You're probably aware of what happened during the most famous halftime show of all time,
but what about how it impacted the performers involved?
Keep watching for the truth about Janet Jackson and Justin Timberlake's complicated relationship.
At the tail end of the '90s, NSYNC had yet to establish itself as a boy band capable
of tearing up the hearts of teen girls across the U.S.
So, when Janet Jackson invited them to open for her on "The Velvet Rope Tour," it marked
the beginning of a new era for the pop act.
Speaking to MTV News about the tour, Justin Timberlake suggested that he was excited to
be joining the superstar because, understandably, he was a total fanboy.
Three years later, when the members of NSYNC were finally huge stars in the U.S. in their
own right, Timberlake paid tribute to Jackson onstage during her "MTV Icon" television special.
Instead, Timberlake jokingly interrupted bandmate Chris Kirkpatrick during his earnest tribute
to the legendary artist by repeatedly reminding everyone that, on the babe-scale, Jackson
is, quote, "fine."
It was seemingly meant to be a cute, goofy bit but it certainly hasn't aged well, even
if Jackson was shown laughing it off at the time.
In 2002, Timberlake was newly solo with and newly single.
Some onlookers were romantically linking him to Jackson.
According to the New York Post, the pair was spotted kissing at Missy Elliott's birthday
party.
Weirder still, Jackson's future partner Jermaine Dupri was named by the publication as being
an eyewitness who spotted the two together.
Tabloids lapped up the rumor, but naturally, the rumors went unverified and were probably
best taken with a pinch of salt.
Especially since a few months after the rumors emerged, so, too, did an actual announcement:
Jackson was confirmed to be a guest performer on Timberlake's first solo album, "Justified."
By 2004, the apparent chemistry between Janet Jackson and Justin Timberlake was still hot
enough that they could be brought up again whenever either of them needed a promotional
push.
Ahead of her much-hyped Super Bowl performance, Jackson was keeping his guest appearance a
secret.
"What do you have planned specifically?
Can you get into that?
Any surprises?"
"There's a -There's a special guest.
Can't tell you who."
Prior to the live broadcast, Jackson's choreographer even teased to MTV News that there were, quote,
"some shocking moments" to look forward to during the halftime show.
They were an unfortunate choice of words, given what would come to transpire at the
actual event and the furor that it would cause.
So much so that MTV, which produced the halftime show, even had to add an editor's note to
the news item to reassure people that they weren't involved with the incident.
After an entire song's worth of bumping and grinding to "Rock Your Body," Janet Jackson
and Justin Timberlake brought the Super Bowl halftime show to an abrupt halt with one clean
rip of fabric.
Timberlake pulled off the cup of Jackson's bustier, exposing her breast.
The live feed immediately cut away from the two performers, and chaos ensued.
According to a statement released by a representative for Jackson to E!, the incident was the result
of some faulty engineering of Jackson's garment, as they explained -
"Justin was supposed to pull away the rubber bustier to reveal a red lace bra.
The garment collapsed and her breast was accidentally revealed."
According to The New York Times documentary "Malfunction: The Dressing Down of Janet Jackson,"
Jackson was described as crying backstage in a blanket following the incident.
Though Timberlake was described as being apologetic backstage, in front of cameras, the singer
was all swagger.
In a post-show interview with Access Hollywood, he quipped -
"We love giving y'all something to talk about."
Backlash regarding the Super Bowl incident arrived quickly and also disproportionately.
MTV levied the blame squarely upon Janet Jackson, with the network's chief executive Tom Freston
telling Reuters that she, quote, "engineered" the breast-baring incident.
He also suggested that Justin Timberlake was only aware of the stunt right before taking
to the stage,
Meanwhile, an investigation into whether the entire performance violated indecency standards
was being undertaken by the Federal Communications Commission.
As reported by The Washington Post, quote, "each of Viacom's 200 owned and affiliate
stations" was facing penalty fines of up to $27,500, and both Jackson and Timberlake were
also facing potential penalties as individuals.
Timberlake broke his silence first by issuing an apology and a day later, Jackson issued
her own apology, which confirmed that the costume decision was, quote, "made after final
rehearsals," adding,
"It was not my intention that it go as far as it did.
I apologize to anyone offended."
Despite all the attempts at an apology, the outrage continued to burn through the entertainment
industry — and Justin Timberlake appeared to waste no time in throwing Janet Jackson
under the bus.
In an interview with KCBS, he suggested that Jackson and her choreographer had called him
right before the show telling him, quote, "to rip her bra off" during the performance.
With that, Timberlake's apparent innocence had been seriously sullied.
The incident had also, apparently, ruined a perfect year, as he told the radio station,
"I'm frustrated at the whole situation.
I'm frustrated that my character is being questioned and the fact of the matter is,
you know, I've had a good year, a really good year, especially with my music."
This one career blip aside, he'd continue to enjoy a really good year.
But Jackson?
Not so much.
For one thing, a spokesperson for the performer told Variety that she lost out on a starring
role in a Lena Horne biopic because Horne was so upset about the Super Bowl incident.
Despite rumors that both Janet Jackson and Justin Timberlake were to be banned from the
2004 Grammy Awards due to their apparent professional misconduct at the Super Bowl, only one of
them wound up being uninvited from the ceremony, and it wasn't Timberlake.
According to Entertainment Weekly, Jackson had refused an opportunity to deliver a public
apology at the event, which was why she wasn't invited to attend.
Timberlake, meanwhile, accepted the conditions of his attendance and delivered yet another
apology in the middle of his acceptance speech for winning the best male pop vocal performance
Grammy.
And that was all it took.
Timberlake was seemingly forgiven, while Jackson was left out in the cold.
While Justin Timberlake's career appeared to be back on track Janet Jackson's had hit
some major obstacles.
As reported by Today, her 2004 album, "Damita Jo," was a commercial failure in comparison
to her previous records, and it further received a mixed response from critics, the most cynical
of which conflated the controversy of the Super Bowl incident with the unpopular tone
of the record.
The Washington Post, for instance, accused "Damita Jo" of being, quote, "humid with sex,"
and went on to gripe,
"Like getting naked on network television, 'Damita' has about it a hint of desperation."
With Timberlake surviving the backlash relatively unscathed, he took the opportunity to finally
speak out about the unequal treatment he'd received compared to Jackson, admitting during
a 2006 interview with MTV News -
"If you consider it 50/50, I probably got 10% of the blame.
And that says something about society.
I think that America's harsher on women, and I think that America's unfairly harsh on ethnic
people."
But as the years went on, did Timberlake ever use his self-acknowledged privilege to support
Jackson during her career struggles?
Apparently not, as Jackson would go on to allege that she and Timberlake didn't speak
to one another following the incident.
During an appearance on "The Oprah Winfrey Show," Janet Jackson opened up about the Super
Bowl incident and didn't bite her tongue when it came to the disparity of blame, saying
-
"Well…All the emphasis was put on me, not on Justin."
Though the superstar clarified that she still considered Timberlake "a friend," she also
pointed out that they hadn't spoken since the show and Jackson revealed that she'd heard
about remarks Timberlake allegedly made about the incident and also appeared to agree with
Winfrey's sentiment that he had abandoned her.
Naturally, there were rumors that Timberlake wasn't thrilled with Jackson's statements.
Per a 2006 Today report, fans became convinced that the former boy band star referenced the
Oprah interview in Timbaland's tune "Give It To Me," which seemed to be a snide takedown
of Jackson.
It took him over a decade, but by 2018, Justin Timberlake appeared to show some better understanding
of the situation with Janet Jackson and his role in it.
In a Beats 1 interview with Zane Lowe, the musician reflected on his mishandling of the
situation.
"Okay, well, you know, you can't change what's happened, but you know, you can- you can move
forward and learn from it."
Most importantly, perhaps, the star also alleged that he and Janet had finally resolved their
issues and made peace, saying,
"I don't know that a lot of people know that."
He also explained that he didn't consider it his responsibility to inform the public
of such things.
He might have kept these reforged positive vibes between himself and Janet private, but
that wasn't to say he wouldn't still reference the incident in public.
And after his Beats 1 interview, a Jackson family insider told the New York Post that
Janet still hadn't, quote, "gotten past how he didn't man up."
In 2018, it was finally time for Justin Timberlake's go on the big Super Bowl halftime show ride,
and it seemed like all that anyone could talk about was whether he'd be saving a seat for
Janet Jackson.
Prior to his big performance, the New York Post even reported that Janet's father, Joseph
Jackson, thought it necessary for Timberlake to make things right at the event, telling
the newspaper,
"If he's such a gentleman, he'd make sure Janet [Jackson] is there."
The following day, however, Janet shut down all hope of her attendance at Timberlake's
halftime show by making her position clear on Twitter, writing -
"To put to rest any speculation or rumors as to whether I will be performing at the
Super Bowl tomorrow: I will not."
As reported by Time, Timberlake nonetheless committed, quote, "a subtle acknowledgment"
of the incident without Janet's involvement.
Singing "Rock Your Body" once again, the singer precipitously shouted, "Stop!"
right before the original offending lyric about getting naked.
In 2021, Justin Timberlake was forced to re-evaluate his behavior within the black mirror of the
media.
With the release of two New York Times documentaries focused on the mistreatment of Britney Spears
and Janet Jackson during the early '00s, the superstar not only appeared to consider his
contributions to such culture, but also his gains from it.
In an Instagram post shared at the start of the year, Timberlake apologized to both Spears
and Jackson and acknowledged his shortcomings in those moments
It seemed to be a sincere and appropriate statement.
However, it was slightly undermined by the behavior of Timberlake's manager, Johnny Wright,
just a few months later.
Seemingly a little bitter about Jackson not publicly acknowledging his client's statement,
Wright reportedly wrote a comment on an Instagram post where Jackson urged her followers, quote,
"to love, not to hate."
As reported by The Mirror, using Timberlake's account, Wright wrote -
"You should take this advice and to apply it to your relationship with Justin."
The comment was apparently deleted, with a source later suggesting to Page Six that Timberlake
was unaware that his manager had written and posted it.
In 2021, renewed attention given to the treatment of Janet Jackson in the aftermath of the 2004
Super Bowl halftime show potentially arrived a little too late for the superstar to care.
Following the premiere of "Malfunction: The Dressing Down of Janet Jackson," for instance,
the singer continued to maintain her dignified silence on the matter, and seemed to not exactly
be in support of the documentary.
According to Jackson's former stylist the superstar asked him and others not to contribute
to it.
He told Page Six -
"She didn't ask for a 'Free Janet' documentary.
She's not interested.
[...] She wants to tell her own story "
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