JANET CONFIRMS SPLIT WITH JERMAINE

Janet Jackson is gracing the October issue of Harper's Bazaar.



In her first interview since Michael's death she reveals, "I've been doing okay," but adds, "It's really hard to believe he's passed."

She tells the magazine the last time she saw Michael alive was at family gathering on May 14, where they cracked each other up over Thai food. "We had so much fun that day ... [He] would laugh so hard, he would just start crying," she says.

Janet was on the Atlanta set of her upcoming Tyler Perry movie when she heard the tragic news; she flew to Los Angeles to grieve with the family – and was there to comfort Michael's "sweet" daughter Paris, 11, after she spoke at the Staples Center memorial on July 7. "I was really proud [of her]," she says, adding that Paris and her brothers Prince, 12, and Blanket, 7, "are all so smart. "

As for how the kids (now being raised by grandmother Katherine Jackson) are coping, Janet tells the magazine, "They're with all their cousins. That family love, that will keep them going."

What's keeping Janet going is an inner strength inherited from her mother. "I always wanted to have my mother's strength, but I didn't know if it was really there. ... Now at least I know that I can step up to the plate and not crumble when I'm needed. When it comes to something like this that is so, so serious, so painful, so traumatic, I can handle it."

After much speculation Janet also revealed she is single since splitting with longtime boyfriend Jermaine Dupri.

"I've had people ask me out," she says, but she hasn't taken anyone up on their offers.

As far as she is concerned, whether she ever marries again – or even has kids ("Sure, I'd adopt," she says) – is out of her hands.

Says the singer, "I'll put it like this: if God wants me to, then I will."