Justin Timberlake threw Janet Jackson under the bus to launch his solo career

Justin Timberlake is headlining the Super Bowl 52 halftime show, 14 years after his last appearance and the moment infamously remembered as the “wardrobe malfunction” with Janet Jackson.

This will mark Timberlake’s third Super Bowl halftime appearance, and it’s coming off the debut of his new album, Man of the Woods, which released on Feb. 2. He’ll also go on a world tour starting in March, so for Timberlake, he hasn’t missed a beat since that February night in 2004. The same thing can’t be said for Jackson.

How did we get here?

The 2004 Super Bowl performance was far from the first time that Timberlake and Jackson had worked together. In fact, up until the wardrobe malfunction they were quite close for all intents and purposes. While Timberlake was a member of *NSYNC, the boy band opened up for Jackson on The Velvet Rope Tour in 1998. It was *NSYNC’s first American tour in front such of a large audience.

In 2001, *NSYNC contributed to Jackson’s MTV Icon tribute night, recreating the music video of her hit, “That’s The Way Love Goes”

In 2002, Timberlake went solo, leaving the boy band and releasing his debut album, Justified. On that album, Jackson lended her vocals on the song, “(And She Said) Take Me Now”

Timberlake and Jackson were not strangers in 2004.

So what exactly happened during the halftime show?

You may not remember this, but Kid Rock, Nelly, and Diddy all performed before Jackson ever took the stage. Kid Rock actually performed in a cutoff American flag poncho, which offended some viewers, and then Nelly and Diddy had their fair share of “suggestive” dancing which also set off audiences. Jackson capped the event, performing “All for You” to start her portion of show and finished with “Rhythm Nation.”

What happened next was Timberlake’s surprise closing number where he was to sing “Rock Your Body” off his debut album. Jackson stayed on the stage after her portion, performing the duet with Timberlake. It wasn’t until the very last line of the song where Timberlake sings “I’m gonna have you naked by the end of this song” that things went wrong.

At that moment, Timberlake removed part of Jackson’s costume, which revealed her right breast. The incident was on screen for less than a second, but the media controversy started almost immediately.

What was supposed to happen?

The stories changed and grew as the days went on, with no one really wanting to take blame. But the story that stuck was this one released from Jackson’s publicist:

“Justin was supposed to pull away the rubber bustier to reveal a red lace bra. The garment collapsed and her breast was accidentally revealed.”

MTV tried to get as a far away from the incident as it possibly could:

“The tearing of Janet Jackson’s costume was unrehearsed, unplanned, completely unintentional and was inconsistent with assurances we had about the content of the performance.”

In the end, Jackson took all of the blame, and Timberlake got none of it

Even though it was Timberlake’s song and lyrics, it was Jackson who received all of the public backlash and took the biggest public hit from the incident. And that’s before mentioning he was the one who physically removed the clothing from Jackson’s body. After the event, Timberlake told Access Hollywood, “Hey man, we love giving you all something to talk about.”

Meanwhile, Jackson was forced to release a written statement and a video apology:

“The decision to have a costume reveal at the end of my halftime show performance was made after final rehearsals. MTV was completely unaware of it. It was not my intention that it go as far as it did. I apologize to anyone offended – including the audience, MTV, CBS and the NFL.”

Jackson was also not allowed to attend the Grammy Awards the following month, while Timberlake was not only allowed to attend, he was asked to perform.

Jackson then went on to release her eighth studio album, Damita Jo, but it was one of her worst selling albums ever as she was blacklisted by Clear Channel Communications, which at the time owned Viacom (MTV) and CBS Radio, as well as subsequent radio stations. That made it virtually impossible for Jackson to promote her album, singles, and music videos.

Jackson was also supposed to star in a movie produced by ABC but was forced to resign. Even Mickey Mouse got involved. There was a statue of the Disney icon wearing Jackson’s “Rhythm Nation” at Disney World, but the park removed it after the performance.

Timberlake was not blacklisted or asked to resign from anything.

On Super Bowl Sunday, #JanetJacksonAppreciationDay was trending on Twitter as a protest of Timberlake being chosen to perform at halftime.

Timberlake finally released an apology in 2006, an entire two years later

While Timberlake’s career completely soared during the controversy and after, it wasn’t until the release of his second solo album, FutureSex/LoveSounds, that he finally apologized for how he handled the situation. In an interview with MTV, he said the following:

“In my honest opinion now, I could’ve handled it better. I’m part of a community that consider themselves artists. And if there was something I could have done in her defense that was more than I realized then, I would have. But the other half of me was like, ‘Wow. We still haven’t found the weapons of mass destruction and everybody cares about this!’ I probably got 10 percent of the blame, and that says something about society. I think that America’s harsher on women. And I think that America is, you know, unfairly harsh on ethnic people.”

So what is Timberlake saying about it now?

Timberlake said in his Super Bowl press conference that no, Janet will not be performing with him. He’s also said that he and Jackson have since made up, in an interview with Zane Lowe, admitting he could have handled the situation much better:

“I don’t know that a lot of people know that [he and Janet are on good terms]. I don’t think it’s my job to do that because you value the relationships that you do have with people.”

OK, so was the stunt on purpose or not?

Neither party really confirms or denies anything at this point. It seems like it was most definitely planned, but 14 years later no one wants to actually say it out loud.

The most telling piece of evidence to me is the tattoo artist who sold the sunburst shield to Jackson’s stylist. He recently told USA Today the following about his encounter with Jackson’s team leading up to the Super Bowl:

“At the end of it, while we were talking, he was like, ‘OK, watch the halftime show. There’s going to be a surprise at the end.’ I had a pair of them. I still have the other one, believe it or not. They only purchased one. I was kind of happy to get rid of it.”

How to watch the Super Bowl halftime show

When: Feb. 4; around 8:30 p.m. ET

Where: U.S. Bank Stadium, Minneapolis

TV: NBC

Online: NBC Sports | fubo.TV

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The first Super Bowl halftime show had jetpacks!