Those placing bets on Justin Timberlake recreating Nipplegate during the Super Bowl LII halftime show might want to think twice before doubling down.
As the “Filthy” singer takes the stage inside U.S. Bank Stadium on Sunday in Minneapolis, NBC will instill a five-second delay as a precaution, Sporting News reported Tuesday.
Timberlake, 37, will forever be connected to one of the most controversial moments in Super Bowl history, after he exposed Janet Jackson’s right breast following their halftime performance in February 2004. The incident was dubbed a wardrobe malfunction, and all parties involved apologized, but the NFL subsequently banned MTV from producing another halftime show, while CBS was fined $550,000 by the FCC.
Though Katy Perry and the equally outrageous Lady Gaga have gone on to perform without controversy, NBC Sports chair Mark Lazarus is said to have gotten the lowdown on Timberlake’s gameday plan.
Fourteen years later, however, the shocking moment in time still haunts Timberlake.
“I stumbled through it, to be quite honest,” Timberlake told Beat 1’s Zane Lowe. “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.'”
Making peace with the past, Timberlake also confirmed he and Janet Jackson are on better terms following a brief cold war.
“I don’t know that a lot of people know that,” Timberlake said. “I don’t think it’s my job to do that, because you value the relationships that you do have with people.”