Fans were completely divided when Janet Jackson and Justin Timberlake appeared on the 2004 Super Bowl halftime stage only to be embroiled in a massive scandal. During the duo’s performance of “Rock Your Body”, the former NSYNC member was supposed to rip a portion of Jack’s bodice to reveal a red cutout. Instead, the artist’s whole breast was exposed.
The Federal Communications Commission received 500,000 complaints, CBS was fined $550,000 USD and the NFL was asked to refund the $10 million fee to the halftime sponsor. The blame game ensued. If we’re speaking in 2022 terms, Jackson was wrongly “cancelled” while Timberlake was mostly unscathed by public opinion.
Jackson has rarely addressed the performance until now. In her newly-released namesake documentary, Janet Jackson, the singer and actress revealed that Timberlake had reached out to her shortly after the show.
“We talked, once,” she said in the new four-part series. “And he said, ‘I don’t know if I should come out and make a statement. I have something to say.’ And I said, ‘Listen, I don’t want any drama for you. They’re aiming all of this at me. So, if I was you, I wouldn’t say anything.’”
The “Together Again” artist also added that her family was also impacted by the hysteria. “A lot of it I didn’t see, but I couldn’t get away from it,” she added. “People wishing ill of you. Coming up to my brothers and saying things. Wishing I would be put away.”
In 2021 Timberlake issued a public apology to Jackson (as well as Britney Spears) on Instagram. “I am deeply sorry for the times in my life where my actions contributed to the problem, where I spoke out of turn, or did not speak up for what was right,’ he wrote in a statement.
