Images: Lifetime, A&E, giphy.com
As the perfect way to lead into Black History Month, Lifetime released the long awaited documentary Janet Jackson, as a celebration of the 40th anniversary of her first album. Featuring a wide range of never-before-seen footage and interviews curated from Janet and those closest to her, the documentary gives an intimate look at her incredible life and career. Serving as Executive Producer of the project, it is clear that Janet took full Control (see what we did there? 👊🏾✨) of telling her story on her own terms. As we’d hoped, there were some unexpected revelations that had us clutching our collective pearls as we eagerly watched and paid homage to this living legend!
1. David Bowie once offered Randy & Michael Jackson “whatever he was doing to get high” at a party. They declined to partake.
2. Janet wanted to use just her first name on her debut album to dissociate from the Jackson family fame. She had little to no creative control over her first two albums when Joe Jackson was her manager.
3. Janet wanted to go to college to study business law but Joe Jackson didn’t allow it, insisting that she build her music career instead.
4. Despite all this, she doesn’t blame her father for the reported abuse her and her siblings suffered. In her own words, “discipline without love is tyranny. And tyrants they were not. They just loved us and wanted us to be the best that we could possibly be.”
5. She cited her ex-husband's drug abuse as the primary reason for the demise of her first two marriages with James DeBarge and René Elizondo Jr. respectively.
6. There was no secret baby!
7. While we still can’t comprehend how he managed to ever date her in the first place, Jermaine Dupri admitted to cheating on Janet. He had the audacity to confirm “girls wanted to talk to me more because I was dating her…and you know, I was a man.”
8. Janet wants us to forgive Justin Timberlake over the whole Super Bowl drama.
9. And finally, the most consistent and unsurprising revelation of them all…Janet is a legend and the true “queen of Black girl magic”.
SHOP THE CHANGEMAKER COLLECTION
Celebrating the businesses behind the table.