings, Jennifer and Leslie. She received her primary and secondary education while growing up in the Bronx. After graduating from Preston High School in 1989, Lopez enrolled at the C.W. Post Campus of Long Island University, where she majored in Broadcasting and Communications.

During the late 1990s and early 2000s, she worked as a VH1 VJ for a short time with Kane and Rebecca Rankin. In 2000, she hosted a special in which she interviewed her sister, Jennifer, in which the two discussed their childhood as well as "J-Lo"'s rising music career. Some of J-Lo's music videos were played and her then-newest video, "Feelin' So Good," made its VH1 premiere during this special. During this time Lopez was also the morning news entertainment reporter for the WB11 in New York City, WPIX.

In 1993, Lopez was named in the "Who's Who Among American Hispanics." She won the 2001 Emmy Award for "Outstanding Morning News Program."

In 2002, she became the host of Style Network's GLOW, a cable TV show dealing with women's beauty issues, while working as an entertainment reporter at the same time. Lopez reported the latest entertainment news and stories on WNBC-TV, cable entertainment TV program E! News Live, and Spanish-language WNJU.

In 2003, Lopez became a DJ for WNEW-FM, with her boyfriend at the time, Chris Booker, a New York disc jockey and correspondent for Entertainment Tonight. In October 2003, she joined WCBS-TV as a part-time correspondent, after their show was canceled at WNEW-FM. In August 2004, Lopez was named anchor of WCBS' weekend morning show, making this her first news-anchor job. For unknown reasons, she had not been presented on-air television since early April 2006, and subsequently she left the employ of WCBS-TV officially in June 2006.

On July 29, 2006, Lopez debuted as the weekend co-anchor (with Mike Gilliam) on the News Corp-owned WWOR-TV's My 9 Weekend News at 10. They replaced the team of Cathleen Trigg, who departed the station, and Rolland Smith, who retired. Lopez moved to WNYW-TV's Good Day New York in 2007.and anchor of Fox 5 Live at 11am. Reid Lamberty joined her as co-anchor for the 5am hour and 11am hour on FOX 5. Lopez was replaced from WNYW-TV's Good Day New York by former CNN Headline News anchor Christina Park, and after returning to WWOR and her previous role she left television news altogether after the station ended weekend newscasts.

Lopez has dated radio/television personality Chris Booker. They met in early 2002 at WNEW-FM in New York City, where they worked as co-hosts for the morning show. In early 2005 the couple separated. On August 28, 2008, Lopez and her boyfriend Adam Goldfried had a daughter named Lucie Wren Lopez-Goldfried.

Lopez was employed by WCBS Radio until August 2013 as a news anchor. She left to work for her sister Jennifer Lopez in LA. After this one-year hiatus, Lopez returned there in the summer of 2014.