Janet Jackson publicly split from Wissam Al Mana in April 2017. God knows when they really split up, but the announcement/confirmation came just a few months after Janet welcomed their son Eissa Al Mana. It was said by some in the Jackson family that Wissam was not cool with Janet living her life and performing and all of that. It was said that he was verbally abusive to Janet and that she had enough of him by the time their son was born. Their divorce proceedings have been going on in London, and it’s been pretty quiet. But both Janet and Wissam travel around the world, and I guess they handle custodial/visitation issues for one-and-a-half-year-old Eissa by having a nanny as a go-between. Well, a nanny took Eissa to Wissam, and apparently the nanny was so frightened by Wissam that she locked herself in a bathroom, and called Janet. Then this happened:
Jackson Jackson called the police on Saturday to check on the welfare of her son Eissa Al Mana, PEOPLE has confirmed. The 1-year-old child was with his father, Jackson’s estranged husband, Wissam Al Mana, at the Nobu hotel in Malibu, California, when Jackson called authorities around 10 p.m. PT on Saturday, a spokesperson for the Malibu Lost Hill’s Sheriff’s Station said.
“Deputies were there [and] called to the scene. They decided the child was okay and they left,” the spokesperson told PEOPLE. Jackson, 52, was not at the hotel at the time, authorities confirmed.
The pop star’s brother Randy Jackson told Entertainment Tonight — which first reported the news on Sunday — that Jackson was concerned after their nanny grew “terrified” by Al Mana’s behavior and “locked herself in a bathroom, so she could contact Janet.” A rep for Al Mana did not immediately respond to PEOPLE’s request for comment.
What do you think? The way it’s being reported, it feels like… something shady is going on, possibly on both sides. On Janet’s side, maybe she’s just looking for an angle so that she can get full custody of Eissa. On Wissam’s side, maybe he really does scare the sh-t out of women, whether it’s Janet or the nanny or whoever. I don’t know. I feel like an a–hole for speculating about it, because it feels like there are some missing pieces to this story, so I guess we’ll see.
Photos courtesy of Getty.
Janet is not a drama queen.I think she was genuinely concerned about her son based on what the nanny told her.
Nothing like your famewhore brother running to the press to speak about your private life.
I hope little Eissa is okay. No traces doesn’t mean no abuse and poor little ones cannot speak for themselves.
Dr. Bruce Perry has excellent presentations on the significant impact trauma has on younger children, and proposes it is more significant than the impact on older children. His focus is often on children growing up in abusive homes.
That poor baby and I feel sorry for Janet too if this is true! This is why you don’t have children with men like this! Believe me, I know from personal experience what happens when you ignore red flags. Hopefully she can get a good custody agreement. Makes me wonder how he treats an unruly toddler…
Men like what? I will assume you are not alluding to him being Muslim/Saudi, and rather are privy to information about him not circulated by the Jackson family PR/speculated by tabloids. I feel like we actually know very little about him that hasn’t come from Jackson’s shady brothers.
If he is or has been abusive to her, then by all means he is a monster – but the source of these accusations has been her famewhore brothers, who would sell their own mother for a buck – I’ll wait till I hear from her.
I guess my point is, the last time this was talked about the internet quickly devolved to attacks on the man’s religion/culture, which makes me wish we would avoid statements like ‘men like this’ without qualification of what ‘like this’ means. Shrug.
Thank you!
@Clare of course I wasn’t referring to his ethnicity. I was referring to his obvious rage that scared the nanny into bathroom during an exchange of a baby and probably the cause of their divorce. Men “like this” (ie verbally abusive, harrassing, threatening, etc) tend to show little red flags from the beginning that most people don’t pay attention to, or think it will become a big deal, or that they won’t end up on the receiving end, or they think they can handle themselves (plus so many more reasons). I was saying these types of angry men are a nightmare to have children with and I hope that baby’s best interest is going to be protected during their custody dispute.
Fair enough Jennifer – I’ll explain my point a little further – this man will never ever receive the kind of defence from the peanut gallery that abusive white men like johnny depp etc get (and he shouldn’t – no one should). In fact as we saw last time this came up, he will be attacked (sometimes covertly) for his religion and assumed guilty based on the ‘controlling Muslim man’ trope.
All men should be held accountable for their actions, but let’s also not be so quick to judge someone who will be doubly harshly judged based on tittering from the shady as F Jackson brothers. Let’s wait and see what Janet has to say, if anything.
Having said that, I hope this is just drama over a settlement (as reported previously) and the little boy is ok.
Clare, seriously? It was pretty obvious from her statement that she was talking about red flag’s such as the verbal abuse mentioned in the above article. Call me crazy, but I believe women, and if the Jackson clan is saying that he was verbally abusive to her, then I believe it.
Secondly, I am as liberal as they come, but I am troubled by this knee jerk reaction to call anyone who is critical of Saudi Arabia’s TERRIBLE cultural treatment of women an Islamaphobe. Have you looked at their track record? Women can’t drive, they need a male relative to give them permission to do just about anything, and they are considered to be the property of their husbands or fathers.
If a woman wants to assert that she wouldn’t date a Saudi man soley because of her concerns of how women are treated in Saudi culture, that is valid, fullstop.
Janet has plenty of money. She isn’t calling the cops over a divorce settlement.
@Lonnie Tinks
But people of Saudi origin aren’t the same thing as the Saudi rulers. Aren’t most Americans around here loathe to be judged by Trump’s policies? And that’s considering that the American people had a much larger say in putting him in power. Saudi people don’t get to elect their own government, so why would you hold individuals responsible for the laws of their monarchs? There’s nothing Islamophobic about criticizing the laws and policies of Saudi Arabia, but there is about assuming certain individuals are violent or mysoginistic exclusively due to their nationality or religion.
And I believe women too. But the Jackson brothers don’t necessarily have the best track record. And they aren’t women speaking their own truth. I am personally inclined to believe there is at least some truth to the allegations, especially if Janet felt it was necessary to call the police in this instance. But believing women and believing the Jackson family are two different things.
ETA: A commenter below mentioned something from Janet’s recent shows that definitely would lend credence to abuse allegations. Very sad. I definitely believe Janet if that description of her performance is accurate. But that also doesn’t change Clare’ s point. Being an abusive a-hole like that has more to do with toxic masculinity, as found throughout most cultures and religions.
Janet’s ex-husband is not from Saudi Arabia. From what I’ve read he was born in Quatar, and was raised primarily in London.
That said, I have no real opinion on whether or not he is abusive. I agree with Kaiser that we don’t have much information to go by.
@Lonnie Tinks: You’re never obligated to sleep with or date someone you don’t want to. The problem is the fact that men from your own part of the world are at least getting a chance to prove on an individual level whether or not they’re abusive, deplorable, or misogynistic while every man you believe to have parents from Saudi Arabia gets judged that way no matter what.
Her ex husband isn’t from Saudi, he’s from Qatar who are more liberal than Saudis and actually there are diplomatic problems right now between them.
Not all gulf countries are the same.
Her ex looks scary.
He looks like Robert De Nero in “Taxi Driver”
Isn’t her ex a billionaire? I hope they can work things out for their son’s sake. And please, don’t let there be any custody drama with him disappearing to his native country with the child.
If he goes off to Saudi Arabia with the kid, I doubt Janet would ever see her child again. When a parent takes a child out of the US due to a separation/divorce to return to their native country, there is very little US courts can do to compel the parent to return with the child.
He’s not even a Saudi. He is a Qatari, born in Qatar. Grew up in the UK.
Firstly, I was sure their child was a girl. Secondly, I hope Janet, the baby and the nanny are okay…
They have a son.
I think all 3 things can be true that Kaiser wrote – that there is something missing from the story, that Janet wants full custody of her son, and that he is abusive towards Janet and the nanny.
I think there may have been physical violence too, based on some dancing she put in her show of couples being physically violent to each other and then at the end of the act, she was crying and said “that was me.”
It seemed genuinely #metoo and recent.
I would not be surprised if even Janet failed to call the cops when she was physically abused in real time.
No matter how rich or talented you are, sometimes especially if you are a rich black woman, you can still have a #me too incident.
I think it’s important people realize that domestic violence knows no economic barriers. Anyone can be a victim, whether you’re poor and living in government housing, or traveling the world in private jets with a billionaire.
As another poster noted above, I would also be concerned about him taking the child to his native country and not returning.
My daughter used to phone me terrified from her dad’s house when she was between 5-10 years old. I’d call the police and they’d always check and say it was ok. He alienated her from me for two years. When I got her back, she had a brain injury. She is fine now, we have restraining orders, and she now knows what he is and that she can never talk to or be around him, but it took a loooonngg time, lots of lawyers, police, and therapists. What MAY send him to jail is stealing money. My daughter did report her dad’s assault, but the DA didn’t feel s/he had enough evidence. He knocked her out, and she told her counselors at school, but the DA still didn’t pursue it. “Domestic” violence isn’t real violence in U.S. courts.
In short, this entire story about Al-Mana rings so true for me it’s triggering me. I think that the baby, and any surrogate of Janet’s, like the nanny, is in danger if he is mad enough at Janet on any given day. The story WILL get worse, and a bunch of people won’t believe her, even with me too.
Oh my gosh I’m so sorry for you and your daughter and am glad to hear you’re both in a better place now. Sending hugs
Snazzy, thank you. ❤️
I thought there was something fishy when Janet left her husband with an infant at home. They were private but there was subtle signs he was being controlling during and after their relationship. When there’s smoke… Plus Janet seems to have a pattern with men. I hope she gets full custody of her son and take care of herself and her own.
I can’t help wondering about the difference of perception about her case and AJ’s. Why is Janet suspected of having an agenda exactly?