March 31st 1981, Brooke Shields asks him to dance at the Oscars
Portrait of Brooke Shields hanging at Neverland
On how they first met in 1981, Conversations with Rabbi Shmuley, 2000/1
MJ: Now Brooke Shields, she was one of the loves of my life. We dated a lot. Her pictures were all over my walls and mirrors. I was at the Academy Awards with Diana Ross and she just came up to me and said, “Hi, I’m Brooke Shields. Are you going to the after pary?” I said, “Yeah,” and I just melted. I was about twenty three… during Off The Wall. I thought, “Does, she know[that photographs of her are] all over my room?” And we went on the dance floor. And man we exchanged numbers and I was up all night, spinning around in my room, just so happy. She was classy. We had one encounter when she got real intimate and I chickened out. And I shouldn’t have.
Brett Ratner interviewing Michael, 2003
Brett: Any posters in your bedroom as kid and of who?
MJ: Yeah, Brooke Shields. Everywhere. My sisters would get jealous and tear them off the wall.
Brett: Really? (both laughing) Brooke Shields? Okay.
Brooke Shields,
I met him when I was 13 (note: she was 15 in March 1981). There were a handful of child stars at the time – actress Jodie Foster, Michael and myself among them – and we were friends because we shared an understanding of how difficult life was in the public eye. When we were together, we were in a safe place. We could be ourselves.”
Ola Ray on the filming of Thriller (Oct 1983), 03/02/2008
Ola and Michael became good friends during the two-week shoot. “I teased him, saying I wanted to be his girl,” she says. Ola Ray remembered Michael talking a lot about Brooke Shields between takes.
“I had a crush on Michael myself and I would have loved to have been his girl but at the time he was interested in Brooke Shields,” Ola explains.
Michael is seen with Brooke at Princeton, sometime 1983-1987
After working in the dining hall in various capacities for 27 years, Wilder has seen it all. He has been witness to fraternity pledges wearing diapers and pink leotards — dressed as Cupid — to meals, and has even seen actress Brooke Shields ’87 and singer Michael Jackson on campus.
Rcokwell, 1984
Michael is having an affair with Brooke Shields and sees her a lot. Every time I talk to him about her he smiles and seems to be very, very happy. I keep saying to him ”Do I hear wedding bells, Michael?” and he breaks into a big grin. But he dates other women, including a former Miss Universe and Tatum O’Neal. He’s also very clsoe to Diana Ross but he isn’t obsessed with her.
16th January, 11th Annual American Music Awards 1984
February 7, 1984 New York Metropolitan Museum of Natural History to receive awards from CBS & The Guinness Book Of World Records to celebrate Thriller as the largest-selling album of all time
Evening Independant 17 Feb 1984
February 28th 1984, 26th Annual Grammy Awards
Circa 1984,
Michael narrating his private home movies of the ’84 Grammy’s,
(Scene of Michael and Brooke Shields leaving their car at an awards ceremony):
Girls: Michael! Michael!
Reporter: I was wondering if you’d…
(Walking to the Grammies; Clip labelled Grammy Awards 1984)
MJ: Oh this is on the way to the Grammy’s. I had gotten a record thirteen, I think, thirteen nominations for Thriller. And we, well, I didn’t know what was gonna happen really. That’s Emmanuel Lewis, one of my best friends.
Brooke: Oh you’re here too, Emmanuel (laughs)…Brilliant!
[…]
MJ: Oh there’s my man. The real creator of rock n roll, Chuck Berry.
(Chuck Berry lifting Brooke Shields)
Brooke: (laughing) I’m Michael’s size remember!
(Crosstalk)
Brooke: I’ll take that as a compliment.
MJ: Emmanuel. He started to rope onto her dress! He’s a flirt. See, I liked her and he liked her too. So, it’s competition.
JET 27th Feb 1984
March 12, 1984, US magazine
Right On Magazine, March, 1984
Now,let’s talk about Brooke and her thing with Michael. She says they’re just friends and her mom is telling everybody the same thing. But their comments haven’t hushed up the gossips, who are still whispering that there’s some hot love affair going on.
Don’t believe it. All you have to do is see those two together and you know, there’s nothing going on. Like Brooke says, they’re just friends.
Its the most innocent-looking relationship you ever want to see. She’s more like a fancy decoration than a girlfriend.
And why is Brooke doing this? She’s no dummy. Its great publicity for her. Hanging out with Michael has gotten her more publicity than she’s ever had. What’s funny is that she’s getting all this attention by playing second fiddle to Michael.
When they’re out together, he’s the star. He’s the one everyone wants to talk to and photograph. Publically, she says she doesn’t mind taking a back seat to Michael, but privately, she’s telling her pals that she minds very much. After all Brooke has a big ego.
But all the publicity she’s gotten through Michael hasn’t helped her film career. Her new film Sahara, doesn’t look like a box-office smash.
The word around Hollywood is that this publicity is working against her. After all, she is white and Michael is black. They may be big stars but they’re still an interracial couple. A lot of people are turned off by interracial dating. Michael is such a superstar that very little could effect his popularity. But Brooke is in a different position. Its possible that people who don’t like interracial relationships are turning their back on Brooke.
One thing for sure Brooke has made a lot of enemies among black females. She was with Michael at the New York party, at the Grammys and the American Music Awards. She was getting some nasty stares from black females at those three events. It was particularly bad at the New York party. Black ladies there were really giving her dirty looks. If dirty looks could kill, Brooke would be in the graveyard now.
“Growing Up In The Jackson Family” Latoya’s Autobio (pub. 1991)
Around the same time Michael was recuperating, the press was linking him romantically with Brooke Shields, the actress and model. My brother had been as sheltered from the opposite sex as I was. He too believed that sex came after marriage, and marriage was the goal of dating. Up till then he’d had only one close friendship, with Tatum O’Neal in the late 1970s. Tatum, just fifteen then, was in some ways more sophisticated than Michael, running with an older, faster crowd. We always found it so strange that her father, actor Ryan O’Neal, regularly left her and her younger brother Griffin unsupervised for days at a time, but for them, and many kids in Hollywood, that was considered normal.
I recall so many times when I’ve seen famous children, sometimes not even in their teens, in the company of adults known to drink, use drugs, and who knows what else. Perhaps some of my siblings lost their childhoods, but it was to work, not drugs or alcohol. Very few Hollywood children ever really get to be kids.
Despite the press’s portrayal, Michael and Brooke’s relationship was a friendship, plain and simple – at least in Michael’s mind. It was obvious to Janet and me that she had other ideas. About to watch a movie with us at home, Brooke would declare, “I’m going to sit by Michael,” grabbing his hand. “Michael, where are we going to sit?”
Janetn and I concurred that she was a bit forward, especially when she started making plans for them as a couple. Brooke longed to accompany Michael to the two upcoming American Music Awards and the Grammys, and pestered him about it every chance she got.
“Michael, I’m going to be your date, right?” For a supposed question, it sure had a ring of finality to it. “It’s going to be you and me.”
“Well…” Michael laughed nervously. Just like when it came to business, he could never say no. He turned to me and whispered urgently, “La Toya, say something.”
“It’s your problem,” I hissed out of the side of my mouth.
“… Uh, I don’t know if I’m going to take anybody or not,” he replied at last, though to no avail.
“Sure you are,” Brooke said happily. “The two of us are going.”
Later Michael cornered me and asked, “La Toya, how can I tell her no?”
“You just have to tell her, Mike.”
Janet, who really couldn’t stand Brooke, calling her “Giraffe Butt” behind her back, eagerly offered, “Let me tell her!”
Michael surrendered, “No,” he sighed. “I guess I’ll have to tell her. But you know” — he lowered his voice — “She tried to kiss me!”
“She did?”
“Yea, she’s more aggressive than she looks.”
This was a common scenario. Other women, probably attracted to Michael’s relative innocence, approached him even more directly. But other women were simply friends, and he receieved many gifts from them, which he took as thoughtful tokens of their affection. One famous actress gave him a set of beautiful gray silk sheets monogrammed with her initials, ET. We thought they were so sumptuous and pretty: we never thought there was anything untoward about the gesture.
McCall’s May 1984
“She is the most sincere, understanding and interesting girl I’ve ever known,” Michael has said of Brooke. “We talk on the phone for hours without getting bored.”
The Ledger, 29th May 1984
Shields says Jackson won’t give her a “really, real answer”
The Ledger, 5th July 1984
The Ledger, 3rd Aug 1984
Contact Music, August 1984
BROOKE SHIELDS wanted to give former boyfriend MICHAEL JACKSON the perfect present for his birthday when they dated in the 1980s – a life-sized mannequin modelled on her.
The actress, then 19, begged her mother TERI to contact London company ADEL ROOTSTEIN to create her likeness for the THRILLER star.
But her dreams were dashed when she was told she would need to take three weeks out of her busy schedule for the figure to be made.
Managing director MICHAEL SOUTHGATE recalls, “I presumed it was because Brooke was launching jeans. But Teri just wanted one as Michael Jackson’s birthday present.”
But the gift would have been welcomed by Jackson, who previously said, “I like to talk to them. I surround myself with people I want to be my friends. And I can do that with mannequins.”
Cornflakes with John Lennon, Robert Hilburn, Re: Victory tour post concert party: (Los Angeles Victory tour sometime Nov 11th -9th of Dec 1984)
He [Michael] hinted that his relationship with Brooke Shields was more serious, but what I saw at his postconcert party in Los Angeles left me with doubts. Rather than staying at the house in Encino, Michael had booked a suite at a downtown hotel. Brooke and her mother showed up early, but sat for more than an hour in chairs near the door. Michael, meanwhile, was in his bedroom a few feet away, pillow fighting with a half-dozen five- and six-year-olds. He did come into the living room to say hello to a few celebrity guests, but then went right back into the bedroom to watch cartoons-all out of Brooke’s sight. Finally, Brooke’s mother had had enough and they both left. (Hilburn, Corn Flakes with John Lennon, p. 160)
Ebony, December 1984
User: PressProdx, Google Groups sighting, Mar 12 1997
When I went to GradNite during high school– 1984… we saw Michael Jackson and Brooke Shields get off of Big Thunder Mountain Railroad just as we were getting on!
Pittsburg Post Gazette, 16 Jan 1985
Sarasota Herald-Tribune, 16 Jan 1985
Latoya Jackson says in the February issue of McCall’s magazine that Jackson’s other regular phone friends are Jane Fonda, Quincy Jones and Brooke Shields. “Michael and Brooke have been friends for a long time,” she said, but she denied any romance between the two stars, who have been seen together at televised events.
“Michael had no intention of taking Brooke to those award shows,” Latoya said, “but she asked to go and he wouldn’t say no.”
She recalled that Miss Shields had visited Jackson’s parents home and asked him to escort her. Michael looked to his sister for advice, McCall’s said.
“It’s up to you,” Miss Jackson said she told him.
“But I can’t take her,” she said he replied.”
“Then tell her,” she shot back.
But, she said, “Michael ended up with her, even though he knew that careerwise it wouldn’t be a good move. His fans don’t like to see Michael with a girl because they’re all hoping he likes them.”
JET 15 july 1985
And Brooke Shields sent my producer, Andrea Davis, off on a desperate last- minute search for nail polish so she could get ready for her date that night after the news, a date with Michael Jackson.
Jermaine Jackson, Company Magazine, Mid 80s,
Jermaine in an interview with Company magazine denies that Michael’s dates with Brooke Shields and Tatum O’Neal were a smokescreen to hide that he was a homosexual.
He said:”No part of is serious because I know he really like Brooke.
”He plays the dating game and goes out to the movies with girls and has fun.
”Michael will marry. He’s just trying to find the right person, that’s all.”
Tatiana Thumbtzen’s Autobio, Bad Tour, Feb, 1988
In the dressing room, I wanted to take off my makeup, but there were celebrities everywhere! One of the reporters teamed me up with a very tall Brooke Shields. I saw La Toya, Michael’s sister from a distance and I decided to join her. We stood talking and someone from the press asked us to pose for a photo which was later published in Rolling Stone. That magazine photo was one of the coolest experiences in my life.
Michael Jackson, Moonwalk autobio, 1988
Another love was Brooke Shields. We were romantically serious for a while. There have been a lot of wonderful women in my life, women whose names wouldn’t mean anything to the readers of this book, and it would be unfair to discuss them because they are not celebrities and are unaccustomed to having their names in print. I value my privacy and therefore I respect theirs as well.
Pittsburg Post Gazette, 5 Jan 1989
Slash on the recording of Give In To Me, Dangerous sessions 1990-1
“Hey Slasher, Michael Jackson is trying to get in touch with you,” said our manager. “He wants you to play on his record.”
“‘Oh wow!’ I said. ‘Okay.’ The next call was from Michael himself. ‘Hello Slash,’ he said in his typically nervous, timid voice, and off we went from there.
“I was flattered and I was intimidated but the sessions came off great. We did two songs – the cooler one was Give In To Me, which was like a new take on his song Dirty Diana.
“Michael was there with Brooke Shields, who he was dating at the time.
“It was trippy and the studio was dimly lit. I shook hands with them both and played.
“‘I really want to thank you so much for being on my album,’ Michael said. ‘I really can’t wait to hear what you come up with!’
“Then they split, and went off to dinner.”
Recording of Dangerous 1990/1, Sam L. Parity
Brooke Shields used to call him on the phone a lot. This was the pre-cell phone era, so I would usually answer his calls and then have to go find him in the studio. She was always really nice to me.
Brooke Shields Redbook, July 1991
When it comes to love, there’s an endless procession of male admirers, and Brooke still makes headlines.
Over the years, she’s been linked with John Kennedy, Jr., actor Woody Harrelson and singers George Michael, Michael Jackson and Michael Bolton. All of them, she insists, “were simply crushes. The press blew them out of proportion. I don’t pick up a male so I can make the papers,” she adds. ”I went on two dates with John Junior, He’s really nice guy, He said I reminded him of his mother.”
Latoya Jackson, Aug 31, 1991
“Michael and Brooke’s (Shields) relationship was a friendship, plain and simple– at least in Michael’s mind. It was obvious to me and Janet that she had other ideas.”
Elizabeth Taylor’s Wedding, 8 October 1991
Deseret News,
Shields, who was host Michael Jackson’s date for the affair, wore violet contact lenses. “I was like, ‘Liz, look!’ and she’s like, ‘Ooh. Don’t they hurt? I hope it’s worth it,’ ” Shields told The Baltimore Sun. “And I said, ‘Of course it’s worth it. I look like you.’ Shields said her gift to the newlyweds was a set of antique linen pillow cases embroidered with “yours” and “mine” that came from…[]
Morning Star – 21 Nov 1991
Dinner at The Inn of the Seventh Ray in Topanga Canyon, Nov 21 1991
JET 9 december 1991
Celine Dion, Authorized Bio, Oscars after party, 1992
Shields Up, Ring Out, Feb 26, 1992
The most suspicious thing about the “Under Suspicion” premiere Monday night was the 11-carat “friendship” ring Brooke Shields was wearing. Our sources say Shields was given the ring by “Suspicion’s” star attraction, Liam Neeson, and that it’s not a riendship ring at all – it’s an engagement ring.
Shields’ spokeswoman, though, begs to differ. “It’s just a friendship ring , and it’s not from Mr. Neeson.” We obviously need a new crowd of friends to hang around with.
“I don’t know how she washes her hands ,” was the buzz at the premiere. We do – with jewelry cleaner. OK, so Neeson didn’t give Shields the ring, but Shields did give Neeson a signed Francesco Scavullo photograph of herself that our sources say he carries around with him. We hope it’s out of the frame. And, we’re told, Neeson carries around a copy of Shields’ autobiography with the inscription, “Liam, I Love You With All My Heart and Soul, Brooke.” Nah, he definitely didn’t give her the ring.
Pre Oprah Show Interview, 10 February,1993
Oprah: She was the envy of all his female fans, especially when rumours broke out that they were a really hot item, Brooke Shields joins us by the crackling fire via satellite. Great to talk to you, Brooke, how are you doing?
Brooke: Fine, thank you.
Oprah: What makes Michael such a good friend, do you think?
Brooke: I think that his sensitivity, his honesty. I mean, as a friend, I’ve known him for so many years and what I feel is more important than anything…
Oprah: How many years?
Brooke: We were both about… I was 14, I think. And I think because we both grew up in the same business, I mean, it’s similar upbringings in the sense that we had to begin in this business at a very young age. We we learned a sense of, we had defense mechanisms that we’d built up and once we met we realized we didn’t really have to be wary of one another and that enabled us to build a friendship at a different level.
Oprah: Do the unfortunate comments and criticisms about him offend you? Do they upset you?
Brooke: They upset me constantly. I’m constantly upset at what people say. First of all, granted, you take everything with a grain of salt and there are many things sai about me that are unkind that I don’t find pleasurable. But so many people really don’t know him and don’t give him a chance and are so ready to criticise. I think what happens is when you see genius, when you see a talent that is unstoppable and untouchable, the first reaction people have is to criticise it, because it threatens them, it scares them and to augment their own self worth, they have to belittle him. He’s a sensitive human being and all this negativity bothers him and it upsets him.
Oprah: I want to know what the real deal is between the two of you. I’m not asking about now, but were you kind of, let’s see, what’s the word, were you kind of like… was there romance going on? Were you kind of romantically involved? Was there ever an exchange of rings or something?
Brooke: Well, let me say that right now, we’re closer now, than we ever were. We love each other more now than when we even knew we did when we were younger. Because we had fun when we were younger, it was a sense of relief.
Oprah: Okay, so this is a question, do you have a crush on him or did he have a crush on you?
Brooke: I think we both had a crush – and still do have a crush on each other. I mean, I think part of having a crush on someone is admiring them – almost, we have a lot of fun together, it’s almost unfortunate because we know each other so well. I mean, he just amazes me every time I sit down and talk to him.
Oprah: Does he feel more like a brother to you than a boyfriend though?
Brooke: It’s hard to say. I mean, I find it’s like love on a different level. I feel closer to him than some of the boyfriends that I’ve had. I mean, I feel more relaxed around him, more comfortable than I do. I mean, I’ve never really had a brother, so there is part of that. It’s like a love on a very different level and whenever I try to explain it to people it’s been misinterpreted. And it’s a shame, because it hurts him too, when he feels that people misinterpret the way we feel about each other. And he did, he gave me the most incredibly beautiful ring that you could ever imagine. Of course, people built that out of proportion, they said we were engaged. It really wasn’t really about that, it was a friendship ring. When he gave it to me, it was the most adorable thing, we hadn’t really ever exchanged gifts before, and —
Oprah: Are you wearing it right now?
Brooke: No, I’m not.
Oprah: Darn!
Brooke: I know! I’m sorry. ‘Cause I’m working right now. That’ll be it’s own show, Oprah. (laugh)
Oprah: Well, you know he’s doing his first interview tonight, what advice do you have for your close friend? What do you think of him doing this interview, do you think it’s good?
Brooke: I think it’s good because people need to hear him speak. And I think they will only be even more warmed by his presence, they will be more pleasantly surprised. I think a lot of what happens is people don’t understand him because they have no real concept of who he is. They see him professionally and they’ve no idea who he is personally. Now, granted that’s his prerogative, I think it’s fine when people don’t speak out in public if they don’t feel like it. But I think it will only help him. Because the people who already love him will just love him more, those who don’t think they love him will come away loving him. My advice to him is, which I’ve even told him personally, is just to be himself, because that is what people are going to love.
Oprah: I think you’re right. Thank you, Brooke.
10 Feb, 1993, Oprah
Oprah: Do you go out, do you date?
Michael: Yes.
Oprah: Who do you date?
Michael: Well, right now it’s Brooke Shields. Well, we try not to be everywhere, go everywhere, it’s mostly at home, she’ll come over, I’ll go to her house, because I don’t like going out in public.
Oprah: Have you ever been in love?
Michael: Yeah.
Oprah: With Brooke Shields?
Michael: Yes, and another girl.
Oprah: What kind of woman makes you…in the video we’re going to see later, we premier the world video, there’s a line where you talk about being quenched. So what kind of person does that for you?
Michael: [Sings] Quench my desire … Well Brooke, I’ve always liked her…
NewsBank – Feb 12, 1993
LaToya Jackson was also surprised to hear her brother say he was still dating BROOKE SHIELDS. “Michael told me that Brooke Shields was the most aggressive girl he’d met in his life. After being out with her, he’d come to me and say things like, “She tried to kiss me. She tried to stick her tongue down my throat.’
Toledo Blade, 18th Feb 1993
He has dated Brooke Shields, but the actress says, with a smile in her voice, “He has not asked me to marry him. Maybe that’s going to be on the next Oprah show.” Shields, 27, also grew up naked before the camera and understands the slash and burn of early fame. “It is very hard,” she says of Jackson, “when your family turns against you, and when anyone you befriend slaps you in the face. It would amaze you the way people hurt him. What amazes me even more is his willingness to forgive. He acknowledges their frailty, and he allows it to eat away at him. Can you blame him for wanting to be surrounded by the innocence and purity of children? The light in their eyes is what he wants to keep alive in his own soul.”
“In a way,” Shields says — meaning the best way — “Michael is not of this world.”
35th Annual Grammy Awards, Feb 24th 1993
Michael Jackson may say she belongs to him, but Brooke Shields continues to be snapped with some of the other most eligible bachelors in Hollywood. She says the men at her side aren’t always dates, though. ”If the person I’m with is unaware of what it’s like to be in public, then I’ll say, ‘Get ready, tell your parents to buy the Enquirer,”’ she says. ”There’s a grain of truth in pictures (of) people that you’re seen with. You were at the same party, maybe you went out together, but very rarely is any of (the speculation) true.”
Bravo magazine 1993, Michael’s security guard discusses touring with Mike on the DWT
(Re: Oprah interview) He lied a little bit on the question about who he is dating. I think there is nothing more than a true friendship with the actress Brooke Shields. She never came to any of his European shows.
Beaver County Times, June 6, 1993
Q.Newspaper pictures of Brooke Shields at a charity event showed her wearing a huge diamond ring is it an engagement ring?
A One of my eagle-eyed spies saw that amazing ring at the recent posh sale held in Manhattan by The Lighthouse an organization helping the blind (Brooke was honorary chairwoman of the event. The ring an immense 11-carat diamond is a gift from none other than her good friend Michael Jackson. He tossed a box of Cracker Jacks at Brooke while she was a guest at his ranch, offhandedly saying,”Here, I never give you any presents!” The magnificent ring was the prize inside.
June 21st, 1993
RHYTHM AND BLUE LAGOONS, Time, Volume 142, Aug 27, 1993
Beware, Aretha!
Like Zsa Zsa,like Ivana, like Pia Zadora, Brooke Shields — no longer a model, not really an actress — can best be defined as a personality. Now she is adding another item to her list of not-exactly talents.
The Princeton-educated Pretty Baby is becoming a Rhythm and Blues singer and recording her first album. “It’s going to surprise a lot of people,” she boasts. The disc will contain all new tunes and will be completed with no help from chum Michael Jackson. ”He’s got enough people mooching off him,” says Shields.
Anchorage Daily News – 28 Aug 1993
Brooke Shields issued a statement Friday supporting Jackson, a longtime friend.
“I know Michael extremely well,” Shields said. “He is a person for whom I have the highest respect and whose decency is unquestionable… I cannot believe the allegations that have inflicted pain and heartache on one of the kindest people I know.”
King of Pop and a princess, Feb 4, 1994,
Brooke Shields is no longer Michael Jackson’s constant escort: The Gloved One stirred a Vegas crowd Wednesday night when he attended a Temptations and the 5th Dimension concert with The King’s daughter, Lisa Marie Presley.
Mar 14, 1994
How does she feel about the troubles of her pal Michael Jackson? “He is a good person. I think I have said all I can about him in the past.” Added her mom: “He loves children.”
New York Amsterdam News, Apr 16, 1994
Also subpoenaed was Brooke Shields, who dated Jackson several years ago. Why she was called was not clear but she appeared with counsel. Jackson’s own mother was subpoenaed and asked questions about her son. It’s a circus said an observer close to the Jackson clan I’ve never seen anything like it.
May 12, 1994
It’s hard to keep track of Brooke Shields’ latest love interests. She was palling around with tennis star Andre Agassi last month but was seen last weekend at the Kentucky Derby chumming it up with movie star Steve Guttenberg. Then there’s the big diamond ring she sports, which she which she says is from yet another buddy — Michael Jackson.
Beacon Journal, May 15, 1994
Speaking of Michael, his good friend Brooke Shields, she of no visible career, is having a busy spring Shields who was making nice with Andre Agassi just seconds ago was chumming it up with actor Steve Guttenberg at the Kentucky Derby.
Shields had a rock on her hand from Michael Jackson not the peroxide tressed tennis bum and a security guard in tow though no one bothered her.
As Brooke recovered from foot surgery in hospital in July, from Andre Agassi’s book ”Open’,
I feel an enormous surge of protectiveness and tenderness-which ebbs when she gets a phone call from her close friend Michael Jackson. I can’t fathom her continuing friendship with Jackson, given all the stories and accusations. But Brooke says he’s just like us. Another prodigy who didn’t have a childhood.
So what of the infamous televised comments of Michael Jackson on his supposed relationship with Brooke?
“Michael is a dear friend. He and Brooke are very fond of each other and he even bought her a huge diamond friendship ring,” explained Teri.
“I think because they have both grown up in the limelight as child stars, this makes for an obvious bond.”
Wichita Eagle, Dec 23, 1994
Christopher Andersen spent 18 months rooting around in Michael Jackson’s dirty laundry — literally. In an effort to save you rooting through his book, here are some of the things he claims…
Brooke Shields was the one who pursued their relationship calling him, dropping in at his home and inviting herself along to events such as his White House visit.
Sister Janet called her giraffe butt.
Slash, Vibe Magazine, 17 July 1995
“I have to admit working with Michael Jackson is different that working with your basic, gritty rock n’ roll band. One time when I went to play for Michael and he walked in with Brooke Shields, and there I am with a cigarette in one hand, a bottle of Jack Daniels in the other, and my guitar hanging low around my neck. And he doesn’t care. That’s not the way he is, but I don’t have to change for him. He accepts me for what I am.”
Brooke Shields, News of The World, June 1996
Speaking to French fashion magazine Max, Brooke, talks about her love life.
One of the oddest was Michael Jackson. She was often pictured on his arm going to restaurants and films.
But tucking into a croissant and orange juice Brooke made a special point of putting the record straight. “Now I have no more contact with him at all,” she told the magazine. “It’s been a very long time since we last met.”
Brooke Shields, Vanity Fair, 1996
G.W. All right, Brooke darling. Explain to G.W. the nitty-gritty of your friendship with Michael Jackson. Talk about those strange days with the Gloved One. Was it a genuine friendship?
B.S. It really was.
G.W. And to think people said he paid you to go on dates with him!
B.S. Like that’s the kind of person I am. That’s ridiculous.
Hairdresser Nicky Clarke, December 31 1996
He worked for Brooke Shields in the U.S. when she was dating Michael Jackson. Her hair was pinned up as a disguise when she went out to dinner.
The Mirror, April 8th 2000
BEAUTY Brooke Shields has revealed her romance with Michael Jackson was a sham. And she said the pop star hasnt spoken to her since she split with her ex- husband Andre Agassi.
The 34year-old was rumoured to be dating Jackson in 1996 before she met the tennis legend and said, ”He was one of my greatest love affairs.” But yesterday, she said the relationship had been purely platonic. ”He stopped returning my calls. It’s too bad, he’s a wonderful person,” she said.
2000/1 conversations with Rabbi Shmuley
SB: [Macauley Culkin] tried to hold onto his childhood for as long as possible. But there are other childhood stars who didn’t, like Brooke Shields, whom you were once close to. What about someone like Brooke Shields who to the world looks like she didn’t make childhood choices, she didn’t try to rediscvoer her childhood. Do you think it will all exact a price? Do you think Macauley Culkin and you and others can be healthier because you understand what you are missing and you need to compensate?
MJ: You know, with certain people I understand and with certain ones I don’t. With her she started out being a model, so it wasn’t like being on the set all day, every day. She did modeling. She wasn’t in a movie until she did, I think it was Pretty Baby, and she played a female prostitute at the age of… I think it started around twelve for her. There was a lot of photography, so it wasn’t like all day like what we did, all day, from early to night. I think it affects people differently, but it is all the same. She is very sweet, smart. She is not an airhead. She is real smart. A lot of people think that when someone is beautiful that are like an airhead. She is very smart.
SB: So why didn’t you have the nerve to ask [Princess Diana]?
MJ: I never aksed a girl out in my life. The have to ask me.
SB: Really?
MJ: I can’t ask a girl out.
SB: If she would have asked you out?
MJ: Absolutely. I would have gone. Brooke Shields aksed me out every time you saw us out together. It was her idea to go out and do it every time. I sincerley liked Brooke Shields too. I liked her a lot.
SB: Does she like kids?
MJ: Yes.
MJ: I love people like Brooke who are talented but work so hard. Brooke is a nice girl but she’s not Elizabeth Taylor. That’s the kind of lady I want to be seen with.
St. Petersburg Times, published June 5, 2002
THE WAY HE MAKES HER FEEL: Brooke Shields says she considers herself an expert on gays because in her single days she dated at least one: George Michael.
“And don’t even get me started on Michael Jackson,” Shields adds, according to a San Francisco Chronicle report on a Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation dinner Saturday in San Francisco.
Hearld Journal, 20th June 2003
Brooke Shields at one time was so taken with Michael Jackson, she nicknamed him “Peter Pan”
Joe Jackson autobiography, 2004
Then there was Brooke Shields, but she was too young then, but Michael was always a gentleman. He nevertheless courted her and bought her a ring with a big diamond. He frequently told his mother about how much Brooke meant to him.
Tatum, Brooke and Michael had a lot in common. All three were child stars.
Brooke was shot in a commercial for soap and was still practically a child when she was in ” Pretty baby “. Though Michael’s relationship with Brooke was limited to parties and discos, he treated her very seriously.
We invited Brook to a supper in our house in Los-Angeles. She was delightful. She had magnificent manners, she had perfectly considered our family and at once has found common language with my wife. We welcomed her with all our heart but respecting Michael’s private life did not ask unnecessary questions.
After a while Brooke decided to get a bachelor degree in one of the expensive universities on the West coast and Michael was constantly travelling because of his career. They didn’t see each other as often and their romantic relationship ended but they remained good friends.
Brooke had begun to attend university and Michael had fallen in love with a young dancer.
Brooke, although wearing his ring, had been in love with someone else.
7/7/09, Brooke
Brooke Shields says she “instantly became friends” with Michael Jackson after meeting him when she was 13.
“Nothing was jaded about him. I just was so impressed by his sweetness,” Shields tells Rolling Stone’s special commemorative issue on the King of Pop, on stands Friday.
“He was thoughtful, sensitive, sweet, and had a funny sense of humor,” she goes on. “If you got to talk to him about music or about the future of technology, his voice would get deeper, he would start talking, and it was as if he was this genius.”
Sexuality didn’t play a role in their relationship, she explains..
“As he grew older and the more he started to change physically, the more asexual he became to me,” Shields says. “It was easy for him to be a friend to me, because I was the most celebrated virgin ever; it’s ridiculous, but I was America’s virgin.”
“You saw women who were more sexual, who wanted to throw themselves at him and feel like they were going to teach him; we just found each other, and we didn’t have to deal with our sexuality. As I grew up and started having boyfriends, I would share with him, and he was like a little kid who talked about the bases- what first base was, what second base was, and it sounded very odd to the outside, I can imagine, but to the inside, to someone who’s never really left his bubble, you can understand how he would be curious.” Shields continues.
“There were times when he would ask me to marry him, and I would say, ‘You have me for the rest of your life, you don’t need to marry me, I’m going to go on and do my own life and have my own marriage and my own kids, and you’ll always have me.’ I think it made him relax. He didn’t want to lose things that meant something to him,” she adds.
She last saw Jackson at Elizabeth Taylor’s 1991 wedding.
“He seemed like his own funny self,” she says. “We snuck in and took pictures of ourselves next to her dress. We always seemed to revert to being little kids. It was a sanctuary for him, because he knew I never wanted anything from him but his happiness.”
Shields is expected at the Staples Center memorial at 10 a.m. PST.
Michael Jackson Remembered, Rolling Stone, July 13th 2009
Everybody was always confused by our relationship. Nobody got it, and I didn’t really care. My mom was always very positive in a sweet way about him, and he loved my mom. My mom would joke with him and rib him like he was a little kid, so he always got a kick out of her. He used to say, “It’s great you can be that close with your mom,” because she was also my manager at the time, where he had a very different relationship with his father, and I think he envied that.
We maintained our relationship for so long because it was never not real. People expect anything in entertainment or Hollywood to be transient, and it’s not as interesting a story for us to have been lifelong friends. People want sordid details or they want big blowups, and the truth of the matter is, from the time we met when I was 13, we understood each other and became very good friends, and that was it, we didn’t need to make it into anything else. I went to high school and college and I forced that into my life, and he didn’t have that luxury. He would laugh, I would tell him about whatever happened at college or high school, and I think he just always felt it was too unattainable for him, so vicariously, I would share with him football games or cheerleading.
What did I think of his marriage to Lisa Marie? I think we’re not dealing with convention, so somebody like Michael, he’s not going to just fall in love with somebody and get married. I think there were a few people that he could identify with, and what I know about Lisa Marie, she was very sweet, she could identify with him, they could talk about things that I’m sure she understood with regards to her father. So I think he tried to create a convention for himself. There were times when he would ask me to marry him, and I would say, “You have me for the rest of your life, you don’t need to marry me, I’m going to go on and do my own life and have my own marriage and my own kids, and you’ll always have me.”
He never actually formally proposed to me, though. He would sort of say, “Why don’t we adopt a child together? The way your heart works is what I want in my life,” and I said to him, “You’re always going to have my heart, we don’t need to adopt a baby, and I think it’s wonderful that you want to have children, adopt a child.” I wanted to fall in love and get married and have my own babies, and I said, “I don’t think that you need to necessarily do that.” This was just before he married Lisa Marie in the Nineties, I guess. He had discussed it with me, and I said, “I don’t think that’s the best thing to do for me.” I was just out of college, and wanting to fall in love and have a fairy tale, I was holding on to that. He just felt so bad that there were so many little children in Romania in these orphanages, and he wanted to try to give them homes, and I really wanted to be able to do that with him, but it would have divided my life too much.
I hope when you write this, it doesn’t sound freakish. What it was was a young man who kept reaching to try to find happiness. I think he wanted to take his resources and make a difference to other people in their lives, and he knew that I wanted to do that in the world, too, so he would reach out to someone like me and say, “How can we make a difference, it’s easier to adopt a child if you’re two people.” He never said, formally, “Will you marry me,” it was never that for me, he never was that definitive, but I think he was a guy who kept searching for happiness.
The problem is when you try to bring that out and in this society, it turns into a tabloid sentence, which is, “He wanted Brooke Shields to live with him and adopt babies,” and it sounds ridiculous. And it never was that clear-cut. He found people he loved in his life and he didn’t want to let go of them and he wanted them all to live together because he didn’t want to go out into the outside world, which was so cruel and too much to handle, and it makes sense. I’ve seen many people in this position where they try to bring people into their circle, because going out of their life, just walking outside on the street is too much for them. That’s why he created Neverland, because he wanted to bring people in so that he didn’t have to leave and he could feel their happiness and he could somehow regain something that he felt he’d lost. So of course I was going to be one of the people he was going to call.
I can’t really guess why his last years were so challenging. I think just cumulatively, when you distance yourself that much for that long, and if you don’t have the healthy outlet creatively, because there was a period of time when I think his music was his strength, and that was where he could filter and pour himself into it, and it was clear, and he knew what to expect and he could make it what he wanted. His life, I think, was very hard to grasp, and I don’t know if the people around him were helping at all.
I don’t think he was surrounded by healthy people. I think he just created a world that he felt safe in, and we went out to dinner a lot less. We used to go out to restaurants — it was madness, but at least we could get to a restaurant and be at a table. Entering and leaving the restaurant was a mess, but we could at least do that, and slowly but surely, he stopped going out to restaurants. And he got thinner and thinner … at first, he made fun of me because when I was in college, there would be keg parties or whatever, and he was like, “I can’t believe you were drinking,” and I would say, “It’s college, that’s what you do in college, you drink, you get sick, and you don’t want to drink anymore, that’s the way it happens,” and he swore off all alcohol and he swore off everything, and he was so clean. He would make fun of me because I wasn’t as healthy.
My heart broke for him because once he felt the need to run — I felt like he ran. I was worried about him financially, I was worried about the kids, I was worried about his health. I always worried about his health, because I thought he was just too skinny. He would make fun of me, especially when I was in college, because I gained weight in college — what freshman doesn’t gain the freshman 15? — and I’d say, “I know you’re going to think I’m fat, but …” and it was a joke, but he also became very, very conscious of everything, and I used to say, “I think you’ve lost too much weight.” So I started worrying about his health from the thin standpoint.
I saw him less and less as our lives became different. At every major event in my life, he reached out to me, whether if it was when my dad died, when I had my first daughter, and had severe post-partum, we’d speak, and then it got more and more difficult to reach him, and some of the people in his life that I could call to get him, they were fired or they left or they went away, and in the last few years, it was harder to get the right number to get through to him.
I like to think that I was a good friend to him. That’s the way it always was, and our friendship never altered, it just stayed the course. No matter what was happening, the one thing that whenever we got on the phone with each other, he would just giggle or laugh and say, “Oh, Brooke,” and I was consistent, and I think that was important for both of us. I wanted him to know my kids, but it became harder to take him out and bring him into … it was just a trauma. I feel like he shouldn’t have gone that way. I’ve always maintained what a pure soul he was.
January 11th, 2010, Access Hollywood
LOS ANGELES, Calif. —
Brooke Shields has broken her silence, speaking out for the first time about the emotional speech she gave during Michael Jackson’s public memorial in July.
Brooke opened up exclusively to Access Hollywood’s Billy Bush as she hosted the launch of LG’s Lotus Elite mobile phone at Las Vegas’ Palms Place Hotel and Spa.
“Did you see me shaking?” Brooke asked Billy, referring to her time on stage, which all the world witnessed over the summer at Michael’s memorial.
“That was a really riveting moment,” Billy said.
“Well, they didn’t tell us that the coffin was going to be there,” she said.
“I thought — because there was a fantasy moment in my head — that he was going to jump out and start the concert.”
But fantasy quickly turned into sad reality for Brooke during her emotional seven-minute speech about her special friendship with Michael.
“They had written me something,” Brooke said. ” I didn’t… I wrote my own thing and just had to do my own thing. But it was… I felt honored to be a part of it.”
Brooke explained it was someone very close to Michael’s heart who asked her to be a part of his memorial.
“His mom [asked],” Brooke told Billy.
But Brooke confirmed she and Michael hadn’t been in touch in a while.
“I had not only not spoken to him, I hadn’t seen him in years,” she said.
“There must have been many times where you wanted to pick up the phone and call him and say, ‘Can I help you? As a friend, can I come see you? Do you need someone to talk to?’” Billy asked.
“I did that, you know, 20 years ago,” Brooke said. “I mean… the rhetoric didn’t change, you know, I did that way back when, but anyway, I did my best.”
“You did a beautiful job,” Billy said of Brooke’s memorial speech.
“I hope I did a good job,” she said. “I tried.”
Brooke, Splash News, March 4 2010
Actress Brooke Shields has revealed that Michael Jackson thought he was dying and that she wasn’t surprised by the King of Pop’s death.
The former Suddenly Susan star, 44, made her comments in a US magazine.
She said: ‘He [Jackson] thought he was dying already.’
And while she was devastated by her famous friend’s death last June, Shields said that she was not surprised.
She said: ‘They were killing him – the people and the press.’
The Lipstick Jungle star also spoke out in defence of Jackson who faced child-sex abuse charges and a high-profile trial in 2005.
The mum-of-two said that she never believed the music legend was a child molester and that she warned him that his sleepovers with young boys would be misunderstood, telling him: ‘Michael, the world’s not going to get it.”
The former child star, who started modelling at the age of 11 months, also revealed that she doesn’t want her two daughters – Rowan, six, and Grier, three – to go into showbiz.
She said: ‘It’s a high like you can’t imagine… But, no, I don’t want them involved. Every day you’re told what you are not – you’re not short enough, you’re not thin enough, you’re not pretty enough.
‘You’re always losing out.’
Brooke Shield Introducted to Man In The Mirror: Michael Jackson by Ron Galella, released 2010
In February 1984, Michael called me about a week before the Grammys to ask me if I’d go with him. Although it wasn’t much time, a week was actually longer than he’d usually give me to get ready for one of our outings. He told me he really wanted me to be with him, and that Emmanuel Lewis would probably also be with us. That was also not unusual because the three of us often did things as a team: the odd-but to us perfectly normal-version of the Three Musketeers. We were all quite famous and had been working basically our entire lives. Emmanuel was much younger and we called him ‘Rubba” because he had this adorable face with chubby cheeks, and he could make funny faces and move like he was made of rubber. We would all laugh so much our sides would hurt. I think Michael and I simply appreciated the freedom we felt when we were together. We could laugh, act silly, and not have to be the professional adults we were normally expected to be.
I think Michael wanted me with him at this particular Grammys because of how groundbreaking Thriller was, and how huge it was for his career. I believe he felt safe with me around, and he knew I never wanted anything from him and that I would take care of him. Events like the Grammys can be daunting for anybody, especially somebody nominated for over seven awards. He knew I was familiar with the spectacle that accompanies such events and that I would not get star-struck or lose sight of him in any way.
I’m not sure if he thought he was going to win as many awards as he did. When I said congratulations on the numerous nominations, he just kept saying ”It’s crazy isn’t it?!” I joked with him that he probably would have gotten even more nominations if he had put me in the video instead of the girl he chose. He just got this mischievious smile on his face that I had seen so many times before and said,”Oh Brooke!”
Michael seemed to take all of it in stride. That evening he just kept getting up to accept another honor. He had such humility and grace, and although he was almost maniacally ambitious and perfectionist, he never gloated about his success. He would just look ahead and try to find ways in which he could be even better. He wanted to be the best at everything, including being a friend. Nothing was ever about ego. It was about his heart and how that motivated him. Even getting eight awards seemed to just make him more humble.
Anyway, he asked me and, as usual, I said I’d be glad to join him and help in any way I could, I promised we could would have fun no matter what. On Grammy night I found a fancy Mary McFadden dress in my closet that I had been given as a gift, I did my own hair and makeup, and waited for the bell to ring. The car arrived and we were on our way. Michael had a way of making you want to care for him. Hopefully that is what I did that Grammy night.
Brooke Shields, Love Magazine, UK, Autumn/Winter 2010
In the remarkably candid interview, Shields also discusses her relationship with Michael Jackson and described the King of Pop’s father, Joe Jackson, as the “devil incarnate.”
La Cienega Just Smiles 
