Janet Jackson credits religion for getting her through the controversy surrounding her Super Bowl performance with Justin Timberlake.
![Janet Jackson says religion helped her through the Super Bowl controversy](/image-library/partners/bang/land/1000/j/janet-jackson-aW1hZ2VzMS8yMDIwLzAxLzMxLzAyNTk3ODgwMDE1ODA0Nz.jpg)
Janet Jackson says religion helped her through the Super Bowl controversy
The infamous performance in 2004 saw Janet's breast exposed by Timberlake during the halftime show and led to a backlash against the 'Nasty' hitmaker but the star believes her faith saw her through the incident.
Janet told Allure magazine: "What's really important to me is going back to having that foundation. Not just family, but God. That's what really pulled me through. It's tough for me to talk about that time."
Janet also believes it is "important" that a discussion is had about the contrasting treatment that she and Justin received following the scandal.
The 55-year-old singer said: "Whether I want to be part of that conversation or not, I am part of that conversation.
"I think it's important. Not just for me, but for women. So I think it's important that conversation has been had. You know what I mean? And things have changed obviously since then for the better."
The 'Nipplegate' episode will also be explored in the documentary 'Malfunction: The Dressing Down of Janet Jackson' and director Jodi Gomes says the programme will look at the incident with "today's perspective".
She said: "I think because, you know, we wanted to frame the picture and look at everything through a new lens and look at it from today's lens to find out exactly what happened. It was a massive performance that touched a lot of people and it had a lot of unintended consequences, and we wanted to just look at it from today's perspective and put it under a microscope and look at the how and the why. One person was treated differently than the other, and I just think it made a lot of sense for me at this time."
Tagged in Janet Jackson Justin Timberlake