Janet Jackson: "I've Been Cheated on a Lot"

In an exclusive interview with Parade, Janet Jackson admits that she hasn't always been so lucky in love.

"After two divorces to singer James Debarge and dancer Rene Elizondo Jr., I thought I was jinxed," Janet explains in the new issue of Parade, out this Sunday. "Maybe marriage isn't for me? Maybe it’s my fault it never works. I was always faithful. I always tried to give of myself. But maybe I’m the problem.” She continues, “When it was over, I put shields up to protect myself from being hurt again. I didn’t want to go there anymore.”

The twice-married singer says she was initially cautious about entering into a relationship with boyfriend Jermaine Dupri. “I was always reaching out for love…this time, I wasn’t going to be the first to reach out,” she says. “It was Jermaine who touched me first. Love came to me. He’s such a wonderful, sweet, very loving guy that I said to myself, ‘I’m not going to fall head over heels for this person.’”

Janet’s view on relationships is also colored by her father’s cheating; Joseph Jackson had a child out of wedlock with a fan of the Jackson 5 and later had an affair with a Motown employee, which deeply pained Janet and her mother. “I've been cheated on a lot!" she confesses. "I know what that feels like and how that hurts the heart. But... to give us a half-sister. I can't even fathom what that's like for Mother."