Bette Midler Wants Justin Timberlake to Publicly Apologize to Janet Jackson's Boob

After Justin Timberlake issued a public apology to Jessica Biel, Bette Midler called for the singer to publicly apologize to Janet Jackson's boob.

By Elyse Dupre Dec 11, 2019 1:12 PMTags
Bette Midler, Justin Timberlake, Janet JacksonGC Images, Getty Images

It's been a week since Justin Timberlake publicly apologized to Jessica Biel. Now, Bette Midler wants him to issue a different apology. 

"#JustinTimberlake publicly apologized to his wife for holding hands with another actress after having too much to drink, but [says] nothing else happened. Who cares?" the 74-year-old star tweeted on Monday. "He held another woman's hand, BFD. So, when is Janet Jackson's boob gonna get an apology? #JusticeForJanet." 

As fans will recall, Timberlake exposed the 53-year-old singer's breast during their 2004 Super Bowl Halftime show. The "wardrobe malfunction" occurred during their performance of "Rock Your Body." After belting out the lyric, "Bet I'll have you naked by the end of this song," Timberlake pulled away a piece of Jackson's costume, baring her breast.

The live-TV moment led to controversy. Jackson's career was also impacted. For instance, she was banned from performing at the Grammys that year and her music was blacklisted from certain radio stations. Meanwhile, many felt like Timberlake's career didn't suffer in the same way.

When asked if he and Jackson had been able to resolve the situation during a 2018 interview for Beats 1, Timberlake replied, "Absolutely." 

"And I don't know that a lot of people know that," he said. "I don't think it's my job to do that because you value the relationships that you do have with people."

As for his public apology to Biel, Timberlake issued a statement after he was photographed holding hands with and getting questionably close to his Palmer co-star Alisha Wainwright.

"I stay away from gossip as much as I can, but for my family I feel it is important to address recent rumors that are hurting the people I love," he wrote in a note posted to Instagram. "A few weeks ago I displayed a strong lapse in judgement—but let me be clear—nothing happened between me and my co-star. I drank way too much that night and I regret my behavior. I should have known better. This is not the example I want to set for my son. I apologize to my amazing wife and family for putting them through such an embarrassing situation, and I am focused on being the best husband and father I can be. This was not that. I am incredibly proud to be working on Palmer. Looking forward to continuing to make this movie and excited for people to see it."

A source told E! News Timberlake "feels terrible that this happened and for putting Jessica through the public scrutiny."

"He knows she doesn't deserve any of this and that he messed up," the insider added. "He hopes by addressing what happened and apologizing to her publicly that they can put this behind them and start to move on. Justin feels like the story isn't dying and hopes this will be the end of it. He always tries to keep his private life private, but he knows he made a big mistake in public and now has to own up to it."

While the source said "nobody is going anywhere," the insider claimed "it's definitely had an effect on their marriage and her trust in him." 

"Even if nothing more happened than what was in the photos, what he did was highly inappropriate and something that is going to take time for her to understand and get through," the source added.