Janet Jackson on Her Harris 'Apology:' Not So Fast

Over the weekend, Janet Jackson reportedly apologized over remarks she made about Kamala Harris in reference to the vice president's racial and ethnic background. Now, Jackson's team says she didn't issue an apology after all, leaving the pop star's confusing comments about Harris floating in the ether.

• Original controversy: In an interview published Saturday in the Guardian, Nosheen Iqbal brought up to Jackson that Harris could soon be the nation's first Black female president—to which Jackson, 58, responded: "Well, you know what they supposedly said? She's not Black. That's what I heard. That she's Indian." When Iqbal informed Jackson that Harris is actually both, Jackson said she'd heard Harris' Jamaican father, who split up with Harris' Indian mother when Harris was a young child, was white, which People notes is a false conspiracy that's been circulating. The Washington Post adds that Donald Harris was the first Black person to receive tenure in Stanford's economics department.

• More on Harris becoming president: Iqbal continued to press Jackson on whether America was ready to put a woman of color into the Oval Office, to which Jackson replied, in a "stage whisper": "I don't know. Honestly, I don't want to answer that because I really, truthfully, don't know. I think either way it goes is going to be mayhem."
• Initial apology: A man named Mo Elmasri, who "apparently inaccurately" claimed to be Jackson's manager, per Variety, told BuzzFeed that Jackson's remarks were "based on misinformation" and that "Janet respects Harris' dual heritage as both Black and Indian and apologizes for any confusion caused."
• Not so fast: Soon after that "apology" was out, a seemingly real representative for Jackson reached out to People and told the magazine that not only was Elmasri not Jackson's manager (her brother Randy Jackson is), he's not tied to her team at all—meaning, apparently, that there was no apology from Jackson.
• Elmasri: He now claims he's been canned by Jackson's camp, per an email to the Daily Beast. "Janet Jackson fired me due to disagreements between me, her, and Randy, after her meeting with the Guardian and her unbalanced statements," he says. "That's all I can say."

More from Jackson's Guardian interview here. (More Janet Jackson stories.)