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Janet Jackson has revealed her familial connection to Stevie Wonder, Tracy Chapman and Samuel L Jackson.
The “Together Again” singer, 58, made the revelations on the BBC Radio 2 Breakfast Show on Tuesday (August 13) with Scott Mills, who was filling in for Zoe Ball.
“Now someone told me this earlier, are you related to Stevie [Wonder]?” Mills asked.
“He’s our cousin,” Janet replied. “Not a lot of people know that. He’s our cousin on my mother’s side. So is Tracy Chapman.”
A stunned Mills responded: “That’s blown my mind!”
“So is Samuel Jackson,” the “Rhythm Nation” creator added, saying all three stars are her cousins. Despite Jackson’s claim, Samuel L Jackson has previously denied being related to the famous Jackson clan. In a 2017 interview with Wired, the Pulp Fiction actor simply replied: “Nope” after being asked: “Is Samuel L Jackson related to Michael Jackson?”
Janet Jackson is the youngest of 10 siblings in the famous family. Five of her brothers, including the late Michael Jackson, formed the Jackson 5.
Michael died in 2009 at the age of 50 after suffering a cardiac arrest, which was caused by a lethal combination of sedatives and propofol.
Last month, Jackson spoke about writing “Scream” with Michael in 1995.
The single from Michael’s ninth album, HIStory: PAst, Present and Future, Book I, was written as a retaliation against the media’s coverage of the child sexual abuse allegations made against him in 1993. He was not convicted and settled the case out of court.
Lyrics include the lines: “I’m tired of injustice, I’m tired of the schemes/ Your lies are disgusting/ So, what does it mean, damn it?/ Kickin’ me down, I got to get up/ As jacked as it sounds/ The whole system sucks, damn it.”
Speaking to the BBC, the star admitted it was still emotional “listening to [Michael] every night, seeing him, remembering us.”
“Mike and I wrote that song in New York, in his apartment,” she recalled. “So [I relive] that whole journey, listening to him sing it [and remembering] what he was going through at that time.
“And just me being his little sister, always by his side, and being that support system. That’s always been my role.”
The European leg of Jackson’s tour will kick off in Paris on 25 September, before moving to Birmingham, London, and Glasgow. It concludes in the embattled Co-op Live arena in Manchester on 1 October.
The winner of five Grammy Awards, Jackson has sold over 100 million records, making her one of the world's best-selling music artists. In 2019, she was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
