Joe Jackson, the 89-year-old patriarch of the Jackson family, appears to be in the final stages of terminal cancer. As the rest of the Jackson family prepares for the end, Janet Jackson, Joe’s youngest child, became the first ever recipient of the Impact Award at the 2018 Radio Disney Music Awards in Los Angeles.
Janet was doubly honored at the show because the Impact Award was renamed the “Janet Jackson Award.” The 52-year-old icon used that moment to honor her family’s influence on her career.
“If I have been fortunate enough to impact others it is only because I, myself, have been greatly impacted by positive people in my life,” Jackson said, “My mother nourished me with the most extravagant love imaginable, my father, my incredible father, drove me to be the best that I can.
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“My siblings set an incredibly high standard, a high bar for artistic excellence,” she added. “Sometimes, having an impact can be as simple as a smile, a handshake, or a hug.”
Joe Jackson is considered the driving force behind the Jackson 5 and the meteoric rise of Michael Jackson’s legendary career. Joe has long been a polarizing figure in his family’s life and in pop culture as he has been followed by years of allegations – including by his children — that he was abusive.
Michael claimed in a 1993 interview with Oprah that from a young age he was physically and emotionally abused by Joe, enduring incessant rehearsals, whippings, and name-calling, but also admitting that his father’s strict discipline played a large part in his success.
He famously said that Joseph sat in a chair with a belt in his hand as Michael and his siblings rehearsed and that “if you didn’t do it the right way, he would tear you up, really get you.”
In a sad coincidence, Joe’s grave illness comes as the ninth anniversary of Michael Jackson’s 2009 death approaches.