Producer Jermaine Dupri and singer Janet Jackson. - Contributed

The singer was left stunned after discovering her dad Joe had fathered a child with a fan of the Jackson 5 - the band made up of Janet's brothers and masterminded by Joe - in 1974, when Janet was just eight.

In 1979, Joe was accused of having an affair with an employee from his sons' record label, Motown, and Janet admits his behaviour left her wary of men and with the utmost respect for her mother, Katherine.

She says, "Besides my mother's beauty and her smarts, what I always wanted was her strength. It's a very cold world, and to have gone through what she has had to experience, from having polio as a child to those things with my brother, Michael, and then for my father to have had another child!

"I've been cheated on a lot. I know what that feels like and how that hurts the heart. But, I mean, to give us a half-sister. I can't even fathom what that's like for mother. For her to stay with my father all these years and never abandon her kids, that's true love."

Janet - who is currently dating record producer, Jermaine Dupri - admits her two failed marriages also left her hurt.

Very loyal

The 41-year-old singer - who was married to singer, James DeBarge, and then to sister La Toya's one-time backing dancer, Rene Elizondo Jr - tells Parade magazine, "After two divorces, I thought I was jinxed. I was always faithful. I always tried to give in a relationship. I was very loyal. But maybe I was the problem.

"It was awful, and I was so tired of being hurt. When it was over, I put shields up to protect myself from being hurt again. I didn't want to go there anymore."

Despite her bad experiences with men, Janet insists she has finally found her 'Mr. Right' in Jermaine, 35. She says, "He's such a wonderful, sweet, very loving guy. Rather than always reaching out for love, this time love found me."