Janet Jackson recently opened up about an embarrassing moment she had while performing in front of Queen Elizabeth. In a British Vogue video interview shared on September 12, 2024, Janet, 58, recalled how her "pants split" while performing her song "Rhythm Nation" in the 1990s. The iconic singer was shocked — but did everything she could to stop the late Queen from noticing that anything was amiss. She was wearing the same outfit she had worn for her Hollywood Walk of Fame ceremony in 1990.
The outfit was inspired by the 1966 film adaptation of Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451. "Fahrenheit 451, that's where this came from, the inspiration for this. With the mockneck shirt, the hat with the plate on it," she explained in the video.
But she also had a "funny story" about the outfit.
"I was performing for the Queen of England and we were doing 'Rhythm Nation,'" Janet said. "Sure enough, as soon as I squatted, my pants split right in my booty crack."
"I couldn’t believe it happened. I thought, 'Oh my God,'" she added.
More from LittleThings: Dave Grohl Reportedly Retained A Divorce Lawyer Before He Went Public With His Affair
She then had confirmation that it did actually happen. "I started feeling air back there, so I knew it had really happened," Janet explained.
Based on how Janet described the wardrobe malfunction, it was not minor. She emphasized that her pants split "badly." Of course, she could not let the Queen see this, so she deviated from the original choreography to avoid "flashing" the monarch.
"I never turned my back to her," Janet explained. "Some of the choreography was supposed to. I just faced forward."
Luckily, this strategy seemed to work out for her. "Could you imagine if I just would've flashed her for just like a hot second?" Janet said in the video.
In spite of her decades-long career and innovative music, Janet Jackson is still well known for a wardrobe mishap that couldn't be avoided in the way that one was.
During the Super Bowl halftime show in 2004, Justin Timberlake ripped off part of Janet's top, exposing her breast. The moment was extremely embarrassing for Janet, 58, and led to a lot of backlash and controversy, even though she has said that exposing her breast during the performance was an accident.
Shortly after the incident, Janet shared an apology, though she later said she regretted making the apology because the wardrobe mishap "was an accident."
Janet opened up about the incident again in her 2022 Lifetime documentary, Janet Jackson, and spoke about how the backlash impacted her.
"A lot of it I didn’t see, but obviously, you couldn’t get away from it because it was everywhere," she said. "People wishing ill of you, people coming up to my brothers and saying things, wishing I was put away. It can take its toll on you emotionally."
She chose to focus on her family, friends and work to get through the tough times, but admitted that "when you have everyone whispering about you and the majority of it is not favorable, that can pull you to a different place."
