Original subtitles

This programme contains scenes

which some viewers may find upsetting.

This is me in 2006 during the making of my first film on Michael Jackson.

CHEERING

..Mikey!

Jackson had been acquitted of charges of child sex abuse

a year earlier.

It wasn't the first time he'd hit the headlines for his inappropriate

relationships with children.

Like so many of those who'd grown up with his music,

I didn't want to accept that Michael Jackson

was a child abuser.

Resolution of this case is in no way

an admission of guilt by Michael Jackson.

My brother, the legendary King of Pop, Michael Jackson,

past away on Thursday...

In the years following his death,

the allegations of abuse have become a distant memory.

Michael Jackson's story has been revised to solely one

of his unique individual genius.

Indisputably the greatest pop star to have ever lived.

The brand continued to thrive...

I'll love you forever, Michael Jackson. Woo!

..until new allegations made him headline news again

for all the wrong reasons.

An explosive new documentary is reigniting claims

that Michael Jackson sexually abused children.

Even though it happened to me,

I still couldn't believe that what Michael did was a bad thing.

Were we in denial about Michael Jackson, the abuser?

Back up, now, back up.

And were we complicit in celebrating Jackson the icon, while choosing

to ignore the truth?

I wanted to go back to our seduction by Jackson, the child superstar,

to work out how we got from there to here.

Everybody wanted a piece of Michael Jackson.

I mean, I can't even imagine what that was like.

The air is rare up there and it can really mess your mind up.

Donny, can you remember the first time you met Michael?

I do remember the first time vividly. It was in Toronto.

My brothers and I were doing a show there and the Jacksons

were performing the following evening. And I remember looking

stage right, and there's Michael in the wings, peeking out,

looking at me.

We all went back to the hotel and we all were in this hotel room

talking and laughing.

And Michael and I were in this room just laughing and playing with toys.

Just, we were two little 13-year-old teenagers having a great time.

Pick this one because this was the most frequently asked question.

You know the Osmond Brothers, and now you're friends with them,

or do you fight like fiends?

You hate each other? Tell the truth now. OK.

We met... AUDIENCE CHUCKLES

We met in Canada.

We had a good time together, came to the hotel and we talked awhile.

Coming from Kentucky...

It's so amazing that when you met, you just started playing because,

you know, you're already, you're a showbiz entertainer.

You know, you're an adult.

Well, nobody really has that perspective about Michael

other than me. And in fact, Mike

told me, he said, "You're the only person on this planet that can

"really understand what my childhood was like."

Do you ever get bugged with questions? Oh, no.

Is there anything anybody hasn't asked you by now?

Um, I think they've asked me everything so far.

You know, you read all the fan magazines. There's 16 and Fave

and Hype and Spec and Mickey and Mouse and whatever they are!

This poor man's life has been dissected completely.

However, there must be some...

He was a child and he really wanted that childhood. So did I.

I mean, we both were robbed of our traditional childhoods

and that's why I hold on to that memory, because I know how much

it meant to me.

And I really knew how much it meant to Mike.

We both held on to that memory tightly because it was kind of

like a foundation for us.

I've talked to Donny Osmond and he said the Michael talked a lot

about the lost childhood. Mm.

Did he talk to you about his lost childhood?

Michael never stopped talking about the lost childhood.

And...

You know, I used to tell him,

"I don't think that you missed out on your childhood.

"I think that what happened is you miss your childhood."

APPLAUSE

Yes! The Jackson Five, ladies and gentlemen.

I met Michael when he was 12.

I was 14.

Diana Ross called me.

I was running her fan club when I was a kid.

And Diana Ross called to tell me that she had discovered this group,

the Jackson Five, and that she wanted me,

as her fan club president,

to go to see them in their first performance

as Motown recording artists.

Hey, how about showing me some of

those dance steps you were just doing? Which one?

Well, the one that looks cute on you and the one

that if I do it, I'll get arrested.

Oh, you mean, the one like... DRUM BEATS

..the one like this.

And Michael and I hit it off like that.

He was very happy, very excited

about what was going on at that time in his life.

He was becoming a Motown recording artist and the future was bright.

People hate it when I say this, the fan base doesn't like this,

no-one likes this, I'm sure the family doesn't like this,

but I feel that with the exception

of what was going on with Joseph,

which was kind of before the Jackson Five, Michael

really had a good time.

Joe was this old-school authoritarian,

but he'd been in a band, you know, and he knew it

it's going to take in order to make it, you know.

Tommy Chong was the guitarist in fellow Motown band

Bobby Taylor and the Vancouvers.

He knew, he knew what he... what you had to do.

And then when you found, you know, those kids

were so talented, you know.

And then it was a slam dunk for Joe, because all he had to do

is just make sure that they kept focused in on the music

and the dancing.

HE SINGS INDISTINCTLY

The first time I saw Michael, I mean, I was...

everybody was blown away.

He was the smallest adult I'd ever seen in my life.

He thought, acted like a grown man and he stood out

from all of the family.

Even though he was the smallest,

he ran that band. Yeah, right.

He was in charge. He was a guy that

they would say, "Well, what do you think of this step, Michael?

"What do you think of this tune, Michael?

So he was like, yeah, right.

So he was... He was the boss.

Hey, hello, there. Hey, Jacques.

Good to meet you. My pleasure, my pleasure. Good to meet you.

I want to know about you and Michael. Michael was my man.

He was like a son to me. And his father and I were like brothers.

Don King was a close family friend and promoter to Michael

and the Jacksons.

So close to Katherine and Joe. Yes, yes, yes. Yes.

They were adorable. Joseph was tenacious.

He stayed on, he didn't give them, I wanted to cry with, you know,

practice, practice, practice.

And he is what made the Jackson Five, you know what I mean?

But in the process of doing this,

he ostracised himself from the family unit as far as a loving

and a doting dad, you know what I mean?

And so they never really looked at him as their daddy,

they looked at him as Joseph.

Not very often would he mention his father.

I don't think he really had a good relationship like I had with mine.

I probably will get in trouble by saying this, but, um...

..I never got a good feeling about Joe, around Joe.

You know, Michael told me one time that he told his father

that, "If you ever hit me again, I'm not going to sing," and that

kind of cut off the abuse.

And he had that going for him that maybe the other

boys didn't have.

Which was, you know, Michael was the sort of cash cow of the group.

And if he stopped wanting to sing, that was going

to be very damaging to everybody.

SCREAMING AND CHEERING

What do you think Michael learnt from his father Joe

about power and control?

I think Michael got his self-confidence from Joe.

You know, Michael got his, you know, his sense

of authority from Joseph.

I also saw a lot of Joseph in Michael in other ways and in ways

that I wasn't happy about as we got older.

And he did a lot of things during the course of my friendship

with him that I would often say to him,

"Mike...that's very Joseph of you," I used to tell him.

That's very Joseph of you, you know,

because Michael could be pretty

cut-throat as he was becoming a superstar.

Everything that came within Michael's shadow dimmed greatly,

no matter who they were.

And I think that... that was the case with the family.

And I speculate that that did not feel good to them.

You don't feel guilty or worried about your brothers? No.

Because they understand.

This is Michael Jackson talking

very candidly to ABC's Sylvia Chase

about leaving the Jackson Five behind.

And the idea of being separated from them, does that hurt?

No, it doesn't.

It, um... Because there's other

kinds of sounds of music that I love to do.

It hurts what is inside of me, and it can't get out,

and it's hidden from the world,

when I do those solo albums

and I'm doing all kinds of different music.

It's wonderful. I feel like I'm

accomplishing what I'm supposed to do.

CHEERING Thank you.

Oh, you're beautiful. I love those songs.

Those were magic moments with all my brothers, including Jermaine.

But, you know, those were good songs.

I like those songs a lot, but especially I like...

..the new songs.

CROWD SCREAMS

I was at his house and he said, "I'm working on a new album."

He had a little cassette of a rough mix of Thriller.

And he said, "Do you want to hear it?" And I said, "Oh, I'd love to."

He puts this thing in and I thought, "Oh, my goodness, this is going

"to change the world."

That moonwalk where he threw the hat and I thought,

"Oh, Mike, you got it."

Even down to the glove, I said, "You're a marketing genius."

He knows what he's doing.

The genius of Michael really catapulted him into superstardom.

You would think that after Thriller, that would be the start

of something really great.

It was the start of a lot of great celebrity.

The record of the year is...

She said.

..Beat It, Michael Jackson.

I'd like to thank all my brothers

who I love very dearly, including Jermaine.

It was the start of more fame.

It was the start of bigger concert tours.

But it wasn't the start of any happiness.

SCREAMING

Michael!

He became more withdrawn.

And more difficult.

OK, guys...

He goes in a very short period of time from this sort of,

this beautiful black man, this performer who's a genius

to a kind of bizarre caricature of a superstar.

Well, are we talking about plastic surgery?

Well, everything, really. Plastic surgery was part of it, wasn't it?

Part of it, yeah. Did you talk about that? Did you...? We did.

We had conversations about the plastic surgery.

Did he tell you why he was doing it?

He told me really specifically that...

..one of the... one of the reasons,

I don't know all the reasons, but one of the reasons was because

every time he looked in the mirror,

he saw his dad's reflection coming back at him.

If I was back then, the person that I am now, I would have handled

it differently and I probably would have been much

more aggressive about it.

What would you have said to him?

I would have said something like,

"You've got to go and get this worked out.

"Maybe you need psychiatric help.

You know, "Maybe this has to do with, you know, not with Joseph,

"but about how you feel within and about what you feel

"like when you're looking in the mirror."

By the time you get to Bad, like the skin bleaching,

you know, has kicked in.

I wrote a review of Bad for the Village Voice that got on the cover,

but the headline was like, "I'm white."

You know, I got, like, death threats and people calling me crazy.

You know, saying, like, "How dare you talk about Michael in this way?

"He's still a black man," you know what I mean?

Really think that plastic surgery, you know, came from feeling

like he had to make himself into somebody that white people

wouldn't hate on sight.

He didn't feel like he was good enough, that he was big enough,

that he was interesting enough to have that much attention

focused on him.

And everything that happened then after that was in an attempt

to either fashion himself into something he thought

would be more interesting, or to create publicity

around what he thought would be more fascinating.

CROWD SCREAMS

When I went to see him in the late '80s at Wembley Stadium

it's the Bad tour, he was a global superstar.

He was just too historically significant not to go and see.

And by this point, the spectacle had eclipsed his musical genius.

He was a phenomenon.

Success is in numbers.

He who has the largest audience will sell the most.

So why do I want to sell to one demographic?

You know, there's approximately 40 million African-American black

folks in America, somewhere in the 60s of Hispanics.

Somewhere around 230 million whites.

Why would I want to segregate and just sell to one of those?

Why wouldn't I want to sell to all of those?

He knew the audience.

He knew how to excite an audience.

Bucharest, Romania, 200,000 people.

Donald Trump, you can't even come close.

SCREAMING, CHEERING

Delivering that spectacle takes the organization and apparatus

of a multinational corporation.

Once the brand of Jackson is so huge, it's a machine

in its own right, producing money.

The show is just getting bigger,

the spectacle ever greater, and we expect his behaviour

at the same time to be as fantastical, as extraordinary

and out of this world.

Looking back again at the 1984 Grammy Awards, I realised

there was something I'd missed.

Here's Michael Jackson at the peak of his powers.

He's got the biggest Hollywood star, Brooke Shields, on his arm

and he doesn't even glance at her.

And on the other arm, he has Emmanuel Lewis, a 12-year-old

child star actor.

I had a conversation with Michael about Emmanuel Lewis.

I went to Hayvenhurst one day, to hang out with Michael

and Katherine opened the door.

And I said, "Where's Mike?"

And she said, "He's out in the backyard playing."

We were like 23 or 24,

and I'm like, "Playing? What are you talking about?

And I went out into the backyard and there is Michael with this kid

and, you know, and they're like, you know, laughing and rolling

around on the basketball court and just like, you know, wrestling.

And I was like, it just struck me as so unusual.

And I asked Michael, I said, you know. "Why... like, why

"are you hanging out with this little kid?"

And he said, "Because, you know, I like him and he's fun

"and he's a good actor.

"And I feel like I can teach him the ropes in terms

"of how it is in the entertainment business for kids."

I was straight up with him and I said, "I think it's kind of weird."

Not that I thought it was sexual.

It never crossed my mind that there was anything

sexual about it.

I just told Michael, "I wouldn't have a 12-year-old friend.

"Why would... Why do you? We're like in our 20s, dude.

"Why do you have a friend who's 12 years old?"

And when he explained it to me, I just agreed that it was OK.

Publicly, Jackson was living the pop star dream, but his private life

was fiercely guarded from the public gaze.

In 1988, he bought Sycamore Valley, a ranch set in 2,500 acres

of idyllic and remote Californian countryside.

He renamed it Neverland and transformed it into a fantasy

castle befitting of the King of Pop.

Ready, get set, go! You cheater!

Neverland is me, you know.

It represents the totality of who I am.

It really does.

I love Neverland.

He's the most reckless driver. Oh, my God.

It was the dream of an ideal childhood.

It's a child's vision of what you'd like to be living.

We talk so much about Peter Pan and et cetera, but, you know,

you can also think of him as a kind of, um, wizard figure.

They create alternate worlds and they retreat to their castle

to do that and they are above the rest of humanity.

The reclusive Michael Jackson hadn't spoken publicly about his life

for a number of years.

Did you find it harder to get access to him, to get contact with him?

Definitely. He was harder to reach after Thriller.

I still...I would still get there, but it would not be as easy.

He chose to break his silence in a live broadcast

with Oprah Winfrey from inside Neverland.

Sam, don't be kissing the monkeys, OK?

Good girl. Ugly tongue, though.

I gotta go.

I gotta go interview Michael Jackson. Excuse me.

Jackson used the interview to challenge some

of the more outlandish claims made about his private life

by the tabloid media.

I cannot find the oxygen chamber anywhere in the house.

That story is so crazy.

I mean, it's one of those tabloid things.

It was completely made up. OK.

But you are in something there. There's a picture of you.

Where did that come from?

How did it get started?

I did a commercial for Pepsi and I was burned very badly.

And we settled for, like, 1 million and I gave all the money,

we built this place called the Michael Jackson Burn Center.

And that's a piece of technology that's used for burn victims.

How important was Michael Jackson at the time in terms

of selling tabloid newspapers?

If you had a Jackson story, it would run front page in England

and then the phones would light up

and it'd be Italy wanting the story and Germany

would want the story.

And it was... You know, he was currency you could spend

anywhere in the world.

These pictures went all over the world with this lie

attached to it.

It's a complete lie.

Why do people buy these papers?

It's not the truth. It's crazy. It is...

Why would I want to sleep in a chamber?

Well, the rumour was that you were sleeping in the chamber because you

didn't want to grow old and that... That's stupid.

It's completely made up and I'm embarrassed.

The common theme was you have to have a Jacko story.

And Jackson obliged them. He knew they had to do it.

And he was manufacturing and faking his own stories to keep

himself up there.

So there was this sort of symbiotic relationship between the tabloids

and Jackson, him creating stories, them creating stories and both

benefiting from that. Absolutely, yeah.

What I really feel was regrettable was that he felt like he needed

to be more sensational,

which is why he started those early publicity campaigns.

I'm speaking of the first one, the hyperbaric chamber.

Mm. And then the Elephant Man's bones

and these things that, you know,

that he orchestrated because he wanted his life

to be more sensational and he wanted to be more sensational than he felt

than he was. Is that something he said to you? Yes. Yes.

What did you make of that?

I told him very specifically,

"Don't...don't mess around with the media."

It's a bit puzzling, isn't it?

On the one hand, he's leaking these stories to the press.

On the other hand, he's denying them.

But isn't that just creating this mystique?

What's fascinating to me about you is that obviously

you have this childlike aura about you.

And I see children with you and they

play with you like you are one of them.

Jackson learnt to muddy the waters between truth and lies

in the tabloid press.

And looking back, that tactic allowed him to cast doubt

on all stories about him, even if some were true.

We'll have, like, 100 bald-headed children here

who all have cancer and they're

running around and they're enjoying themselves.

And it just made me cry happy tears that I was able to do

that for them, it made me so pleased inside. When I came

here about a month ago to shoot commercials with you for

promoting tonight's event, one of the things that really impressed

me the most and I hope you guys are getting shots of this...

I don't know how you are if all the cameras are on us, but...

Oh, we got other cameras.

..is that there are built inside the walls here,

beds, beds for some of those sick children who come.

And what I realised when I saw that is that you have to be a person

who really cares about children to build it into your architecture.

Yes. Yes.

Historically, only royalty can buy palaces, hire whole fleets

of people who will do everything from cook your meals to secure

whatever you need.

His house was, I would guess, 5,000 or 6,000 square feet.

To get to his bedroom, you...

..there's a locked door with a combination lock.

Once you opened the door with a combination, you then walked

through a lengthy hallway that was alarmed, notifying whoever

was in the bedroom that somebody was coming.

Security is very important to somebody who's having a sexual

relationship with a child.

They don't want to go to prison.

HE SPEAKS OWN LANGUAGE

Michael Jackson is in Bangkok, Thailand, tonight, where he has now

postponed two concerts, claiming that he is ill.

I'm sorry for not performing yesterday as I am really sick,

and still under medical treatment.

I have been instructed my doctor not to perform before Friday,

August 27th, 1993.

I will see you all on Friday.

I love you all. Goodbye.

Jackson had just begun the final leg in Thailand of an 18-month

global tour to promote his Dangerous album.

His sickness coincided with a breaking news story at home.

Well, back in Los Angeles, there's a press frenzy over investigations

into child abuse by Jackson.

A 13-year-old boy who's complained of sexual abuse

against Michael Jackson has prompted a police investigation.

It is amazing stuff...

You don't get a bigger star than Michael Jackson because

he wasn't just like us. He's like... he is like American royalty.

And to have this allegation against him, you don't get bigger.

The big question then was who is this kid who's accused

Jackson of molestation?

I mean, it's... you had to have a name behind it.

Jordy was, you know, this, you know, this kid.

I mean, I have to tell you, I never had, like, much interest

in any of these kids, you know,

because these are just like, these were kids and I was in my 30s

and they were just around and I

wasn't really paying attention to them.

But I did meet him and I met June...

His mother. His mother.

Michael really liked them.

He felt like this was a family that he didn't have at home.

You know, like, he was always at odds with his family

and he was, like, searching for family and...

..these people sort of represented that in his life. Michael, though,

became quite obsessed with Jordy, didn't he?

I mean, he stayed in their house. Yeah.

So I think it was a kind of

obsession on Michael's side with Jordy.

I think it was...both.

You know, the Chandlers and Michael became obsessed with each other.

Like, they all just fell into this, like, crazy thing

that I personally couldn't understand, couldn't relate to,

didn't want to know anything about.

Do you remember the 1993 World Music Awards at Monaco?

What did you make of that?

By that time, I pretty much had accepted that Michael

was just gonna do what he was going to do.

You know, if it had been up to me,

that... none of that stuff would have been going on.

But it just was not up to me at all.

THEY SING

At the World Music Awards

Jackson had been the star guest

and had appeared during a performance

by Boyz II Men, with Jordan Chandler on his lap.

SINGING

During the making of my first film on Michael Jackson,

I'd managed to track down his former manager, who'd accompanied him

on the Monaco trip.

There's a shot at me walking up,

looking a bit younger, more innocent.

Bob Jones worked with Jackson for 17 years, but had known him

since his Motown days.

The first thing, I was just surprised that he was

willing to talk.

You know, it's so hard to get anyone genuine from Michael's

inner circle to talk. No-one ever.

It's like the Mafia, it's a code of silence.

What did your job working for Michael entail?

You know, dealing with the tabloids,

dealing with the fan magazines,

dealing with the fanatics who are his fans.

And they are fanatical.

Bob Jones' main role was to advise Jackson on his public image.

I wanted to know how he'd responded to Jackson's unsettling behaviour

with Jordan Chandler, that the world had witnessed.

I said stop. This is wrong.

At the World Music Awards, the first time we went there and

he's sat next to Prince Albert.

But no, you can't...

You can take a horse to the water, but you can't make him drink.

But what was he saying by doing that?

What was he saying to the world?

"I can do what I want to."

Doing what he wanted extended to Jackson and Jordan's

sleeping arrangements.

I'd heard rumours that he'd shared a bedroom with Jordan

during the Monaco trip on the pretext

of the pair feeling unwell.

In the suites, the awards, Jordy and Michael were in there with flu.

Supposedly. I got the doctor...

..to come, they said they had the flu.

So I had to get a doctor and the

mother and daughter went out shopping to Italy and they were

in the suite with the flu.

For how long? All day.

But they were in the bedroom at night, too.

It's a game that's being played between him and me.

Which is I know something and I'm going to tease

you with little snippets of what I know.

And what do you think was going on?

I have no idea.

I think you do.

Oh, you do?

I wasn't in there.

I...I had a suite on a different floor.

Familiarity breeds contempt,

and I always stayed on a different floor than my boss.

Is he a paedophile? That's the question that should be asked.

Is he a paedophile?

And...

..I don't ask the question.

That's a failure, that's a regret, that's a regret of mine.

The boy told a caseworker his four-month relationship with Jackson

escalated from hugs to various sexual acts.

In Monaco earlier this year,

where the boy and his little sister were photographed with Jackson,

the 13-year-old says the relationship really got out of hand.

The child claims that Jackson kissed and rubbed against him

and performed oral sex on the youngster.

You managed to get a copy of the social worker's report

in the Chandler case before anyone else and read it.

It detailed the slow seduction and then into graphic detail

of the molestation.

Problem was, back then, no-one would print this stuff.

It was too salacious. You don't want

to read that when you're having your cornflakes in the morning.

It's just...disgusting.

There have been many disgusting statements made recently

concerning allegations of improper conduct on my part.

These statements about me are totally false.

Jordy Chandler, he was able to give the description

of a particular anomaly on the underside of his penis

and what it looked like, both in a flaccid state and erect state

and actually give a drawing of what it looked like,

which of course inspired us to go ahead and follow up the logical

corroborative evidence and go

look at it and take a photograph of it.

I have been forced to submit to a dehumanising and humiliating

examination by the Santa Barbara County Sheriff Department

and the Los Angeles Police Department earlier this week.

They served a search warrant on me, which allowed them to view

and photograph my body, including my penis, my buttocks, my lower torso,

thighs and any other area that they wanted.

The photographs did corroborate the statement of Jordy Chandler

and I always felt that that was

rather remarkable corroborative evidence.

And then, of course, we had the information from his mother

that corroborated the fact that he had spent multiple nights

in Jordan's room and in his bed all night long.

So I felt the combination of all of that effectively created

a pretty prosecutable case.

A California judge has set a trial date for the civil suit.

Jackson's lawyers say a criminal

grand jury is about to hear evidence in the case.

Those are the days when you were

guaranteed to get a front page with anything about Jackson.

Why didn't he go to the police?

It was a frantic time.

You had people flying in from Australia, from Japan,

from Germany with attache cases full of cash. You know, we're

in Hollywood, this is how the machine works.

It was like sharks circling.

And then all of a sudden the chum went in the water

and all after the same story, it was fantastic.

Whether Michael was guilty

or innocent at that point was inconsequential.

My interest was strictly for the money.

Paul Barresi was a broker of tabloid stories surrounding Jordan Chandler

and part of the ever-expanding circus clamouring to cash in

on the Jackson scandal.

All of the people closest to him came out of the woodwork - the maid,

the butler, the chauffeur, the cooks - claiming

that they had witnessed molestation.

People had the opportunity to make

more money in five minutes

than they could ever see their entire lives.

See, my hands aren't clean either.

I'm right there in the mix, along with everyone else,

trying to make a buck.

Michael is my brother, I love him a great deal,

but I cannot and I will not be a silent collaborator

of his crimes against small, innocent children.

La Toya has been painted over the years as the mad one,

you know, doing it for money.

You know, it's totally unfair -

when his sister La Toya made those comments

she also mentioned something

that caught a lot of people's attention.

She said that she and her mother, Katherine, had seen cheques

that Michael had written to these young boys.

There are two cheques that I know of that she has shown me

and it's for a substantial amount of money.

And she was outraged over it.

My brother is not a child molester.

La Toya is lying. And I'll tell her to her face she's lying.

Now, to this day, she denies it because she has no support.

In other words, if she were to go and tell the truth, Michael

would drop everything and she'd probably be out on the street.

And let me ask you a question.

What 35-year-old man do you know that sleeps with little boys

and stays with them for a week or two weeks or whatever?

And sleep in the same bed.

Well, you know what, I'm in this situation, La Toya,

if it's OK with you, I'd rather conduct the interview

than answer your questions.

La Toya subsequently retracted her allegations.

After the frenzy at the beginning, the police and Jackson's people

successfully plugged all the leaks

and Jackson's people started to win the propaganda war.

Jackson had a huge machine.

It's a massive multinational billion-dollar business.

And like all businesses, it has a legal team that takes care

of everything and sorts out the little niggly problems -

the business side, the PR side.

I didn't have any conversations with Michael about Jordy

until it became a real issue with the allegations

and with everything that was going on. What happened?

Did he phone you? Did he ask for your advice?

What did he want to know?

He didn't want to... He didn't ask me.

Michael never asked me for advice when it came to Jordy.

Bob Jones asked me to call Michael.

We all felt like Michael needed

to remove himself from that family...

..because he was being too...

His presence was too disruptive.

And I didn't trust them.

I had a conversation with Michael where I said, you know,

"Why do you need these people in your life?

"They're nothing but trouble.

"You're Michael Jackson. Why do you even care about these people?

"Why are you sleeping out there at their house when you've got

"Neverland and, you know... What is that?"

Bob and I talked a lot about the different, different kids

hanging around, and Bob didn't like it either, you know.

I mean, he didn't like it.

But, you know, when you're working for Michael Jackson...

He was arranging... I mean, but he was arranging for them to be there.

So how did he not like it? It was going to it was either

going to be that or lose his job.

He wanted to try to protect his relationship with Michael.

And one of the ways that he did that was by, you know, letting

Michael have his way.

And I think that that's the problem that most of the people back

then faced - when you're working

for the biggest celebrity in the world.

And he happens to be somebody that you care about and that

you've known since he was a little boy, in the case of Bob.

Um, you know, I think it... I think it clouds your vision and

it blinds your better judgment.

Reports say police have interviewed at least four other boys.

Some have appeared on American television to defend the star.

He cares a lot about kids and he's very kind.

And just say you went to a toy shop, you showed him a toy you wanted,

he'd buy that. He's like a best friend except he's big.

A second family claiming to be friends with the entertainer

was introduced to CNN late Thursday by an associate of Jackson.

Yeah, you know, there's been different times where it'd just be

me and Michael and there'd be other

times where he has other friends over, too.

That's what, like what Brett said, it's just a slumber party.

You just have a lot of fun.

From your standpoint, does it seem unusual for a 34-year-old man

to have kids sleeping over?

Not when you know Michael's background.

Under normal circumstances, possibly, yes.

But, Michael, everybody knows he didn't have a childhood.

There's that reference again to Michael Jackson's lost childhood.

It wasn't just the kids that Jackson

befriended who appeared on TV to defend him,

it was his fellow pop stars, too.

I feel a lot of love for him.

I know that there's a lot of love going towards him.

And whether... whether or not he did the thing is not the point.

The point is that's a man needs a lot of love.

I think it's pathetic that somebody would go after someone

like Michael Jackson with such vigour.

And it's obvious what they want.

And it seems obvious to me that he is innocent.

OK, thank you all for coming.

This will be another brief statement by myself and by Mr Pellicano.

Anthony Pellicano is known as the sin eater. His job was to make sure

stories didn't get out, and so he would use any method available.

I've been handling Michael's high-level security matters

for a long time, problem solving.

These people wanted 20 million.

And, of course, we said no.

And then they lower their price a little bit.

And it was like a bargain basement type of thing.

The thing with the Chandler case is that it's not a black and white

situation, although you have Jackson being possibly guilty

of child molestation, you also have

Evan Chandler, the father, asking for money.

So it's very hard to take a clear moral position on it.

True. I mean, the Jackson camp quite quickly said,

"This is a shakedown. This is blackmail."

It did sound like that.

But it was the dad trying to protect his son, get some kind

of compensation and hurt Jackson.

And this was the way he was going to do it,

he was going to hit him in the pocket.

Michael Jackson is reported to have agreed to pay several million

dollars to the 14-year-old boy who accused him of sexual abuse.

A resolution of this case is in no way an admission of guilt

by Michael Jackson.

Did you ever ask Michael Jackson directly if he abused children?

I did. I did. And what did he say?

Absolutely not.

You know, I mean, that was during the Jordy period.

Not with the rest of them.

And did you believe him? I did. I did.

Do you believe him now? I do.

I mean, he stood right where you are and told me and I feel

and I felt... Look, Michael Jackson lied to me a lot.

But I always knew when he was lying.

You know somebody well enough,

you know when they're lying and when they're not, you know.

And so after the Jordy thing happened, my biggest issue

with Michael was that I didn't think he should settle, you know.

I...kind of begged him not to settle.

And he said to me, and I'll never forget it.

He was really firm with me about it.

He said, "This my career, it's my life and it's my choice."

That's what he told me.

Jackson's lawyers settled the civil case for over 20 million.

And with that, the criminal case collapsed, too.

Because the young boy, who was the catalyst for this investigation, has

recently informed us that he does

not wish to participate in any criminal proceeding where he is

named as a victim, that we must

decline prosecution involving Mr Jackson.

You know, the awareness that you can buy your way

out of a criminal prosecution is rather striking.

We don't see very many defendants who have the ability to write

a cheque for 20 million.

You're watching an extraordinarily wealthy person get away

with having committed a crime, right in front of us.

I mean, boldly and openly.

INDISTINCT SHOUTING

A huge statue of Michael Jackson was floated along the River Thames

through London today.

Jackson is hoping it will be a symbol of a great comeback.

A year after the abuse charges were dropped came

the release of HIStory - Jackson's ninth studio album

and a declaration of war on his critics.

The album was followed by a gruelling 13-month tour with one mission -

to put the Jackson brand back on top.

When Michael arrived at the airport in Bangkok, it was the 19th stop

of his tour and he had a message for the media.

THEY SCREAM

Not that his loyal fans doubted him.

Michael, I love you! Michael!

CROWD SCREAMS

Rumours have swirled around town about one of the strangest couplings

that ET has ever reported.

And just think, nobody thought this would last.

Michael Jackson and the daughter of the king of rock and roll,

Lisa Marie Presley, have tied the knot.

In '94 he marries Lisa Marie Presley, which is a response

to the Jordy Chandler allegations.

And the world just thinks this is a sham.

Global cynics thought it was a dubious duo from the start, public

relations posturing following highly controversial charges that Jackson

was a child molester.

Not so, say supporters of Jackson.

Feelings for Lisa Marie are true.

Michael Jackson's married.

Well, I'm very, very happy for them. I think it's great.

They're very happy and I think everybody's happy.

They're great people.

Each time there's a scandal, the media are weaponised

by the Jackson camp through an exclusive interview to put

the brand back on track, and these interviews would vary

in intensity and in terms

of who he chose to give the exclusive to.

I want to ask a few things about the charges, but first,

I want to establish for the viewers here, there are no ground rules.

You have said to me you are not afraid of any questions.

So you have said that you would never harm a child.

I want to be as specific as I can.

Did you ever sexually engage,

fondle, have sexual contact

with this child or any other child?

Never, ever. I could never harm a child or anyone.

It's not in my heart.

It's not who I am and it's not...

I'm not even interested in that.

Diane Sawyer is a really fantastic investigative journalist, reporter.

And her questioning is not, I think, what the Jackson camp expected.

How about the police photographs, though?

How was there enough information from this boy

about those kinds of things?

The police photographs that they took of me. Yes.

There was nothing that matched me to those charges. There was nothing!

And what he's saying there is he's saying the classic defence,

"They never found anything that they could match me to those charges."

It just isn't fair what they put me through, because there wasn't one

piece of information that says I did that in any way.

They turned to my room upside down, went through all my books,

all my videotapes, all my private things, and they found nothing,

nothing, nothing that could say Michael Jackson did this. Nothing.

But let me ask you... You can watch that.

You can say, "This is a convincing

"account of him proving his innocence."

To me, he doesn't say the word innocent 20 times.

He says, "They found nothing," 20 times. That's different.

I just wonder, is it over?

You're gonna make sure it doesn't happen again.

I think this is really a key thing people want to know,

that there are not going to be more of these sleepovers

in which people have to wonder.

Nobody wonders when kids sleep over at my house.

Lisa Marie has now filed for divorce.

And Jackson has reportedly been taken by surprise.

The singer Michael Jackson has married for the second time.

He and Debbie Rowe, a nurse who is expecting his child, tied

the knot in Sydney.

Ten months after Jackson's very

public divorce from Lisa Marie Presley,

out of the blue came the announcement of his marriage

to Debbie Rowe, the nurse who treated his skin condition

for over a decade.

There was no sign of the bride, but it's believed the ceremony

took place in the early hours of the morning

in the privacy of the presidential suite.

Rowe was loyal, trusted and also out of sight.

SHOUTS AND SCREAMS

Publicly, the brand was shored up, with Jackson earning 165 million

from the HIStory tour alone.

But away from the public gaze, questioning about child abuse

allegations wouldn't go away.

Is it your position that you will instruct Mr Jackson not to answer

any questions that pertain to the

issue of Jordy Chandler?

Any of that you're not going to let him go into.

That's right, I believe that's correct.

Were you ever accused of having sexually molested Brett Barnes?

Won't answer that.

To your knowledge, were you ever accused of having sexually

molested Macaulay Culkin?

That's an instruction not to answer on that one.

Do you recognise the handwriting on these two sheets?

Yes. Do you know whose handwriting it is? It's mine.

What is this? Things I wanted to set straight in an interview.

People have lied on me.

I'm a black American, I'm proud of it.

And I'm honoured of it.

The bleached skin rumour, which is a rumour, I don't bleach my skin.

I'm not gay.

When I get angry enough, I write down what I want to say

and what I want to talk about to set the record straight.

Cos you get to a point where you get tired of people lying.

I get tired of situations like this, but people completely lie on me

and I'm sick of it.

Martin Bashir spent the last eight months with Michael Jackson,

making a ground-breaking documentary.

Here's a sneak preview.

when Martin Bashir does his interview,

that is an attempt by the Jackson camp to rehabilitate the image.

He granted full access in a way that he never had before.

I'm going to do that, I'm going

to build a water park on the other side of this mountain.

No, no, we're going to, so you can come with your swimsuit.

And he's showing Bashir what he believes

will be a very positive, normal picture to the world.

And it backfires spectacularly.

12-year-old Gavin Arvizo had met Michael Jackson in 2000

when he'd been told that he had suspected terminal cancer.

Gavin and his brother and sister had been to stay at Neverland

on several occasions.

Bashir's interview with Jackson and Gavin stunned the world.

When I saw that film, the first thing I did was call him up

and left a message. I said, "I think you're out of your mind."

"Why did you do that?

"After what happened with Jordy, this is what you do?

When people hear that children from other families have come

and they've stayed in your house, they've stayed in your bedroom...

Well, very few. But, you know, some have.

And they say, is that really appropriate for a man,

a grown man to be doing that?

How do you respond to that?

I feel sorry for them because that's judging someone who

wants to really help people.

Why can't you share your bed?

The most loving thing to do is to share your bed with someone.

You know? You really think that? Yeah, of course.

When you watch Michael and Gavin together, if you watch

closely, you see that there is a moment when it hits Michael

that this is not going well,

where it looks like his wheels are turning and he's trying

to figure out a way to get out of this.

You're sharing with another...

You can have my bed if you want, sleep in it.

I'll sleep on the floor, it's yours.

Always give the best to the company, you know.

And the physicality, the head on the shoulder.

I think it's that, the hands. Yes. Yes.

They see with their own eyes. I get it.

I wish...wish he hadn't done it.

I wished it in the moment that I saw it.

Like, in the moment that I saw it,

I thought it was....not a smart move.

When Gavin was there, he talked

about the fact that he shares your bedroom. Yes.

Can you understand why people would worry about that?

Cos they're ignorant.

But is it really appropriate for a 44-year-old man to share

a bedroom with a child who is not related to him at all?

That's a beautiful thing.

That's not a worrying thing?

Why should it be worrying? Who's the criminal?

Who's Jack the Ripper in the room?

This is a guy trying to help heal a child.

I'm sleeping in a sleeping bag on the floor.

I gave him the bed because he has a brother named Star.

So him and Star took the bed and I'm on the floor in the sleeping bag.

Did you ever sleep in the bed with them? No. But I have

slept in the bed with many children.

I sleep in the bed with all of them.

When Macaulay Culkin were little,

Kieran Culkin would sleep on this side, Macaulay Culkin on this side.

His sister's in there.

We're all just jamming the bed.

And we wake up, like dawn, and go in the hot-air balloon.

Yeah, we have the footage.

I have all the footage.

But is that right, Michael? It's very right.

It's very loving. That's what the world needs now.

Sheriff's investigators, armed with a search warrant, were back

at Michael Jackson's Neverland Ranch Friday.

How are you doing? Sheriff's Department. We have a search warrant.

The service of the warrants was part of an ongoing investigation,

alleging criminal misconduct on the part of Michael Jackson.

The basis for this investigation regarding Mr Jackson involves

allegations of child molestation...

The child making the complaint is a 12-year-old boy who met Jackson

while he was doing charity work three years ago.

The boy visited Jackson at the Neverland Ranch,

and according to one source, he told a psychotherapist that on two

occasions, Jackson gave him wine and sleeping pills.

That could mean life in prison.

And cases like this can depend on the testimony of the child accuser.

The singer Michael Jackson has turned himself in to answer

allegations of child abuse.

Splash! actually paid for the jet

that took Michael from Vegas to Santa Barbara.

You paid for that flight?

Yeah, it's a really strange story, and it sounds bizarre,

but Michael Jackson's travel agent was a friend of mine.

Hence why we were able to get a lot of the stories over the years

and he didn't have any money to pay for this jet.

So we footed the bill for that.

Basically by paying for it, we were able to get exclusive

pictures and video of Michael Jackson.

Early this afternoon, Michael Jackson got out of a car

behind the Santa Barbara County Jail in handcuffs.

Shortly after he was fingerprinted and photographed,

the singer released a statement saying, "Lies run sprints,

"but the truth runs marathons.

We didn't generate the case -

the case was generated by Michael Jackson.

He had victimised a new child.

And that commenced the new investigation at that time.

All the TV camera crews from all around the world - Australia,

Japan, France and Germany - all descended on what was

a very small town with these gigantic satellite trucks.

There was a buzz and anticipation, and every morning you'd wait

for the convoy to come and the buzz would go around, the cameras

would spin around.

There was a great feeling of excitement,

which was totally inappropriate.

This case is about one thing only.

It's about the dignity, the integrity, the decency,

the honour, the charity, the innocence

and the complete vindication

of a wonderful human being named Michael Jackson.

I take pride in taking unwinnable cases and giving my client

what the client deserves, which is a very aggressive,

very intelligent, committed, passionate defence.

The go-to guy in controversial cases, Mesereau had previously

successfully acted for boxer Mike Tyson when he had been

investigated for rape.

The charges he faces are false and will be battled in a court

of law within our justice system.

I covered the Gavin Arvizo trial.

I was there every day. I was there for the pre-trial hearings,

I was there for the jury selection.

His family was there all the time supporting him.

You know, his mother was there every day and often his father

was there and often the brothers

were there and the sisters showed up.

Everybody that knows this family around the world

will support us because at the end

of the day, this is nothing but a modern-day lynching.

I wanted race not to be the issue.

He chose to live in a community

that was predominantly white Caucasian,

and we had to assume that the jury

would be mostly white Caucasian, which it was.

And when I got into the case, one

of the first things I did was tell Michael and Randy,

"Don't tell family members to use race on TV.

"it's not going to help us."

The prosecution took this case very seriously.

When I first met Tom Sneddon and Ron Zonen and the main trial

lawyers in the case, my sense was that they thought

they had it in the bag, that they would just win.

We believed for the entirety of the time that we were

dealing with Michael Jackson that he was abusing children.

And we knew we were going against a phenomenon

that we weren't familiar with.

Aside from being one of the richest people around,

he was an internationally recognised celebrity.

We saw it with jurors walking into the courtroom where they make

it five feet into the room and come

to a complete stop and take a look at him.

There is a certain mystique that went with that kind of celebrity.

And he had it and he used it.

He was very effective at it.

# You are not alone

# I am here with you I am here with you

# Though you're far away Far apart

# You're always in my heart

# You are not alone... #

Within the last hour, the first witness in this trial arrived,

British journalist Martin Bashir, who made the controversial

documentary Living With Michael Jackson,

in which the singer spoke of sharing his bed with children.

Go ahead, Gavin. It's fine.

Gavin was the victim. He was 12 when he was molested.

He was 13 when he disclosed and he was 15, barely,

at the time of the trial.

I mean, it took a tremendous amount of courage to walk into a courtroom

and sit down on the witness stand with an audience filled with people

who are either press or hostile.

THEY SHOUT INDISTINCTLY

There were fans who were outside demonstrating by the hundreds

every single day.

From day one, you just felt like it wasn't a level playing field.

You had this Jackson machine, you know...

They looked like the government pulling up in these blacked-out

suburbans with security front and back.

It just looked overwhelming.

Michael Jackson seemed tense as he arrived at the courthouse

today, but at least he can come and go through the front door.

The key witnesses in this extraordinary trial, whisked

into court this morning through a side entrance.

A coat over his head, 14-year-old Star Arviso.

And with him, brother Gavin, Michael Jackson's accuser.

Tom, how did the Arvisos present on the stand?

Well, I'm biased, of course, but I thought

they were terrible witnesses.

I thought they were contradicted over and over again.

And I don't think they helped the prosecution.

Thursday, jurors listened as the teen contradicted his brother

and sister's testimony and couldn't recall key details

of the molestation allegations.

I thought that Gavin did a wonderful job, given his age

and given the level of hostility he was dealing with.

In his view, Jackson gave him alcohol.

He identified wine.

He identified locations where they drank wine.

He was given a lot of alcohol and I think drugs, too.

We found an empty bottle of Versed in Jackson's home.

It's used in medical procedures to be able to anaesthetise somebody.

I think the combination of that...and alcohol would have really caused

a child to pretty much lose his ability to be able to recall

just about anything that happened.

The press were very critical and very sceptical because back

then, there really still was the belief among a lot

of the press that this was a family of grifters,

as they had been described by Mesereau, who were just after money.

That's all they want. And of course, it's never been borne out.

This family has never asked for a penny.

Prosecutors are reeling after a second day of testimony

from Jackson's ex-wife, Debbie Rowe.

She was called to help their case.

But that strategy may have backfired.

We had a number of witnesses who told us one thing in private,

and completely different on the stand.

Had Tom Mesereau got to them?

I...don't believe that was Tom Mesereau's doing.

I think that it was Michael Jackson's doing.

Today Jason Francia, the son of a former maid at Neverland,

is expected to allege that he, too,

was sexually abused by Michael Jackson.

Pictured this morning on American television, Francia,

now 23 years old, received

a �1 million settlement from the singer 11 years ago.

Jason Francia is one of those that we were pursuing heavily.

And we were on the story at the same time as he was about to go public.

And then he was paid off.

And of course, it's hush money.

The defence maintains all the allegations are false

and that he reached out-of-court settlements in the past

purely in order to avoid bad press.

They say the singer has become

a target for those who are after him for his money.

It's really frustrating to be that close to a story and a big story,

and it just eludes you each time.

And it's the same reason every time - they got to him first.

Buoyed by the own-goals of the prosecution case, Jackson's

defence began with evidence from Wade Robson who, ten years

earlier, had sprung to Jackson's defence on network television

during the Jordy Chandler scandal.

Tell me about Wade Robson

and how he came to appear for the defence.

I decided to start with Wade.

He had been Britney Spears' choreographer,

and he was so powerful in favour of Michael Jackson

that I just felt Wade would be a good way to kick off the case.

The defence opened with the grown-up versions of the two young

Australian boys who long ago denied

they were ever victimised by Jackson.

Now, Brett Barnes and choreographer Wade Robson denied it again

under oath in this case.

Wade Robson testified that Michael Jackson never touched him,

other than in affection, was a perfect gentleman and helped

affect his career.

But in the course of those denials by both Robson and Barnes

and then their mothers and sisters, the picture of Michael Jackson

for anybody watching and listening may have changed irretrievably.

Barnes's sister, Carly, guessed that her ten-year-old brother

and the then 35-year-old Jackson

spent a year's worth of nights together.

While some of Jackson's defenders revealed startling details

about his sleeping arrangements, their testimony was eclipsed

by the appearance of star witnesses called by the Jackson camp.

Next Tuesday, I'll be testifying in the Michael Jackson trial.

I have to go up on Tuesday, in the morning...

With its roll call of celebrity figures, the hearing itself became

a branch of show business.

You know, the expression star power - it worked.

And we as an audience and the world got caught up with the show,

with looking at that rather than actually, what is this really about?

I mean, it should have been a very sombre event.

You know, here's a kid who said he's been abused.

Here's a man who could be going to jail for 20 years.

Um, but you would never get that feeling if you were there.

He's the first Hollywood star to give evidence

in this extraordinary trial.

Now 24 years of age, Macaulay Culkin became friends

with Michael Jackson when he was just nine years old.

It did have that sort of circus feel and there wasn't really anything

to counter that. In terms of trial by press,

the Jackson camp won, hands down.

A few moments ago, the jury in the Michael Jackson case returned

to court to give its verdicts on several charges of child abuse.

Remember, there are ten verdicts for ten counts.

So that could take some time.

The jury may now see Jackson in one of only two ways - as a grown-up man

who either innocently spent hundreds of nights

with a succession of young boys, or who spent all those nights

with all those boys and molested some of them.

I was nervous, but I felt confident.

I felt the case had gone very well for us.

What did you feel when you heard the verdict?

It wasn't a surprise.

Count one, verdict. We the jury in the above entitled case

find the defendant not guilty of conspiracy as charged...

CROWD CHEERS

The evidence that we had against him, if presented against any

ordinary person, would have been

more than enough to get a conviction.

If there were people in the neighbourhood who became aware

of some creepy guy in the corner house bringing young boys

into the house, they'd be on the phone calling the police in seconds.

We the jury in the above entitled case, find the defendant

not guilty of a lewd act upon a private child as charged...

He has one kid after another staying in his room.

Never an adult, always children, always children.

Not even either of his two wives.

We couldn't find any single staff member who were able to say

that they ever saw them spending

the night in his quarters in his room.

The only people they ever saw, and this went on for years,

were children, boys, young boys, young pre-pubescent boys.

Those were the only ones who shared the room.

We the jury in the above entitled case, find the defendant

not guilty of administering an intoxicating agent

to assist in the commission of a

felony as charge of Count Nine of the indictment...

To me, that's a case I could have beaten anyone on

on somebody who wasn't an international superstar.

And there it is, all ten counts, not guilty on all ten counts.

Michael Jackson will be walking out of this courtroom a free man.

Watching the verdict back now, it feels clear to me that Jackson's

machine did its job.

In court he had the best lawyers to defend him.

He had the most glamorous

and compelling witnesses to support him.

And outside the court, he had an army of fans

to protest his innocence.

They had won the case for him without him being required

to take the stand.

That's not to say that the trial didn't cost Jackson dearly.

In acquittal,

his reputation was destroyed and his health disintegrating.

I saw him outside of the courtroom on that day

that he was found not guilty.

And he just kind of, you know, he just kind of... We talked,

but he was not really present.

He was, like, looking right through me.

But he didn't seem that overjoyed.

No, he was clearly on something.

I don't know what he was... what drug he was on at that point.

But he was clearly on something and he was just not present for it.

And I was disappointed.

You know, I wanted him to then go on and be who he was.

And I was discounting the fact that this is life-ruining.

And I just didn't want to believe that.

I wanted to believe that Michael

was going to be able to bounce back from that.

Jackson's abuse of painkillers had begun 20 years earlier

after being treated for burns following the accident on the set

of the Pepsi commercial.

See, Michael Jackson never did drugs when we were growing up.

When Michael was burned in the accident, he was really reluctant

to take anything at all for it.

And they really had to push it.

They had to really practically shove it down his throat

because he was in such pain.

And that's where they put him on Propolop... whatever it is,

and they ended up, you know, addicting him.

You know, he became addicted.

And then these doctors would

supply him,

you know, back-door like, under the table, you know what I mean?

Mr Jackson, at the break, did you find it necessary to take

a pain medication?

Do I find it necessary?

Did you, at the break, did you have

to take a pain medication for your pain? Yes.

That stuff was more powerful

than anything. I told his mother, Katherine. I flew to Las Vegas.

I say, "Your son, you know, is addicted really bad."

"Oh, no, he's doing good." I said, "No, he ain't, Katherine.

"You know, don't...don't tell me."

I say, "I can tell you. You know, you got to take him to rehab.

"You got to get him in there to save himself."

You know, and I say I'll do anything I can do to help.

I say, you know, it ain't good.

London welcomes the King of Pop, Mr Michael Jackson!

CHEERING AND SCREAMING

The King of Pop with ten shows this summer, starting July 8th

at London's O2 Arena, it's a 20,000-seat arena.

TV: Organisers say the tour's become the fastest-selling in history,

with 33 seats sold every minute.

These will be...

..my final show performances...

We love you, Michael!

..because, um...

We love you!

CHEERING

Word is that he will be paid a minimum of ten million

for the ten productions.

And as you know, Jackson is also trying to knock down his debts.

He was in a lot of trouble financially

after the trial.

I love you so much.

CROWD: We love you!

From the bottom of my heart.

Michael Jackson spent money like, you know, a crazy...

This is it.

And see you in July.

..and he was just really leveraged.

And I don't know what the figures are because I don't remember them,

but at the time of Michael's death,

the estate was just like overwhelmed in debt.

You know, it's extraordinary that, you know,

financially, he's the biggest star on the planet

and yet he's broke.

Yes, he sold a lot of records, there's no doubt,

he's the biggest selling star in the world,

but when you've got a lot of... It isn't just mouths to feed,

as in the rest of the family,

it's an expensive lifestyle.

And he's been writing all these cheques to all the families

of the boys as well.

That's it, I mean, you know,

to have this layer of protection,

it costs money.

Jackson hadn't had a hit record since before his trial.

His rehearsal routine became all the more punishing

when the dates on the tour were up to 50.

When you've been off for a while,

you get out of shape.

Rehearsals before the show starts.

The tremendous challenge

touring could be,

most folks don't understand.

They were going to do a tour after

This Is It and take it out on the road.

I just don't think he was capable of doing it at that point.

The number one reason why artists fail

is they have "yes people" around them.

People that just are there to get a cheque

and not there to tell you, "No.

"Let me give you my opinion of this.

"Now, ultimately, you're going to make the final decision.

"But I don't agree with what you're saying, Beyonce.

"I don't agree with what you're saying, Michael."

You mean that just everyone's just allowing him to keep

pushing it and pushing it?

Well, everybody, I think, has their own agenda.

You know? I think success is when everyone has the same agenda.

On three, Michael.

One, two, three!

ALL: Michael!

He called me one time, I was on tour,

and, erm, I pick up the phone, I say, "Hello?"

And I hear, "Donny, it's Michael."

I was like, "Mike! Where are you?"

He said, "Please don't tell anybody.

"I'm in Phoenix right now.

"Just had to get away."

I said, "Mike, I'm almost done with this tour.

"I'll be home this weekend.

"You're nine hours' drive from my home in Utah.

"No-one will know you're there.

"We'll give you some normalcy for a weekend."

And he said, "I really need that right now."

And he never took me up on it.

We're getting some breaking news coming into the situation right now

about Michael Jackson, the King of Pop.

On this night, when we were preparing a remembrance

of Farrah Fawcett,

suddenly word arrived from Southern California

that Jackson had been rushed to the hospital.

You see the number of people that have already gathered

outside the hospital.

CNN sources are now saying, multiple sources,

that Michael Jackson is in a coma.

We do know that he's been in Los Angeles preparing to undertake

this major concert event that he was scheduled

to perform in London.

I have to stop you for a second, AJ.

CNN can now confirm from the LA coroner

that Michael Jackson is dead.

So, I'm about to go to bed.

It's midnight and the news comes on the radio.

"Michael Jackson, the world's greatest entertainer, has died."

And I just think, "Oh, shit."

I get a phone call 30 seconds later saying,

"You're on a plane, you're going to LA tomorrow morning."

# I want to rock with you all night... #

# I'm talking with the man in the mirror

# I'm asking him to change his ways... #

# Billie Jean is not my lover

# She's just a girl who claims that I am the one

# But the kid is not my son. #

It wasn't like he was dead.

It was just like he was making a comeback.

No-one had been this enthused about Michael Jackson for years.

You know, rows of cars driving down the street, playing his music.

Fans are out round the star on Hollywood Boulevard.

There are impersonators doing the moonwalk

up and down Sunset Boulevard.

You know, it was just...

And then there's every film crew in the world descending

on the rented house where he's died.

It was like a morbid carnival.

So, you arrived in Hollywood...

..and no-one would talk.

All the...all my good mates, who I'd used in all the other films,

were not going to talk to me.

And it was, like, nothing personally, but on the phone

it'd be like, "Nah, I can't do it.

"I've signed up to CBS, it's ten grand a day."

One of the biographers said to me, "Making the best money ever, here.

"And all they're requiring me to do is come out every couple of hours

"and update you on why Michael was such a genius."

I think it's worth remembering that he was probably, singly,

the greatest dancer and musician the world has ever seen.

And that was the circus. That was...

The machine was in overdrive.

I have to tell you, you know, he really was not prepared

for the kind of worldwide attention that he received.

Michael just wasn't wired that way...

I had to really collect myself because I was inundated

with interviews and inundated with press.

I felt like I needed to do it for Michael.

I'm relieved, in a way, that he's...

We're past. He's past, at least...

..you know, all of the scandal, the contempt.

Real catharsis involves a huge element of just pure relief

on the part of people.

You know? And what I feel,

in terms of a lot of this response,

is "thank God we don't have to think so much about the life anymore.

"We can remember and relive, you know, the acute pleasure

"that he gave us as an artist."

I love you, Michael, and I miss you.

APPLAUSE

# If you just...

# Smile. #

I was 13 when we met.

And, from that day on,

our friendship grew.

Michael always knew that he

could count on me

to support him

or be his date.

Posthumously, his image isn't just rehabilitated, so is his music,

because, actually, you get loads of producers and performers

who start to name check him, you know,

Daft Punk, Justin Timberlake.

Everyone starts to do a version of Michael Jackson.

He's being channelled through a new generation of people.

I remember seeing Michael Jackson for the first time.

And, Lord knows, I fell in love.

Death put the brand back on track

in a way that all his attempts via these exclusive interviews

in the past never did because he was his own worst enemy.

And so, now, he's not getting in the way of the brand.

It's a chance for the machine to really take hold.

Nearly five years since the untimely death of Michael Jackson

but, today, an album of new music from the King of Pop is out.

A live performance by a dead celebrity.

A hologram of Michael Jackson appeared and performed last night

at the Billboard Music Awards.

Five years after his death,

who might be coming back next?

Since 2009, he has been, year on year,

apart from one year,

the highest grossing dead star on this planet.

In 2018 alone,

he made upwards of 400 million.

That's more than 1 million a day.

And now the brand is stronger than ever.

There is an entire ecosystem around him

which is basically the world that feeds off Michael Jackson,

and that is the tabloids, television, writers,

everyone who wants to put an angle,

their angle, on the Jackson story.

I've made, now, four films about him.

And Jackson's story went from being the potential paedophile

to the victim, that he was the victim of the tabloids,

that he was the victim of all these false accusations against him.

The narrative was rewritten and the fans loved it.

But he wasn't the main victim of this story.

The main victims were the actual victims of his molestation

and that story disappeared after his death.

And it takes Leaving Neverland to pour a bucket of cold water

over his rehabilitation.

An explosive new documentary, set to air on HBO this weekend,

is reigniting claims that Michael Jackson sexually abused children.

In Leaving Neverland,

Wade Robson and James Safechuck claim Jackson abused them for years

when they were young children.

Tell me what happened to you.

He introduced me to masturbation.

He said I taught him out how to French kiss.

And then it moves on to oral sex.

It progressed to him performing

oral sex on me, him showing me

how to perform oral sex on him.

Jackson has always denied

any inappropriate behaviour with children.

In the past, both men have said that Jackson never harmed them.

In court and in TV interviews,

Robson repeatedly denied being molested by Michael Jackson.

I think you said that he was one of the most convincing witnesses

that you'd ever called.

Wade was so supportive of Michael Jackson,

so strong in his defence,

so adamant that he hadn't been mistreated...

I'm just befuddled by what's going on today.

Do you think about the boys for whom you testified against?

Yeah. I think for me in relation to the other boys,

I had no awareness of that at the time when I was 11

and when I was 22 and 23, I was so...

..narrowly focused on my training to be a soldier for Michael

and protect him, that I had no...

I couldn't think about anybody else.

In hindsight now, and once I've gone... Yeah. ..you know,

began this healing process.

Man, I wish it could have been different.

It's a complicated world

being a victim of sexual abuse and particularly a victim

of long-term sexual abuse by somebody who he was very close to.

My experience with victims is that although I would like them

to disclose as early as they possibly can, and certainly

to us in the course of an investigation,

I understand when they don't.

The disclosure of child sexual abuse is something they do

on their schedule, not mine.

Have you watched Leaving Neverland? Yeah, I watched it.

What did you think?

It was hard for me because I felt...

I felt like there was a lot of acting going on

but I know that I brought my own sort of bias to, you know,

to watching it. I mean, I didn't watch it with an open mind.

And I don't know how anybody who knew Michael

would ever be able to sit there and watch it with an open mind.

So... You see, I watched it and I thought,

"They look like, you know, they look like they're telling the truth."

Yeah. Yeah.

I think that maybe I would have felt that way

if it hadn't been Michael they were talking about, you know.

Michael Jackson never went back into a court

and was never found guilty

and so no line has been drawn.

There's a sizable proportion of the Earth's population

that believe he's innocent and he's the victim

and they will continue to believe that forever.

As for me, like so many fans who cherish their memories

of Michael Jackson, I wanted to continue to believe

in his innocence

but looking back over the whole story, the evidence against him

feels almost overwhelming.

There are five boys with the same story now - five.

We know about Jordy Chandler,

who got a 20-something-odd million dollar settlement.

There was Jason Francia, who testified in the trial,

Gavin Arvizo, the accuser from 2005, and Wade Robson.

James Safechuck. Will there be more?

It could very well be more.

It seems almost incomprehensible

that he could have carried on for so long. Naturally.

I often wonder about this - that had Jordy's social worker's report

been published back then,

I think, when you see detail like that in your own eyes,

it helps to convince you and change your mind-set.

So it doesn't matter about the circus any more.

You've seen this with your own eyes.

SCREAMING

We don't want to believe that Michael Jackson is a paedophile

because of how much he means to us -

all of us collectively,

which is why we're in this weird hinterland, where we can't decide

whether we should play his music at a party or not,

whether we should walk out of a restaurant,

as some people do when they hear it being played.

You know, that's kind of... That difficulty we're having

is because it's so complicated

because it's so much part of who we are.

SCREAMING

I mean, you know, you're sitting here interviewing me

but you've also, you know, you're entrenched in Jackson.

He's been a big part of your career.

Do you miss him? I miss him.

I regret that I made three films about Michael Jackson... Right.

..became part of the machine, actually. Right. You know.

We both made money from the Jackson story

and we just poured more oil on the fire rather than putting

the fire out, rather than actually

saying, "This is the bottom line. This is what he is."

And I regret that - that I didn't do that.

And you didn't do it because you weren't bold enough?

Because I think I... Because I think I became kind of fascinated

and enchanted by the circus, by the show,

by all the elements of the story that are so interesting.

Mm. What about you?

I definitely miss him because it was... It was a roller-coaster.

It was... Despite everything going on, it was an exciting time.

But I'm not a social worker. You know, I write stories, and...

..and no-one would listen.

We were telling people he's a paedophile. No-one was listening.