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Michael Jackson Opens Up
Feb 4, 6:47 AM EST
(Associated Press) -- A revealing and unsettling documentary in which Michael Jackson revealed that he sometimes lets children sleep in his bed unleashed a torrent of sharply divided opinion about the reclusive King of Pop.
Friends said Tuesday that the 90-minute program by British journalist Martin Bashir showed a troubled but innocent genius with a deep love of children.
But Britain's tabloid press pounced on the man they call "Wacko Jacko." The Sun said the "shocking confession" would end Jackson's career, while the Daily Express said Jackson "faces a wave of revulsion."
In 1993, Jackson -- who says he identifies with Peter Pan and lives on a ranch called Neverland --was accused of molesting a boy who had stayed at his home. He denied the allegations, and no charges were filed.
"I fully trust Michael, he is a pure innocent human being, he brings so much joy into the lives of people," said psychic Uri Geller, a friend of Jackson, who said he helped set up the interview.
"I think Michael was brutally honest, he was direct, he never flinched from the most difficult questions," Geller told British Broadcasting Corp. radio.
In the interview, screened Monday night on British TV, Jackson faced tough questions about plastic surgery, his unhappy childhood, the child abuse allegations and the notorious the baby-dangling incident.
Jackson was shown with several of the children who regularly sleep over at his California ranch, and was seen riding a Ferris wheel, driving go-carts and climbing a tree on the 3,000-acre property.
When Bashir asked Jackson about his friendships with children, Jackson said: "I have slept in a bed with many children," including actor Macaulay Culkin and his brother Kieran.
"When you say `bed,' you're thinking sexual," Jackson said. "It's not sexual, we're going to sleep. I tuck them in. ... It's very charming, it's very sweet."
The singer has a 5-year-old son, Prince Michael I, and 4-year-old daughter, Paris, born during his marriage to nurse Debbie Rowe, which ended in 1999. He also has an infant son, Prince Michael II, whose mother has been a mystery.
Jackson told Bashir that the baby was conceived by a surrogate mother whom he had never met.
"I used a surrogate mother and my own sperm cells. She doesn't know me and I don't know her," he said.
But at another point during "Living With Michael Jackson," Jackson said he had been in a relationship with the unidentified mother when the baby was conceived.
Jackson said his children had no contact with their mothers, and Prince told Bashir he did not have a mummy.
"She can't handle it ... she'd prefer them to be with me than with her," Jackson said of Rowe. "She did it for me. She said, `You need to be a daddy.'"
Jackson has routinely kept his children's heads covered while escorting them in public -- for fear of kidnap attempts, he says -- and they appeared in the program wearing masks. He often wears a surgical mask himself, although he shed it for the documentary.
In one scene, Jackson was shown cradling Prince Michael II -- nicknamed Blanket -- as he fed him a bottle of milk.
Bashir -- well known for an interview with Princess Diana, during which she admitted being unfaithful to Prince Charles -- spent eight months making the program, which will be shown in the United States at 8 p.m. EST Thursday on ABC's "20/20."
He visited Jackson at Neverland, accompanied him on a Las Vegas shopping spree and was at a Berlin hotel in November when Jackson sparked worldwide outrage by briefly dangling Prince Michael II from a fourth-floor hotel balcony.
Fans outside the building cheered, but tabloids accused Jackson of reckless endangerment. Since then, the 44-year-old singer has called the incident a "terrible mistake." But during the documentary, Jackson denied he had endangered the baby's life.
"I would never do that to my children, or any child. We were waving to thousands of fans down below and they were chanting they wanted to see my child, so I was kind enough to let them see," he told Bashir. "They got the full experience and he enjoyed it."
Jackson denied having had any alterations to his face other than two operations on his nose because "it helped me breathe better so I can hit higher notes."
"I am telling you the honest truth," he said. "I didn't do anything to my face."
Jackson became a child star singing with his brothers in the Jackson 5, and later had one of the most successful albums of all time, 1982's "Thriller," which sold an estimated 26 million copies in the United States.
He had strong follow-up albums with 1987's "Bad" and 1991's "Dangerous," but his career began to collapse in 1993 after he was accused of molesting a boy. Jackson has maintained his innocence, and reached a multimillion-dollar settlement. Jackson became visibly upset when Bashir asked about the case, saying he had paid the family to avoid "a long, drawn-out thing on TV like O.J." Simpson.
Feb 4, 6:47 AM EST
(Associated Press) -- A revealing and unsettling documentary in which Michael Jackson revealed that he sometimes lets children sleep in his bed unleashed a torrent of sharply divided opinion about the reclusive King of Pop.
Friends said Tuesday that the 90-minute program by British journalist Martin Bashir showed a troubled but innocent genius with a deep love of children.
But Britain's tabloid press pounced on the man they call "Wacko Jacko." The Sun said the "shocking confession" would end Jackson's career, while the Daily Express said Jackson "faces a wave of revulsion."
In 1993, Jackson -- who says he identifies with Peter Pan and lives on a ranch called Neverland --was accused of molesting a boy who had stayed at his home. He denied the allegations, and no charges were filed.
"I fully trust Michael, he is a pure innocent human being, he brings so much joy into the lives of people," said psychic Uri Geller, a friend of Jackson, who said he helped set up the interview.
"I think Michael was brutally honest, he was direct, he never flinched from the most difficult questions," Geller told British Broadcasting Corp. radio.
In the interview, screened Monday night on British TV, Jackson faced tough questions about plastic surgery, his unhappy childhood, the child abuse allegations and the notorious the baby-dangling incident.
Jackson was shown with several of the children who regularly sleep over at his California ranch, and was seen riding a Ferris wheel, driving go-carts and climbing a tree on the 3,000-acre property.
When Bashir asked Jackson about his friendships with children, Jackson said: "I have slept in a bed with many children," including actor Macaulay Culkin and his brother Kieran.
"When you say `bed,' you're thinking sexual," Jackson said. "It's not sexual, we're going to sleep. I tuck them in. ... It's very charming, it's very sweet."
The singer has a 5-year-old son, Prince Michael I, and 4-year-old daughter, Paris, born during his marriage to nurse Debbie Rowe, which ended in 1999. He also has an infant son, Prince Michael II, whose mother has been a mystery.
Jackson told Bashir that the baby was conceived by a surrogate mother whom he had never met.
"I used a surrogate mother and my own sperm cells. She doesn't know me and I don't know her," he said.
But at another point during "Living With Michael Jackson," Jackson said he had been in a relationship with the unidentified mother when the baby was conceived.
Jackson said his children had no contact with their mothers, and Prince told Bashir he did not have a mummy.
"She can't handle it ... she'd prefer them to be with me than with her," Jackson said of Rowe. "She did it for me. She said, `You need to be a daddy.'"
Jackson has routinely kept his children's heads covered while escorting them in public -- for fear of kidnap attempts, he says -- and they appeared in the program wearing masks. He often wears a surgical mask himself, although he shed it for the documentary.
In one scene, Jackson was shown cradling Prince Michael II -- nicknamed Blanket -- as he fed him a bottle of milk.
Bashir -- well known for an interview with Princess Diana, during which she admitted being unfaithful to Prince Charles -- spent eight months making the program, which will be shown in the United States at 8 p.m. EST Thursday on ABC's "20/20."
He visited Jackson at Neverland, accompanied him on a Las Vegas shopping spree and was at a Berlin hotel in November when Jackson sparked worldwide outrage by briefly dangling Prince Michael II from a fourth-floor hotel balcony.
Fans outside the building cheered, but tabloids accused Jackson of reckless endangerment. Since then, the 44-year-old singer has called the incident a "terrible mistake." But during the documentary, Jackson denied he had endangered the baby's life.
"I would never do that to my children, or any child. We were waving to thousands of fans down below and they were chanting they wanted to see my child, so I was kind enough to let them see," he told Bashir. "They got the full experience and he enjoyed it."
Jackson denied having had any alterations to his face other than two operations on his nose because "it helped me breathe better so I can hit higher notes."
"I am telling you the honest truth," he said. "I didn't do anything to my face."
Jackson became a child star singing with his brothers in the Jackson 5, and later had one of the most successful albums of all time, 1982's "Thriller," which sold an estimated 26 million copies in the United States.
He had strong follow-up albums with 1987's "Bad" and 1991's "Dangerous," but his career began to collapse in 1993 after he was accused of molesting a boy. Jackson has maintained his innocence, and reached a multimillion-dollar settlement. Jackson became visibly upset when Bashir asked about the case, saying he had paid the family to avoid "a long, drawn-out thing on TV like O.J." Simpson.
I especially like this part: Jackson denied having had any alterations to his face other than two operations on his nose because "it helped me breathe better so I can hit higher notes."
"I am telling you the honest truth," he said. "I didn't do anything to my face."
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