Janet speaks!

JANET JACKSON appears demure and fragile as she sits on a low but comfortable sofa in a West Los Angeles recording studio. She offers to share her Asian lunch of rice and seaweed and a large green salad tossed in a teriyaki dressing. It is 10 days after the Super Bowl incident, and she is trying to get on with her life. She has an album to finish, a tour to organize, videos to shoot, and a personal life to nourish. In a barely audible angelic Voice, she insists that she is "okay," that she's strong and can tough it out. But the hurt and embarrassment are evident on her hauntingly beautiful face and in the language of her lithe, well-toned body.

"This is the first time I've ever had to deal with something like this," she says softly.

Until Super Bowl Sunday, Janet was often referred to as the most balanced Jackson, the quiet and talented one among the huge and talented Jackson clan. No trouble, no controversy. She sold out concerts and spun out platinum-plus albums. Yes, she had survived the heartbreak of two broken marriages, but that only made her more human, more normal.

But that all changed at halftime of the Super Bowl, when during a performance with Justin Timberlake her right breast was suddenly exposed. She and Timberlake immediately said it was an accident, that it was a "wardrobe malfunction," a theatrical moment that went very wrong. A media brouhaha and moralizing followed. The FCC threatened to fine CBS and MTV, which produced the halftime show. (Both are owned by media giant Viacom.) Despite Janet's taped apology being broadcast worldwide, she was "uninvited" to participate in the Grammy Awards (also on CBS) one week after the Super Bowl. Then she and Timberlake were told they could participate in the music industry's biggest event if they apologized during the program. She declined; Timberlake agreed and did participate in the show.

Topping off a wild week of media frenzy, the FCC hosted media decency hearings on Capitol Hill during which CBS and MTV executives testified they knew nothing about the Jackson performance stunt.

"It was not intentional. It was a costume accident," says soft-spoken Janet during an exclusive interview with EBONY, the first media interview she has given since the Super Bowl. "I've moved on. I feel fine. There's been a lot of support. There's still a lot going on," she says of the media onslaught that has been called "unfair," "blown out of proportion" and "racist." Why did it all happen? "It was an accident," she says. "That was basically it."

When asked if she felt her family gets singled out and picked on because they are Jacksons, she said: "Yeah. I was with my brother Mike and my brother Randy just yesterday morning. And I was thinking about that. I think a lot of times that it very well may be because of who we are. It's a lot harder. A lot of times I think it's because of who the family is," she continues, then hesitates, pondering her words. "We're very strong, as a people period. And I have a very strong family. We can handle it. What's so funny is that this is my first time of truly having to deal with something like this, which I've never experienced before. My brothers and sisters have though. But I'm okay.

"People have always said I look like my mother, I feel that I look more like my father. My mother's so beautiful. But I have my mother's strength more so than anything. I realize that now. She's a warrior. And I'm realizing that I have that.

"She is very strong. She's gone through a lot too. Since she was a baby, having polio when she was younger. Every time her children go through something, just being a parent, she goes through it too. That was my worry when this happened. My parents, and my nieces and nephews. Kids at school can be so cruel with all the jokes and teasing. And there are so many of them [more than 20 nieces and nephews in all]. It's going to take a while to touch base with each one of them, but I'm working on it. It's not an easy thing for them to deal with. And it's not their fault. They just have that last name."

Jackson. It is a name symbolic of talent and music and family. In recent years, it is a name associated with unusual behavior and scandalous headlines. In past years older sister LaToya has made headlines, and brother Michael, who along with Janet is the best known and most successful of the Jackson clan, is now embroiled in a court case in which he is accused of child molestation.

Janet says there have been so many mistruths concerning the Super Bowl performance that she can't keep up with them all. "I'm now told that Luther said he didn't want to receive the Grammy unless I presented it to him, but I was told initially that his family thought it was better that I not present it to him. But that didn't come from his family. A lot of things they put a hush on, like his statement."

She goes on to say that some television stations didn't run all of her taped apology. "Sometimes they cut out that I said it was all accident," she says. "That's what the media does, that's the way they are because they want it to be told a different way. I probably should have done it live, but there was so much going on at the time that I needed to just get it done. It is what it is. And it will pass and I'm fine with it. I've already moved on to completing my project."