Janet Jackson

By John Stokes

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Janet Jackson is attractive, talented, and valued in her own right—outside of her brother’s most famous and infamous of talents. In the same respect, Janet Jackson has had a fair share of the negative spotlight, making some wonder if maybe the home life and the rigors of a driven father aren’t to be implicated in the strangeness that is the Jackson curse'

After many cutesy roles on such TV shows as Good Times and Diff’rent Strokes, Janet Jackson, then eighteen, married James DeBarge, Motown group DeBarge’s singer, in 1985. The marriage was annulled a year later (though they stayed together as man and wife, reportedly, for only three months).

Unverified (and denied) rumors hold that Janet Jackson had a daughter in 1988, gave her to older sister Rebbie to raise, and continued to deny and even out-and-out state she has no children.

In 1991, after numerous top twenty hits, after successful switching of producers (from her father to Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis), after appearances and performances on TV shows and in movies such as Poetic Justice (with the late Tupak Shakur her co-star), and after clandestine and intermittent affairs with former dancer Rene Elizondo, Janet Jackson secretly married Rene. The marriage stayed a secret until about a year after it ended in divorce, reportedly in 1999.

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And then in 2004, with numerous hits under her, er, belt, thirty-eight-year-old Janet Jackson was involved in the infamous “wardrobe malfunction” incident at the Super Bowl XXXVIII: while singing duet with Justin Timberlake, his song “Rock Your Body,” at the seemingly well-timed moment Timberlake sang, “…gonna have you naked by the end of this song,” Timberlake gave a yank to her top that yanked at the eyeballs of 70,000 in-person fans and 30 million more watching at home. If the wardrobe was supposed to function, just the coat flap would have come loose, baring the red bustier; but many wonder if that was the intent, why Janet was wielding a nipple shield (a sun-shaped design that actually shields nothing and reveals all)…if no one was meant to see nipple.

This stunt (likely promotional at the least) in turn got Janet banned (') from the Grammies—or uninvited, and had Grammy techs at the ready with five-second delay features lest there be any “off-color” activity or commentary (which, of course, has NEVER occurred before at the Grammy Award ceremonies, now has it').

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Other speculation over the years has had Janet as a bi-sexual with an insatiable appetite, Janet Jackson as battling depression and abusing drugs, and Janet as emotionally and mentally unstable. Considering beloved brother Michael’s controversies and calamities, and given the subtle commentaries and lyrics that include mention of abusive childhoods, then, it is remarkable that Janet has not done more than keep a few secrets and show a little flesh.