Once upon a time, Janet Jackson of the fabulous musical Jackson clan eloped with James DeBarge, from another famous singing family, the DeBarges.
In the 80s, the DeBarge group was on the rise, even as the Jackson 5 faltered due to Michael Jackson's "defection," and James and Janet's marriage was big news.
James, then 21, was handsome, charming, and dashing. The seventh of the nine DeBarge siblings, he swept the 18-year-old Janet off her feet.
Their elopement was a scandal and a seven-day wonder, especially since Joseph Jackson, the family's 'Dadager,' was vehemently opposed to the union.
But James had another problem. The "pretty boy" of R&B was also a cocaine addict. A little over a year after their marriage, Joe Jackson had the marriage annulled. The love was over and Janet and James moved on with their lives.
In 1991 she and sometime collaborator Rene Elizondo Jr hooked up and wed in secret, hoping to keep their love out of the spotlight. "People in this industry don't get a fair chance with some things, and especially marriage," she says. "I wanted to have as normal a marriage as possible, and we both felt the best way to do that was to keep it quiet," she said at the time. The two did keep it quiet, until Rene filed for divorce in 2000.
James Debarge revealed that when his marriage to Janet was annulled she was pregnant, and had given birth to their child in secret. Bunny DeBarge, James's sister declared that she had seen Janet pregnant and stated: “When the marriage was annulled (...) Janet was pregnant and James believed that as well.”
James' bombastic revelation came at a particularly sensitive time, as Janet was expecting her first child at 50, and gave birth to her son Eissa Al Mana in January 2017.
In the aftermath of the revelation, several women came forward, claiming to be the long lost DeBarge-Jackson baby, and claiming a slice of fame and Janet's not-inconsiderable fortune, modestly calculated to be worth close to $190 million in 2020.
A Philadelphia woman named Tiffany Whyte approached James' mother Etterlene DeBarge and presented herself as her granddaughter. The two women had a DNA test done, which proved unequivocally that Tiffany really is her grandchild. She declared:
“Now it’s time for me to tell my truth. Now that I got the DNA from my grandmother (...) it is for sure that they are my parents"(Janet Jackson and James Debarge)
Tiffany, who grew up in the foster care system is convinced that Janet is her mother, and said with some bitterness: “She has been denying me for many years. I’ve waited 31 years. I’ve been kept a secret for a very long time and I want people to know the truth.”
In 2001 Janet released the wildly popular album All For You and found herself both successful and unattached. "All this is really new for me," she said of being on the singles scene. "I've never dated. In my family, we grew up Jehovah's Witnesses, so you're not supposed to date until you're thinking of marriage. I got married when I was 18, and then I got an annulment, and then Rene came into my life. So here I am and I know nothing about the whole dating thing..."
The beautiful singer did not remain single for long. A year later Janet began seeing the man she refers to as her "soulmate", hip-hop producer Jermaine Dupri. "I always wanted to find love," she said. "Now, that I found love, I'm in a different space now. Jermaine is drama-free."
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