Janet Jackson opens up about Michael's death on 'Oprah'
Fujikawa Yamamoto
(CNN) -- 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.
Palin'sBaby
seastew
> http://www.cnn.com/2010/SHOWBIZ/TV/04/02/janet.jackson.oprah/
>
> (CNN) -- 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."
I don't buy it for a second. His family went to great lengths to deny
anything regarding substance abuse for his whole life. They were
probably afraid he'd stop supporting them.