Janet Jackson is opening up about her relationship with Justin Timberlake following their highly controversial 2004 Super Bowl Halftime Show performance.
Jackson was performing alongside Timberlake when she suffered her infamous “wardrobe malfunction,” exposing her breast when her fellow performer grabbed her and a piece of her outfit came off while they were singing his hit “Rock Your Body.”
Speaking on the two-night Lifetime and A&E documentary event, “Janet,” Jackson revealed that she has no hard feelings with Timberlake after all these years.
“Honestly, this whole thing was blown way out of proportion. And, of course, it was an accident that should not have happened, but everyone is looking for someone to blame and that’s got to stop,” she said.
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Janet Jackson and Justin Timberlake performs during the half-time show at Super Bowl XXXVIII.
(Kevin Mazur/WireImage)
“Justin and I are very good friends, and we will always be very good friends,” she continued. “We spoke just a few days ago. He and I have moved on, and it’s time for everyone else to do the same.”
People magazine notes that Jackson faced immense scrutiny at the time over the live TV mishap. Her music was blacklisted from radio stations and TV channels for a time. Meanwhile, Timberlake’s record sales spiked significantly, and he largely avoided any blame.
Despite the apparent unfairness in the way each artist was treated after the incident, Jackson said Timberlake did indeed try to take some of the burden off of her at the time.
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Janet Jackson spoke about her relationship with Justin Timberlake after the 2004 Super Bowl Halftime Show.
(Photo by Anthony Kwan/Getty Images)
“We talked once and [Justin] said, ‘I don’t know if I should come out and make a statement,'” Janet said. “And I said, ‘Listen, I don’t want any drama for you. They’re aiming all of this at me.’ So I said, ‘If I were you, I wouldn’t say anything.'”
Timberlake addressed the situation in a 2018 interview with Beats 1’s Zane Lowe and admitted that he could have been better at dealing with the public backlash.
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Janet Jackson and Justin Timberlake at the 2004 Super Bowl Halftime Show.
(Kevin Mazur/WireImage)
“I don’t know that a lot of people know that. I don’t think it’s my job to do that because you value the relationships that you do have with people,” he said.
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Timberlake added: “I stumbled through it, to be quite honest. I had my wires crossed and it’s just something that you have to look back on and go like, ‘Okay, well you know, you can’t change what’s happened but you can move forward and learn from it.'”
