Janet Jackson didn’t feel sexy until she was "well into" her 30s.
The ‘That’s The Way Love Goes’ hitmaker – who had her first marriage, to James DeBarge, annulled when she was 19 and went on to wed Rene Elizondo Jr. for nine years from 1991 and businessman Wissam Al Mana for five years until they split in April 2017, as well as having a seven-year relationship with Jermaine Dupri from 2002 to 2009 – admitted entering therapy helped her to feel better about herself and realise she wasn’t as "bad" as she thought.
Asked when she first felt sexy, she said: "I would say not until I was well into my 30s. I got out of a funky relationship and finally got back to me.
"I went to therapy, which was all about finding that thing you like about yourself.
"The realisation that, you know what, you’re not so bad after all. I’m not saying you’re great or you’re the best, but it’s not as bad as you were made to feel that it was."
And Janet – who has son Eissa, 18 months, with Wissam – admitted her negative feelings stemmed from a bad relationship.
She explained: "Loving that someone and trusting that someone, you believe that person when they tell you [things]. You think they’re being as honest with you as you are with them. It was all to control the brain. That was around the time of (2001 album) ‘All for You’."
The ‘Together Again’ singer found therapy helped her accept her body but she admitted she initially found it tough to find anything about her appearance that she liked.
She admitted to America’s InStyle magazine: "I had to find something in my body that I loved, and that was difficult for me to do.
"At first, I couldn’t find anything. I would look in the mirror and start crying. I didn’t like that I was not attractive. I didn’t like anything about me.
"But I wound up falling in love with the small of my back. And then from there I found more things.
"And then finally realising my smile isn’t that bad after all. I thought I looked like the Joker because it was so big."
Janet Jackson didn’t feel sexy til her 30s
