);

Says Janet, “I have no Child”

Janet Jackson speaks up to tell audiences that the claims that she has an 18-year-old just aren’t true.

What would life be like without a Jackson in the news?  Just as the media was starting to forget about Michael’s trial, Janet Jackson has surfaced as part of a scandal bigger than the audience that was forced to witness the Superbowl “Nipplegate” episode.  This week, a source told the world that Janet is a mommy; a claim that the singer said on Wednesday is not true.

Rumors that Janet has a daughter have circulated for years, and on October 21, “Young DeBarge” provided comments that lent support to the claims.  DeBarge told  WQHT radio in NY that his brother James DeBarge and Janet have a 18-year-old daughter named Renee, who is living with Jackson’s oldest sister Rebbie Jackson.

To try and quell the rumors, the Jackson family attorney told E! Online that in previous years he had asked every member of the family and they all said the same thing, "From the sisters to the mother, every last one of them said it never happened."

But in his interview, Young DeBarge had already warned audiences that the Jackson‘s were keeping a secret. “James and the Jackson family kept everything real close, real tight,” Young DeBarge said to the radio station also known as Hot 97.   “There’s no telling what [Janet] is telling her,” Young DeBarge said.

Janet Jackson and James DeBarge were only married for three months in 1984.  “No one really knew how it was working out until things kind of surfaced,” Young DeBarge said.

At the time of Young DeBarge’s comments, publicists for Jackson didn’t make any statement at the time, which only sent the rumor mill into a further frenzy. Janet isn’t new to secrets:  after her short marriage to DeBarge, she secretly married Rene Elizondo Jr. in 1991, an act that no one knew about until they split up in 1999. 

Still on Wednesday Janet Jackson finally spoke up to tell audiences that the baby mama rumor just wasn’t true. “I do not have a child and all allegations saying so are false,” Jackson said in a statement released to the syndicated “Access Hollywood” TV show.

With conflicting stories and possible motives for each side giving their version, it’s hard to know what the truth is.  Perhaps only Janet and James know the truth.  The paternity question would make one heck of a Maury episode!