Ten years afterMichael Jackson‘s death, the singer is the subject of a new HBO documentary that has received buzz — and backlash — from those who knew and idolized the pop star.
Leaving Neverlandfollows the storyWade RobsonandJames Safechuck, who came to know “Bad” singer from a young age — as young as 5 in Robson’s case — and who now claim Jackson sexually molested both of them at separate times when they were children.
The lawsuit hasn’t stopped HBO from going ahead with the project, which the network addressed in a statement: “Despite the desperate lengths taken to undermine the film, our plans remain unchanged. HBO will move forward with the airing ofLeaving Neverland, the two-part documentary, on March 3 and 4. This will allow everyone the opportunity to assess the film and the claims in it for themselves.”
Ron Wolfson/WireImage
Here are five of the most shocking bombshells fromLeaving Neverland.
1. The abuse allegedly began at an early age.
Safechuck, 40, met Jackson when he was cast in the singer’s 1986 Pepsi commercial. He said the pop star took him and his family on tour where their relationship allegedly turned sexual when Jackson taught Safechuck how to masturbate.
“He set it up like I’m going to show you something that everybody does and you’ll enjoy it,” Safechuck said. “It felt like you were bonding, in a way. The tour was the start of this sexual, like, couple relationship.”
As for Robson, the 36-year-old choreographer met Jackson when he was 5 years old after he won a shopping mall dancing competition in his native Australia. The prize led to a meeting with Jackson backstage at his concert in Brisbane.
By 1990, when Robson was about 8 years old, the family came into contact with Jackson again during a vacation in Los Angeles. Robson alleged Jackson convinced Robson’s mother to let him stay over alone with the singer while the rest of his family went on a trip to the Grand Canyon.
Michael Jackson and James Safechuck.Dave Hogan/Getty Images
2. Jackson allegedly staged a “mock wedding ceremony” with Safechuck and gave him a wedding ring.
“We were like this married couple. And I say married because we had this mock wedding ceremony. We did this in his bedroom and we filled out some vows,” Safechuck said.
He claimed he and Jackson “would go buy them at jewelry stores” and “pretend like they were for somebody else, like for a female.”
“We would pretend my small hand fit whatever female we were buying it for,” Safechuck said. “I was really into jewelry and he would reward me with jewelry for doing sexual acts for him.”
3. Jackson allegedly gave Safechuck “drills” to avoid getting caught.
While Jackson and Safechuck were staying in hotels, he alleged the singer trained him to cover their tracks.
“He would run drills with me where we’d be in the hotel room and he would pretend like somebody was coming in and you had to get dressed as fast as possible without making noise,” Safechuck said.
He added, “So not getting caught was a big kind of fundamental [thing]. It was very much a secret. He would tell me that if anybody found out, his life would be over and my life would be over, and that’s something he tells you over and over again.”
Robson had a similar experience, claiming Jackson told him if anyone “ever found out what we were doing about the sexual stuff, that he and I would be pulled apart and we would never be able to see each other again. And that he and I would go to jail for the rest of our lives.”
Michael Jackson and Wade Robson.HBO
Robson said he was meant to dance in the singer’s “Black or White” music video, which was released in 1991.
He added, “That was really confusing. He and Michael had all of the connection and secret things that Michael and I had before. I could recognize that. There was jealousy from me, hurt, confusion.”
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5. Jackson allegedly asked Robson’s mom to let him stay alone with the singer for a year.
Jackson allegedly asked Robson’s mother, Joy, if she would leave her son with him in Los Angeles while the rest of her family returned to Australia.
“Michael said to me, ‘Will you leave [the] little one with me for a year?'” Joy said. “I was stunned. I said, ‘Absolutely not.’ He said, ‘I would do wonders for his career. I could work with him, we could do so much together, it would be wonderful for him to stay here with me.'”
Despite the singer’s attempts to convince her, Joy continued to say no.
“I said, ‘Michael, he’s my child, he’s 7 years old, I am not going to leave him with you.’ We went through this for a couple of hours, where I tried to explain to him that it wasn’t going to happen,” she said. “And after a while, he looked at me and said, ‘I always get what I want.'”
Wade Robson.
Jackson’s brothers Tito, Marlon, Jackie and the singer’s nephew Taj,defended him in an interview withCBS This Morningon Wednesday, in which they refuted the claims made in the documentary, though they admitted they hadn’t yet viewed it.
“I don’t care to see it,” Jackie, 67, said. “No, because I know my brother. I don’t have to see that documentary. I know Michael. I’m the oldest brother. I know my brother. I know what he stood for. What he was all about. Bringing the world together. Making kids happy. That’s the kind of person he was.”
Marlon, 61, claimed that Jackson was “never inappropriate” with children.
When King asked if they ever found it “odd” that Jackson would “share a bed or have slumber parties with young children,” Taj said no.
“I grew up in it, so for me it wasn’t odd,” Taj, 45, said. “You know, I think, to the outside world, yes, I think it can be odd. I mean, I’m not oblivious to what it sounds like. But when you’re actually there in that atmosphere and you’re around it, and you’re watching movies, whether, with his kids, whether it’sLittle RascalsorThree Stooges, and you’re watching these things, it’s like, it’s very innocent.”
Leaving Neverlandairs Sunday and Monday at 8 p.m. on HBO.
source: people.com
