Can I ask something about Michael? Do you mind?
Sure it's ok.
About the oxygen tank.
Listen, they say he has it at home.
I haven't seen it yet, so I don't know about that oxygen tank.
Now, there's one brother you have been
compared to most of all, that is, of course, Michael.
What's he really like? I guess, is the big question.
He's an introvert,
very quiet,
shy. We read a lot here in Australia about
things such as his cosmetic surgery. The fact that he wishes to buy
John Merrick the Elephant Man's bones, and also the fact that he has an oxygen
tent so that he can go into that each day so he can live longer.
Any of those stories true?
They take everything to the extreme.
When you have a star such as he, they
make it much, much, much bigger than what it is.
As far as all of it, I don't see anything wrong with anything that he's done.
He's not strange at all. They try to, you know,
make like he's in his own world, he knows nothing
of what's going on around him.
I mean, it's totally untrue.
And he's not strange at all. He's a very, very shy, very quiet.
A lot of people perceive that in their own way.
Michael is, if we believe what we what we read, he's still very close to you.
I mean, what guidance has he given you through your career?
Has he been there as like a sounding board?
Sure. He gives me lots of advice and
we talk on the phone a lot, a lot of encouragement and teaches me all the time.
To be careful. Certain things.
My whole family.
He's had a difficult time over the years within the press and all that sort of stuff.
What have you learned from that in terms of building an image? Its the bad that comes along
with the good, which is the success, and everyone has to deal with it, you know.
It's not all so glamorous like everyone does think it is.
It was just a ton of bricks that was
lifted off my shoulders after he did the Oprah interview.
I was really happy, very proud of him.
I felt that the public got a chance to see that he's human.
He's not crazy.
A lot of people were saying that he was gay.
Not that there's anything wrong with being gay because I have a lot of gay friends.
But that he's not. That he isn't trying
to be something that he's not. He's not trying to deny his race and that he's
proud of who he is and what he stands for, and about his
his disease. Which I knew and I knew that my mother knew.
But that was it. I was promised.
I promised I would never tell ever anyone.
I never even told my other brothers and sisters.
I didn't know if they knew or not.
So many times I just wanted to say, you don't understand.
And I wish I could tell them.
But that's so personal. That's his business.
And only he can do that.
And he didn't give any interviews. What makes it so difficult for me,
is I'm the one in the family that does, I think probably if not the only one.
But does the majority of the interviews. Does the most interviews, I should say.
So I'm the one that gets kind of bombarded
with all the questions about the family.
I want to ask you about Michael.
Tell me your position, your take on the whole thing.
Has it been stressful for you?
How do you deal with it?
Yeah, I mean, it's just been stressful for the entire family.
But I can't imagine. It's nowhere near
the stress that I'm sure he's going through, obviously.
But I mean, he's completely innocent.
I think it's just a bunch of B.S.
Very stupid, just very ignorant. What's going on, really.
I stopped watching the news.
I kind of separate myself at times, and I have to or else I'll go crazy.
And I'm trying to do this at the same time.
There's a lot of, not to sound selfish,
but there's a lot of things that have to be done every day with the tour.
At the same time, try to keep up with everything that's going on
in my family is kind of difficult.
Michael paid the father of the boy millions.
Some people take that as an admission of guilt.
But according to Janet, Michael was trying to say, look, leave me alone.
I'm sick of your crap. You're after money.
You've said it, here.
Get out of my life.
Now, if this really went on.
Do you think a father would accept
money? That would make it OK? That that would make everything all right?
I mean, it doesn't make any sense.
I know that if that were my son. I'm sorry.
I don't care if you gave me a billion dollars.
I want to see you either behind bars or dead for the rest of your life.
One of her other concerns has been the way her brother has been treated since
the 1993 accusations of child molestation. Proclaiming his innocence from day one.
She has always been one of his staunchest supporters.
I know that you've spoken about your hurt and anger, that people
chastise him and they talk about him being abnormal, this, that and the other.
How painful is that for you.
To pick up a tabloid, a newspaper and every five minutes he is in there? It's very disturbing.
I always say that if you just.
If you're given the chance to sit down one
on one and talk with him, he's just such an amazing individual.
He's just an amazing person. He's incredible.
He really is.
I'm not saying that just because he's my brother.
Because if he were an idiot, I'd say I'm not
happy with them. Exactly.
Just like I did my sister.
I think they
try to make my family out to be this incredibly dysfunctional family.
And it's disturbing because
my family is no different than any other family.
The only difference is that they're on television or
you see their faces in the paper or you you listen to the music on the radio.
That's the only difference.
Janet's recently recorded a duet with him and says there's a friendly rivalry.
I love him dearly.
I really do.
And I think he's the greatest there is, greatest of all time.
And it was wonderful working together
because we've never sang together before, until this song.
And was it nice for you to support him in that way?
Because history was a big album for him, let's face it, wasn't it?
It was getting rid of a lot of skeletons from his closet.
Yeah and he talked about a lot of things
that was just so upsetting for him, that had happened
and he needed to get that off his chest.
And that's basically what Scream was about.
He said, well, you know, with all the things that have gone on in my life.
I just wanna release some of that anger. And I've always been the supportive,
i feel, sister. When something is funky or there's
a tabloid saying this crap or this crap,
I've always been the one to try
and support him or anyone in my family, as much as possible when it comes to that.
It's really hard with the media. It is.
I mean, they do try to define you and take things into their own hands.
The one I love the most is when they piece things together and move other
things out and it makes for a whole other story.
A lot of times you have to
set things straight by going on television saying, I didn't say this. This is what I said.
What do you think when people always do
this to you, mention Michael or bring him in?
Well, it all depends on what ways they do.
I think some people try to be very shady and do a very shady way. That's not
very pleasant. Michael, of the ever changing face, the odd behavior.
So what about the question everybody's always asking?
Does she think her brother is weird?
Do you feel you really know what his life is now?
Do I feel his life?
I feel parts of his life.
I can say that. I feel
that the childhood that he missed out on only because I did as well.
The constant surgery that seems to be
going on, the changing his skin color, that kind of stuff.
I don't like it when people say that,
the changing of the skin color, because he truly has he has vitiligo.
And it's actually in my family, he's not the only person in my family
who actually has it. But he seems to me like he's a man who needs help.
I'll be honest with you, there seems to be signs there that you
would have to be pretty far removed from reality yourself
not to see those signs here's a human being that needs help.
You know, I wish that people. I wish
he would allow people to really get to know him the way that his family
knows him. He is the warmest, most down to earth person.
The silliest person loves to have a great deal of fun.
And he's just like truly like everyone else.
And I think it's more of the media
that has made him out to be something that he really isn't.
And this is obviously a difficult period
for the entire family with Michael's problems, isn't it?
Yes, but we're not going to get into that. No, no.
But you mentioned getting strength from your mother earlier. Yes.
And I would think that now more than ever, this is a quite a time for the family
to rally and show support and strength generally for one another.
Is that how its worked? Yes we've always done that.
Yeah. Yeah.
And are you in contact with your brother?
Do you talk to him? Which one? Michael? Yeah. What kind of things do you discuss?
Things that brothers and sisters talk about.
How are you feeling about that now?
About what? About Michael's legal circumstance?
I can't talk about that.
I'm not allowed to to.
But it must be a difficult thing.
Yeah, it's a very difficult thing. Yeah.
How has this whole affair affected you?
How do you feel when you read all this?
It bothers me.
I don't really read it that much anymore because it's all B.S. and it bothers me
because he's my brother and I love him. They'll continue.
They have nothing better to do,
nothing better to do.
It helps them to focus, take the focus
off of their own lives and the drama that goes on into it.
I mean, it's tough. It's very tough.
But we're a tough family and we're very strong.
And our heritage alone is very strong as a people.
And we've overcome other obstacles
and this is just another obstacle that we will definitely overcome.
At trial, how did that take its toll on you?
It took its toll on my entire family. Really?
It was hard on all of us.
And so were you worried about the-
What did you think was the worst that could have happened?
Well, he would be-
Sentenced to jail? Basically. Yeah.
Or to prison, actually. Yes.
How much did the trial of Michael bring your family together?
Because, you know,
one of the things that I noticed when I watched the coverage of that was you'd see
you and you'd see the other family members there.
Was it a unifying event
in some ways? It was a troubling event, but was it a unifying event?
I think when you have events like that, it always brings any family closer together.
And for sure, did ours. I mean,
we're close to begin with, but it definitely made it a much tighter unit.
We had each other's back,
but later on in life, certain things that he was going through,
I tried to be there for him as much as I could.
His little sister who was there, who had his back.
When you released Damita Jo, it was a couple of years ago.
The sales were not Janet Jackson type numbers.
How much of that do you think was the fallout from the fact it came out kind
of in the middle of Michael's trial and the whole
Super Bowl thing that you don't want to talk about?
I truly don't know.
It was still a platinum album.
But, you know, it's so funny how they-
Just because, which is success. I don't know.
I can't say I really can't say.
You know this business, music business, as well as anyone. Can Michael come back
and achieve the same kind of popularity music wise that he once had?
Why not? He's incredibly talented.
That's all you need.
You don't think the public may have a different opinion now.
Why not?
He's incredibly talented and that's all you need.
I get the message Janet.
They inspired me, all of my brothers.
And my brother, Michael and I, we were the closest growing up.
Yeah, I definitely looked up to him.
And I love the way he dances still today.
I think he is one of the greatest entertainers of all
times. And definitely the greatest entertainer of our time.
And I'm not saying that because he's my brother,
because even if you weren't related to me, I'd say that. He truly is.