Jackson blames ‘costume accident’

updated 3:51 p.m. ET March 15, 2004

NEW YORK - Echoing her on-stage partner, Janet Jackson says her breast exposure during the Super Bowl halftime show was a “costume accident.”

“It was not intentional. It was a costume accident,” Jackson tells Ebony magazine for its April issue in her first interview since the now-infamous Feb. 1 performance.

“It was an accident,” she says. “That was basically it.”

Timberlake has said that when he reached for Jackson’s top, exposing her right breast covered only in a sun-shaped nipple shield, it was a “wardrobe malfunction.”

In the article, Jackson also discusses her boyfriend of the past year and a half, record producer Jermaine Dupri, about whom she’s been reticent in the past.

“Things are great with us,” the 37-year-old singer says. “I’m sorry, but I get so tickled when you say his name. It’s so funny because I’ve never been in a relationship when my friends adore him and my family just loves him. It’s a first me for me.

“But more importantly,” she added, “I love him. Everything is great.”

Jackson is headed back to network television on April 10 as the host and musical guest of “Saturday Night Live,” NBC announced.

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