Infamous: Justin Timberlake exposed Janet Jackson’s breast at 2004 Super Bowl
It was a notorious event which etched terms ‘wardrobe malfunction’ and ‘nipplegate’ in pop culture vocabulary forever.
In 2004, Justin Timberlake made waves as he removed a piece of Janet Jackson’s costume which exposed her breast during the Super Bowl XXXVIII halftime show.
The body part was exposed for less than a second before CBS cut to an aerial view of Reliant Stadium in Houston, however, the image had already been sent to an estimated 143 million viewers.
After exposing Jackson’s chest- which featured a nipple ring – the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) created a new rule for live television performances, implementing a five-second broadcast delay.
The FCC then fined CBS a record $550,000 which was fought in Supreme Court but was ultimately voided by the Third Circuit pf Appeals in 2011 and a case to reinstate the fine was refused in 2012.
One unlikely legacy that the incident may have left behind is that YouTube co-founder Jawed Karim claimed that it is what led to the creation of the video sharing website.
Last month Timberlake opened up about the incident during an interview with Zane Lowe for Apple Music’s Beats 1.
He said that he and Janet have ‘absolutely’ made peace about it, adding that ‘I don’t know that a lot of of people know that.’
Ouch: The body part was exposed for less than a second before CBS cut to an aerial view of Reliant Stadium in Houston, however, the image had already been sent to an estimated 143 million viewers
Justin continued: ‘I don’t think it’s my job to do that because you value the relationship that you do have with people.’
His full answer when asked by Zane about the moment was: ‘I stumbled through it, to be quiet honest. I had my wires crossed, and it’s just something that you have to look back on and go, like, “Ok, well, you know, you can’t change what’s happened but you can move forward and learn from it.”‘
His first Super Bowl halftime show was in 2001 as part of the boy band, ‘N Sync.