Janet Jackson Recounts Pain on Cheating Father

Tue, 05 February 2008 03:42:28 ET

In a revealing interview the singer recalls how much she was hurt by her father who had a mistress and an illegitimate daughter.

In a revealing interview, Janet Jackson has spilled her personal pain towards her father, Joseph Jackson who cheated on her mother, Katherine Jackson, and had another child with the mistress. The "Feedback" singer found it difficult dealing with all the situation while she was young and praised her mother for her strength.

"It's a very cold world, and to have gone through what she has had to experience, from having polio as a child to those things with my brother Michael, and then for my father to have had another child," Janet said in an interview with Parade Magazine.

"I've been cheated on a lot. I know what that feels like and how that hurts the heart. But, I mean, to give us a half-sister, I can't even fathom what that's like for mother. For her to stay with my father all these years and never abandon her kids, that's true love."

Janet was born as the latest child in the Jacksons family but in 1974, an illegitimate child was born as the result of her father's affair with a Jackson Five fan, Cheryl Terell.

In the same interview, Janet also addressed her two failed marriages, saying that marriage is probably not a thing for her. "After two divorces, I thought I was jinxed: 'Maybe marriage isn't for me? Maybe it's my fault it never works.' I was always faithful. I always tried to give of myself. I was very loyal. But maybe I'm the problem. I'm to blame."

She was previously married to singer James DeBarge when she was only 18 but was granted an annulment a year later. In 1991, she tied the knot to dancer Rene Elizondo and had an 8-years marriage before it ended in 1999. The singer has been in a long term relationship with producer Jermaine Dupri but has never uttered a will to marry him.

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