Janet Jackson doc explores her scandalous marriage to James DeBarge

nypost.com:

deal with his drug problems.“I wanted to be able to stand on my own feet,” the 55-year-old pop superstar reveals in the two-part documentary “Janet,” which airs on Lifetime Friday and Saturday. “And at that time I thought that there was no other way I would be able to kind of get my own life — unless I got married.”The two met when the sibling group DeBarge made its debut on “Soul Train” while Jackson was there with sister LaToya and brother Jermaine.

And the shy sweethearts bonded over both coming from musical families while talking on the phone.“I started dating him when I was 16,” Jackson says. “He was a sweet guy.

He was a nice guy.”But although they felt safe with each other, DeBarge admits, “I don’t know why anyone would trust me.”The young lovebirds would sneak around to see each other as much as possible. “It wasn’t easy for us to see each other being that she was very well protected by her mom and dad,” says DeBarge. “I just had to be with her all the time.

I think we were just so both in love with each other that we just needed to block everyone else out.”That eventually led to the couple deciding to get married in 1984, with Jackson getting a blessing from LaToya but not telling the rest of the family.