Janet Jackson is back in the public eye to promote her new movie, “Tyler Perry’s Why Did I Get Married Too.” Of course, the topic of her late brother, Michael, was bound to come up as she and Perry plugged the movie on Oprah’s show. Janet, who has remained pretty tight-lipped about her brother since his death revealed to Oprah that her family had attempted several times to stage interventions with Michael, but he was in such denial, and kept himself insulated from the family, they were not able to get through to him.
The notoriously private Janet Jackson opened up about her brother’s death on “The Oprah Winfrey Show” Friday, admitting that the family knew he had a problem.
“People think we were in denial but we weren’t. We tried intervention several times. He was very much in denial — he didn’t think he had a problem.”
When the news first broke that Michael was ill, Jackson said she first heard about it from an assistant while she was home in New York. The last time she saw her brother was about a month before, she said, at a party she had thrown for their parents. “He was thin then, and we knew that he had a problem; we all did,” she said.
His death, she told Winfrey, is “hard to believe still to this day. There isn’t a day that goes by that I don’t think about it — that all of us in the family don’t think about it — every single day.”
Her brother’s passing happened right as Janet Jackson had started production on Tyler Perry’s new film, “Why Did I Get Married Too?” and the emotional turmoil she was in comes through in the film, Winfrey said.
“It was very therapeutic,” Jackson said of her role.
Tyler Perry, she added, was by her side the entire time, asking her how she wanted to be treated on set, making sure no one had access to images of Jackson crying in character (lest a tabloid run them as evidence of what Jackson was going through at the time), and even changing the ending of the movie, which opens nationwide Friday, for her.
“I changed the ending because at first she was going to speak at the funeral, and the things that she was going to say, it was too eerie,” Perry, who also was on the show, told Winfrey. “She didn’t want to change it, but I did.”
Veering from the topic of his movie, Perry told Winfrey he felt the need to reiterate how hard the Jackson family worked to try to save their brother.
“I’m sorry, but I want people to know this,” Perry said. “I want people to know how much they tried. They really, really tried — the entire family. I want the whole world to know how much they tried.”
The family was worried, Jackson said, and did several interventions. At one of them, Jackson said she became so overwhelmed, “seeing him and knowing that there was an issue that he was in denial about,” she had to leave the room. “A lot of the relationships I’ve been in, they’ve had issues with addiction. It’s difficult when you see it. [I] recognize it so quickly because I’ve dealt with it in past relationships.”
For Jackson, it’s difficult to even look at pictures of Michael as an adult or listen to his music; the only images she can stand to view are those of the pair as children.
“When we were kids, we had so much fun together,” she said. “We used to spend every day, all day, together. I have a beautiful picture in my home of he and I when we were just babies. It takes me to that place, even when he was still here, that I missed, that we would talk about. That [picture] I can look at.”
The emotional turmoil Jackson was dealing with, both in her role in Perry’s movie as well as personally, began to affect her physically as well: Jackson said she’s definitely an emotional eater.
“When I’m feeling down, I do turn to food,” she told Winfrey. Her struggle with her weight has even led Jackson to write a book about it, to answer those persistent questions everyone always has about her weight.
“Instead of writing about nutrition, I decided to go into my childhood, where I’ve always had issues with my weight,” Jackson said, adding that the book would touch on issues like self-confidence as well.”
Conclusion by Kaiser: I’ve always believed that out of the entire Jackson family, Janet was probably the closest to Michael, and I believe her when she talks about attempting to do an “intervention” for him. I really do think Janet’s heart was broken when her brother died, and it seems like she’s trying to find her footing professionally and personally after his death. But I also believe that Janet (and other Jackson family members) were probably busy, and had other sh-t going on, and ultimately, they couldn’t help someone who didn’t want to be helped.
I wish Janet and Micheal could have done more professionally together.
I loved loved ‘Scream’. I was always waiting for something else to come out.
It’s hard enough for the “normal” family of an addict to save him or her. In those normal cases, at least the family has some influence because the addict really needs them – for love, support, money, etc. That addict knows, ultimately, that if he doesn’t go to rehab, the family will cut him off and he’ll be friendless and out on the streets. With Michael, though, he was completely insulated with hangers-on and yes-men, not to mention money. The family never had a chance
@ moops totally agree with you, he just had to much power and too many yes men
I’m glad that Janet could voice all that, I imagine she felt a need to ‘defend’ her family, by stating the multiple attempts to intervene and the fact that MJ was in denial.
I will definitely be reading that book also, being a comfort eater, I can relate.
I love that she keeps pictures of them together as children, when the world had not yet jaded them.
;< breaks my heart..can’t imagine losing one of my brothers, especially the one i’m closest to…i think she should be proud tho of what her family did do to help…
Really, no one can help people who don’t want to be helped.
I remember when I was just a girl myself, seeing the Jackson 5 perform and how cute they were on stage. You could really see how close they were (saw them as the Jackson 5 with family, the Jacksons and Micheal during the Bad Tour)
And you could see it in the “Scream” Video as well.
And I honestly think out of all of his family, they were the closest and she was the only one who never “needed” him to provide for them.
Now that I blabbered on and on, you can just feel the heartbreak coming from her.
“they couldn’t help someone who didn’t want to be helped”
Amen.
The National Enquirer reported on some of these interventions as they happened, long before Michael’s death. After being surprised by one intervention, he instructed his security people to stop letting some of his family members through the gates. So yeah, I believe they tried, and I believe there was not much more they could have done.
@ moobs; agree…and re “…someone who doesn’t want to be helped…” that is the tragedy for so many. same with suicide. some people you just can’t help; they either don’t want it, or are in too too deep. it affects you for the rest of your life.
I believe too.
@candykay- I recall this too, he tried to have his family arrested.
Well said @mopps.
Recovery has to come from within- the real power of an intervention is twofold: the first is that the addict hears how his/her addiction is affecting loved ones, and the second is that the addict hears that the loved ones are no longer going to tolerate/support/fund the addiction, ie. if you don’t get help you can’t visit, live with us, get money, etc.
For Michael, the money/support part is completely irrelevant. The first part is only powerful if you believe that your actions are causing pain to those you love- which is only possible if you can admit that you have a problem. If he couldn’t admit it, then the intervention is useless.
Ultimately, he was a grown man- nobody could force him to do anything, if he didn’t want to listen.
Moops. Very true, but there’s a difference here. MJ was the cash cow of the family, not to mentioned he distanced himself from most of them, not the other way around. I think part of it was fear that the would be cut-off financially, particularly Jermaine, whose kids lived at the house and he was supporting them.
In some photos Janet’s face looks so changed by the plastic surgery she’s had over the years. However, in the header pic she looks almost exactly like she did playing Penny on the sitcom Good Times back in the late 1970s.
@Moops: Well said and so very true.
Michael really did seem to cut the entire family off (and now in the aftermath of his death I can understand why he did it with some *cough famewhores Papa Joe and Jermaine cough*) so it would have been very hard to even get to him to make an impact with an intervention.
Addiction is sad and potentially tragic.
michael loved his family, he was just sick, they were a close family, i grew up in a large family, we don’t see each other often,and we don’t always agree but we love each other non the less. To suggest any thing different in their difficult time is horrible, some people love to throw stones, bring up negatives and put people down, but the fact remains, no one truly knows everything about someone else’s family, speculations at best.