Jermaine Dupri rejected the idea that he “fumbled” Janet Jackson and suggested maybe she was the one who let something valuable slip away.
Jermaine Dupri isn’t letting the internet write the final word on his past with Janet Jackson, flipping the long-running narrative that he “fumbled” the pop icon after their seven-year relationship.
“I don’t know what a fumble is, though,” Dupri said during a recent sit-down with Hot 97’s Nessa. “I be trying to figure out why y’all don’t say she fumbled me.”
The Grammy-winning producer dated Jackson from 2002 to 2009. Their relationship ended amid cheating rumors, but Dupri made it clear he doesn’t see himself as the one who dropped the ball.
“I’m not something that you just let roll down the street,” he said. “I don’t look at it like that. I look at it like it’s a relationship. We was together for eight years.”
Dupri also recalled an awkward moment in 2023 when Jackson brought him onstage during her “Together Again” tour stop in Atlanta.
“She ain’t even actually talk to me when she came out,” he said. “I was trying to get her to talk, but she was walking away.”
The two music heavyweights first connected backstage at one of Jackson’s shows in 2002.
Dupri has said he initially kept things professional to avoid mixing business with romance.
Their breakup, confirmed in 2009, came after Jackson reportedly discovered Dupri had been unfaithful.
In her 2022 documentary, Dupri admitted to being “reckless” during their time together.
“Girls wanted to talk to me more because I was dating her, which was really weird,” he said in the film. “And I was a man.”
At the time of their split, Jackson wanted to start a family. Sources close to the couple said the overlap of personal and professional life added strain to the relationship.