The Cliff Notes

CLIFF NOTES

I’ve tried to put a series of quotes from various people together in context in order to create a more clear understanding of what his releationships were like, something which should hopefully be cheaper and more truthful to read than having to trawl through various trashy lazy biographies. It’s amazing how clear certain stories become when what’s been said has been framed in context. Some of the quotes have been paraphrased and rephrased in order to remove the interviewer’s question, but hopefully the sentiment has been retained.

JOANELLE ROMERO

I was always invited to go to his house to play, he would swing me in this big tree swing and we would speak of our dreams. Michael asked me to go steady on the steps of Gardener Street school.
– Joanelle Romero

JOCELYNE DANCHICK

“We had the biggest crush on each other. Of course, at 11 we didn’t smooch all the time. But there was lots of flirting. He was timid but the sweetest, funniest kid. And though we never declared our love – you don’t at that age – we both had feelings. Posing for our end of school picture, he even got me to stand right behind him. He really proved his sweetness, though, when we had to sing in front of our parents before we moved on to high school. I didn’t want to embarrass Michael by being out of tune. But he nudged me and squeezed my hand to let me know it was OK.”
– Jocelyne

I didn’t really have any girlfriends when I was in school. There were girls I thought were cute, but I found it so difficult to approach them. I was too embarrassed – I don’t know why – it was just crazy. There was one girl who was a good friend to me. I liked her, but I was too embarrassed to tell her.
– Michael Jackson

MAUREEN MCCORMICK

When the boys were in Vegas in 1975, Maureen McCormick was always back in [Michael’s] dressing room.
– Susie Jackson

But I think Michael really liked me. He called me and then I started driving over to his house, where we hung out and talked about TV and music. He let me watch him sing and dance in their studio. Once we went ice-skating and he held my hand as we glided around the rink. I wondered if he might try to kiss me but he didn’t. After another outing, he did give me a kiss good-bye. But it was only a gentle peck on the cheek.
– Maureen

I was just absolutely in love with Michael Jackson. I thought he was the greatest star ever. I definitely had a huge crush on him. And we kissed. On the lips. A little peck action! It was close, but it was on the lips. I thought he was the greatest thing in the world, I really did.
– Maureen McCormick

Oh, I felt that hormonal rage for Michael. He never acted upon it, but I did. I thought he was hot. I was ready for Michael but I didn’t make it clear to him that there could maybe be something there.
– Maureen McCormick

We went ice skating. Michael and Marlon and Randy. And Maureen and Eve and me. She says it was an intimate date between she and Michael. She had a crush on Jermaine!
– Susan Olsen

UNKNOWN OLDER WOMAN

I’m just now beginning to enjoy friendship, which is new for me. With people other than in show business, with ladies.
– Michael Jackson

There is someone important in my life at the moment.
– Michael Jackson

Michael is presently involved with a young lady he cares about a great deal. However, he is doing everything he can to protect her from the glaring eyes of his adoring public. This is one thing Michael intends to keep to himself. I’m sure his fans would never begrudge him a little privacy or a little quiet romance.
– Steve Manning

“[My personal life] is wonderful and I am in love…
– Michael Jackson

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.
– Michael Jackson

But girl, girlfriend had my nose wide open, okay, you could drive a truck through my nose. I loved her so much, God. I would give her money, I would give her jewelry, I would give her a house, a car, whatever. I was never good enough.
– Michael Jackson

She knew how I was from the beginning, it wasn’t like she didn’t. I wasn’t going to change, not until I got married. I loved her so much. I didn’t want to see that. I did not want to see that. I knew she was fooling around. I know, girl. I know it for a fact. And it was a good thing that it was finally over. I don’t regret that I didn’t sleep with her. I’m glad I didn’t.
– Michael Jackson

Part of the attraction was because she was such a strong person and stood up for me against my dad and she was always there, she was older than me and I was drawn to that.
– Michael Jackson

DIANA ROSS

When I was little I used to stay with Diana Ross, me and my brother stayed with her for years and I never said, but I always had a crush on her.
– Michael Jackson

“You’re not pretty until you start looking like Diana!” he would tease LaToya and Janet.
– Katherine Jackson

I used to stay with her whenever we’d come up to New York.
-Michael Jackson

I was enthusiastic. I thought it would be wonderful for Michael and me to work together. Michael and I were pretty close during that time. We spoke on the phone every couple of days and usually saw each other about once a week, when our careers permitted. We were already very close friends.
– Diana Ross

She’s such a beautiful, talented woman. Doing this movie together was very special for me. I love her very much. I have always loved her very much.
-Michael Jackson

Diana Ross was a big support throughout the shooting. Michael referred to her as “my mama” on the set. She made a habit of checking in on him in his dressing room each morning.
– Katherine Jackson

Sometimes, Michael Jackson and I end up being dates.
– Diana Ross

She would periodically speak of Michael in a very warm way. She had real admiration and affection for him – her eyes would light up every time that she spoke of him.
– Douglas Kirkland

Even Diana Ross was calling him up – calling Michael every day telling him don’t sign don’t sign, don’t go to Columbia. You’re gonna get in a lot of trouble, things like that. Diana Ross was close to Michael. Michael always admired Diana Ross, he loved Diana Ross. They were very good good friends.
– Pete Bennett

There are a lot of people I like, and I think they like me, but only time will tell whether our friendships are really true ones, close ones. Diana Ross and I have some deep, deep conversations at times-especially on the phone, because I’m much deeper in conversation on the phone than I am in person.
-Michael Jackson

I’m crazy about Michael and I love him a lot. He’s been my inspiration. He’s a very gentle, wonderful human being, one of the special ones in this universe, and I don’t even know if he knows how special he is. So whenever I can be around him, I like it. I like to rub shoulders with talent. He’s got good vibrations. His aura is only about love. So I like being with him.
– Diana Ross

Later, when I showed him the proof sheets of the photo session, he ordered two large prints of every picture, which was highly unusual. Typically, if someone orders one or two pictures from a session, it’s considered a success. I was blown away. “Two of every single one? That’s about 144 prints… Michael answered, “Yes, I can count. I want one set for myself and one for Diana [Ross]. Todd, this is magic.”
– Todd Gray

“They have a friendship as genuine as any I’ve seen. On set Diana would say, ‘what would Michael think of this?’ Michael would say, ‘what would Diana do with this?’”
– Bob Giraldi

She’s someone very special to me.
-Michael Jackson

I care for Michael but I don’t worry about him. I think sometimes that he’s got angels on his shoulders to protect him.
– Diana Ross

We’re just good friends.
-Michael Jackson

I mean, Diana’s like a mother-lover-friend to me. She’s wonderful.
-Michael Jackson

I’m crazy about her. She was my mother, my lover, and my sister all combined in one amazing person.”
-Michael Jackson

Well, you know, I’m crazy about Michael Jackson. I might team up with him one day. I would certainly like it very much.
– Diana Ross

What I didn’t know is that you’d get so sexy.
– Diana Ross to Michael

There’s a Black lady in my life but you wouldn’t take me seriously. It’s Diana Ross. I love her. Not as a big sister, see, I told you that you wouldn’t take me seriously. I would like to marry Diana Ross, I’m saying that. Uh huh, I feel something more than close friendship for her. And what does age have to do with it? Look at it this way: how old you would you be if you didn’t even know how old you are?
-Michael Jackson

As time went on, he sort of fell in love with Diana Ross —her music and her singing — and I think it was mutual. She fell in love with him also.
– Don Cornelius

He’s also very close to Diana Ross but he isn’t obsessed with her.
– Jermaine Jackson

She’s the kind of person I can tell anything to- the most private of secrets! And she tells me her secrets as well. Sometimes I tell her I’m going to marry her. Our relationship goes on forever.
-Michael Jackson

To me, [Diana] is a peacock… That’s what she is. She has so many colors. She’s not only a singer. She’s a philosopher. She teaches you all kinds of things.
– Michael

He has so many people around him but he’s still afraid, especially to be alone at night.
– Diana Ross

When I’m with him, I try to give him exactly what he needs-a little peace and the feeling that he is loved and that he can trust you.
– Diana Ross

I’m always extremely close to Diana. She’s my best friend. I love her.
-Michael Jackson

You see, we actually love each other.
– Diana Ross

Sometimes even I’m stunned at how he can be so shy. He’ll hide, talk like this (she whispers) — then you let him on stage —and he turns into this sexy, macho thing. I try to get him to step out socially, to get a little more out of himself. He spends too much time by himself.
– Diana Ross

When I heard Diana Ross was getting married, I was happy for her because I knew it would make her very joyous. Still, it was hard for me, because I had to walk around pretending to be overwhelmed that Diana was getting married to this man I’d never met. I wanted her to be happy, but I have to admit that I was a bit hurt and a little jealous because I’ve always loved Diana and always will.
-Michael Jackson

But Michael (Jackson)-when he wants to see me, he sees me; when he doesn’t he kind of closes the door. There’s no reaching him, there’s no finding him, there’s no anything. He’s just this illusive love out there. Somebody you care about, want to protect in a strange kind of way, feeling motherly toward him, but at the same time you can’t reach him and don’t know where he is.
– Diana Ross

And so it’s just that we don’t see each other half as much as I would like to see him.
– Diana Ross

There’s something you just said that made me think of Michael Jackson. I used to talk to Michael on the phone all the time. I haven’t talked to him for years now, but he always used to ask me questions about how to make this whole show-business thing work.
– Diana Ross

I thought I was with Diana; that was just in my own mind. It took me years to get over Diana… A hell of a long time.
-Michael Jackson

I’m sure he’s – he has a wonderful person in mind to take care of the children.
– Debbie Rowe

Michael was a personal love of mine.
– Diana Ross

STEPHANIE MILLS

I later became very friendly with the star of the show, Stephanie Mills, the Broadway Dorothy.
– Michael Jackson

Michael was definitely my boyfriend back in the day. But I don’t know if I was his girlfriend.
– Stephanie

We developed quite a friendship. A friendship that lasted many years.”
– Stephanie

When he’s in New York, we go dancing at Studio 54 and when I’m in California we go roller skating or take in a movie.
– Stephanie

I told her then, and I’ve always believed since, that it was a tragedy that her performance in the play could not have been preserved on film. I cried time after time. If I had been tempted to go onstage, it would probably have been to work with Stephanie, although her performances were so moving that I might have cried right there in front of the audience.
– Michael

I was in love with Michael! I was really in love, and I thought I was going to be Mrs. Michael Jackson, but he was so slow! I was ready to become a bride! Oh my God!
– Stephanie

I think I could marry someone like Michael because we both have similar tastes. We both like stuffed animals and children. In that way we’re compatible. But then again, we’ve never really sat down and had a long talk. I guess I don’t really know him. We’re always so busy.
– Stephanie

You know what I want to say… Michael is very much a man and he’s very, he was very loving, very caring and all that but I’ve never, we never had sex and I never saw him… I only saw Michael with his underwear on and he looked very cute!
– Stephanie

Cause he lived on Sutton Place and he was filming The Wiz movie and I used to go over and spend the night and I used to do his laundry. And we would go down to the laundry together so Michael is not what they all say; he’s very real and he’s very – and I’ve never spoke about that but he’s very just a regular kinda guy.
– Stephanie

Michael is very cute in his little underwear! Michael is a great kisser, I’ve kissed him! He is a great kisser! And he’s very, very affectionate! Where’d he kiss me at? Where do you think he kissed me? I’ll just say that Michael is very much A MAN! That’s what I’m trying to say.
– Stephanie

We were maybe 18-years-old. I got to know him as a person, as a friend and he was really all about our love — very affectionate, very loving. He was really all about love.
– Stephanie

TATUM O’NEAL

I mean I’ve been with Tate… I’ve been, well not with… I been with Tate. Tate, I dealt with Tate when I was a little younger. She came up to me in a club, we heard a… Maybe it was too… She put her hand on my… I couldn’t believe it.
– Michael

I saw her again, which was at a club on Sunset Blvd called the Roxy. We talked and talked and talked. When we met, I was sitting at this table and all of a sudden I felt this soft hand reach over and grab mine. It was Tatum. We were watching a band and underneath a table she was holding my hand I was melting
– Michael

When I asked [Michael] about supposed encounters with Tatum O’Neal, his eyes got big as he told me about the time at the Roxy that she had actually put her hand on his knee under the table.
– Robert Hilburn

At the Rox her father Ryan flirted with me a little, so Tatum sat on Michael’s lap.
– Susan Blond

This probably wouldn’t mean a lot to other people, but it was serious stuff to me. She touched me . That’s how I felt about it. In the past, girls had always touched me on tour; grabbing at me and screaming, behind a wall of security guards. But this was different, this was one-on-one, and that’s always the best.
– Michael

It was just magic, better than anything, kissing her, anything. It was magical. There were fireworks going on. It was all I needed. But that means nothing to kids today. She grew up too fast. She wasn’t into innocence, and I love that.
– Michael

The next day she invited me to join her at Hugh Hefner’s house to watch Roots on videotape. She got sort of bored, so we went outside and got into the jacuzzi. We weren’t naked as people have said. We both had on bathing suits, just enjoying ourselves. And that’s it.
– Michael

Everyone knows that he and Tatum O’Neal kissed at a party in the Playboy mansion.
– Joe Jackson

Well, I guess I am dating her in a way. I’ve taken her out a couple of times — or she’s taken me out — whatever. But she is a friend of mine and I see her occasionally.
– Michael

It is a [hot romance] but we’re friends too. My brother bought a house near her.
– Michael

She wants to take me camping. I’ve never done any of those things. I been knowin’ this business all my life so there’s no way of quittin’-but I am ready for a nice long vacation.
– Michael

We exchanged phone numbers and called each other often. I talked to her for hours: from the road, from the studio, from home.
– Michael

He gave me his number, and we started talking everyday–long drawn-out conversations that sometimes got so boring I would hand over the receiver to my friend Esme Gray. Michael would just keep on, thinking he was talking to me. His usual subject was sex. At 12 I didn’t have much to say about sex. But Michael was intensely curious about anything, everything sexual, though in an incredibly sweet and innocent way.
– Tatum

He and I had a really wonderful friendship when I was 12 and he was 17. He used to dance with me, we’d talk on the phone all the time.
– Tatum

Most of the time you [other entertainers] understand each other easier, Tatum will call me up and say, “Hey, you wanna go somewhere?” Like most of the people you may see me out with, like Tatum and Janelle, they’re kind of on and off, they’re friends, and [hysterical laughter] … I talk to them. I don’t know how to describe it, really [more laughter]. I don’t know what to say.
– Michael Jackson

I remember her telling me to come over to her house in Beverly Hills, and what she’s going to do to me. All the sexual stuff. So I’m scared to death. Scared because I’d never done anything like that. I came over there trying to be Mr Big Shot and brave and I remember she cut out all the lights in bedroom, opened the curtains so you could see the whole skyline of the city over the cliffs. It was beautiful.
– Michael

Michael used to come to my house when I was living with my dad, and I remember him being so shy. He once came to my house and asked to come upstairs because he’d never been in a girl’s bedroom before. Once he came into my bedroom, and he wouldn’t even sit on my bed.
-Tatum

And she told me to lie on the bed. And I did. She slowly walked over and she touched the button of my shirt to open it. I took my hands and I wouldn’t let them down. And she just walked away. She knew I was too shy for it. She wanted to do everything and I didn’t want to have sex at all, because there were a lot of values associated with being a Jehova Witness. I said, “are you crazy?” One of those was to be kind to everyone.
– Michael

He sat on the bed, and we kissed very briefly, but it was terribly awkward. So I said,’I can’t.’ Michael, who was sweating profusely, seemed as intimidated as I was. He jumped up nervously and said,’Uh, gotta go.’ That’s the closest I ever got to Michael, which is why I’m amazed by his recent claim on national TV that I’d seduced him but he was too shy to carry it through.
– Tatum

Michael Jackson made sure that I got these cool photos of him dancing with Tatum O’Neal at a party held inside a bank vault in Beverly Hills. They were best buddies and Michael wanted copies of all the photos.
– Brad Elterman

Ours developed into a real close relationship. I fell in love with her (and she with me) and we were very close for a long time. Eventually the relationship transcended into a good friendship. We still talk now and then, and I guess you’d have to say she was my first love – after Diana.
– Michael

I will say that Tatum and I had a really serious relationship. We both are so busy that things have cooled off, but we’re still really good friends. [She] calls me all the time and I hope she reads this interview because I’m sorry I couldn’t get all of her calls. But she’s still a wonderful friend of mine.
– Michael

But I love him; he’s one of the nicest, most innocent people I’ve ever met. I love “She’s out of My Life” because I think it describes our friendship at that time.
– Tatum

I absolutely adored Michael–as a friend–and I admire him to this day.
– Tatum

JODY WATLEY

I remember meeting you for the first time, and being in awe of the fate that would make such a thing happen. I remember you and your younger sister Janet coming to watch Shalamar shows from the side of the stage with Groucho Marx glasses with the fake nose and moustache at Disneyland – peering from the side curtain.I remember your brothers trying to hook us up, because I put ‘”Jody Watley Loves Michael Jackson” on the back of Shalamar’s ‘Three For Love’ album, underneath my photo with the caption: “Loves..”
– Jody

When I won the Grammy Award for Best New Artist, Michael Jackson was the first person to greet me, he ran to me out of the darkness of the stage. He grabbed me and kissed me on the cheek saying softly ‘I’m so happy for you” – already emotional from my own triumph – it was momentarily eclipsed by that moment with him – I couldn’t believe it. Michael Jackson had kissed me!
– Jody

BROOKE SHIELDS

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. My sisters would get jealous and tear them off the wall.
– Michael

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 party?” I said, “Yeah,” and I just melted. I thought, “Does, she know [that photographs of her are] all over my room?”
– Michael

She asked me to dance because I was not going to ask her. You know, I’m really shy and embarrassed. So she says, “I got to dance with you tonight.” I said, great. So we got together on the dance floor and danced. They were playing that old fashioned Benny Goodman, Tommy Dorsey music, which wasn’t much of a groove. First, you’ve got all these bald headed old people on the floor slow dancing, the Lawrence Welk sound. We really couldn’t get into it so we got to talking and got to know each other. And man we exchanged numbers and I was up all night, spinning around in my room, just so happy. She was classy.
– Michael

Brooke and Michael have been friends for a couple of years. And it seems that it’s a sudden thing and it’s not a sudden thing. You know how some people look at things and it’s not that way. They have a quiet friendship and she just wants to share and hopefully give him support too as far as a friend is concerned.
– Teri Shields

She’s gorgeous and she’s something special to me. She is the most sincere, understanding and interesting girl I’ve ever known. We talk on the phone for hours without getting bored.
– Michael

When I’m with Michael I feel so good. I’m proud to be his friend and I feel lucky to be able to enjoy it with him.
– Brooke

Michael is a hunk.
– Brooke

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?”
– LaToya

I love Michael dearly. I went to the AMA and that was really the first time we ever went out in public together. I talk to him all the time and he said that he would really like to have me go with him.
– Brooke

Anyway, he asked me [to the Grammys] 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.
– Brooke

Brooke Shields asked me out every time you saw us out together. It was her idea to go out and do it every time. I sincerely liked Brooke Shields too. I liked her a lot.
– Michael

Michael had no intention of taking Brooke to those award shows but she asked to go and he wouldn’t say no.
– LaToya

Brooke is a nice girl but she’s not Elizabeth Taylor. That’s the kind of lady I want to be seen with.
– Michael

Miss Shields had visited my parent’s home and asked him to escort her. Michael looked to me for advice but Michael ended up with her, even though he knew that career wise 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.
– LaToya

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 mischievous smile on his face that I had seen so many times before and said,”Oh Brooke!”
– Brooke

He’s a very very good friend of mine and I trust him and he trusts me and we have a very very good understanding. I mean, I don’t want anything from him, I don’t need publicity and that’s why I’m seen with him. I like him very very much and I think that he felt comfortable that I was there at the Grammy Awards because he’d come back and he’d sit down with me and say, ‘Was that OK? Did I do all right?'”
– Brooke

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.
– Jermaine Jackson

I was pretending to be him and we were dancing and he said to me, “you know I like it when – when girls sort of take – take control of the situation and act really tough.’ And I said, ‘I don’t quite understand’ and he said, ‘Well, I like them to be you know feminine, especially in the videos, but at the same time strong.’
– Brooke

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.”
– LaToya

We had one encounter when she got real intimate and I chickened out. And I shouldn’t have.
– Michael

I don’t think it would be fair to answer [for Michael] to say if we slept together. If he wanted to say anything before, he could have.
– Brooke

 

As he grew older and the more he started to change physically, the more asexual he became to me.
– Brooke

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.
– Brooke

It’s hard to trivialize and say whether it’s platonic or not platonic.
– Brooke

He is a mystery. He’s almost a mystery even if you know personally… he’s very shy… he enjoys being a mystery.
– 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.
– 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.
– Brooke

It’s like love on a different level. I feel closer to him than some of the boyfriends that I’ve had.
– Brooke

He is as beautiful inside as he is talented, so thoughtful and genuine. It’s unfortunate for him because he doesn’t get to go out as much and he doesn’t have a group of friends his own age.
– Brooke

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.
– Michael

I could see he and Brooke Shields were very close friends.
– Celine Dion

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.
– Sam L Parity

Well, right now I’m dating 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.
– Michael

We’re just friends. He didn’t refer to me as a girlfriend. He felt he could say how he felt about me. We grew up together. He trusts me.
– Brooke

You couldn’t call it typical dating. He is such a gentleman. He speaks so honestly and purely. But our relationship is not a romance.
– Brooke

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. Then they split, and went off to dinner.
– Slash

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.
– MJ’s bodyguard on DWT

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.
– Brooke

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.”
– Brooke

Another love was Brooke Shields. We were romantically serious for a while.
– Michael

He was one of my greatest love affairs. He stopped returning my calls. It’s too bad, he’s a wonderful person.
– Brooke

 

We are always tracking each other down. Whenever I go to another country or star a film I make sure his office knows where I am and vice versa – so we know that, somewhere in the world, there’s a friend.
– Brooke

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.
– Brooke

OLA RAY

Yes, he had seen (my Playboy spread). Michael said that’s how they chose me, because they were looking at the magazine.
– Ola

I was getting changed, so I was crouched down half naked on the dressing room floor and he came in and giggled. I was used to taking my clothes off in front of strangers. Michael seemed very relaxed about it. It helped that I was crazy about Michael and he seemed taken by the fact I was a Playboy model.
– Ola

Michael Jackson and I met in the wardrobe room. I saw his shiny shoes first. He was so cute with his little bow tie. I’ll never forget that. He has such a presence. You can feel his energy from across the room. The last time I saw him was in the studio when he was recording the Bad album.
– Ola

I saw him sometime afterwards, we were in the studio together, I was working on some music and he was there in the same studio working on his. So I went over to him and kissed him and gave him a hug.
– Ola

He sent me to Germany, to go pick up our Grammy, our award over there. He let me bring it home, he wanted to come pick it up, but he was going to send someone else to pick it up and I told him, “no, if you don’t come pick it up yourself, you know you’re not going to get it.” So he didn’t come get it so he called and told me that it was mine and I could keep that one.
– Ola

He started getting all nervous and stuff. He said, ‘She’s adorable, she’s adorable. She’s so hot!” It was just so funny seeing him that way.
– Ryan

I really enjoyed working with Michael. He’s really a practical joker. He likes to see your responses.
– Ola

He kept saying, ‘I can’t wait until I do the werewolf scenes so I can chase you.’ I’d say he’s shy, but only when he’s around people he doesn’t know. Actually, Michael seems almost outgoing, at least while he’s working. I could tell just by the way he playfully flirted with me that he likes women. I met Jane Fonda at the studio while getting my makeup done and she asked me to take him a note and give him a kiss and a hug. When I told Michael about the kiss he said, ‘Well…!?’. I think if he finds the right girl, he’ll marry her. But in the meantime, I just don’t think he deals with sex. He seems to be on a different level. I mean, sex isn’t everything.
– Ola

He would always play with my hair and say ”Oh your hair is so pretty”
– Ola

Every day, Michael came and sat and watched me. He was in awe of me. He was always in my face trying to learn to do things with makeup like I did.
– Ola

I teased him, saying I wanted to be his girl.
– Ola

He got to flirt with me. He got to play with me, touch me and flirt with me. So that was great. We would just sit in his dressing room and we’d talk about… why he couldn’t date me (laughs). You know, why we couldn’t be as intimate as I wanted us to be. He told me that there was someone else that really liked me on the set and he couldn’t cross that line.
– Ola

Michael is very special, not like any other guy I’ve met. Since we’ve been working together we’ve been getting closer.
– Ola

No, we didn’t have sex. We had a working relationship, nothing like that.
– Ola

No, I wasn’t intimate intimate with him, but we did have our intimate moments together. We spent a lot of time talking, sharing different things, but there was nothing like that, even though I may have liked it to have been but, no.
– Ola

I had some intimate moments with him in his trailer. Let me see how I can say this without, you know, being too… I won’t say that I have seen him in his birthday suit but close enough.
– Ola

It was a little kindergarten thing. It was important for him to be around someone who would make him feel comfortable. It was kissing and puppy-love make-out sessions – and a little more than that. I’ve already told you more than I’ve ever told anyone!
– Ola

I wouldn’t say it was further than he’d ever been with another woman. I don’t think he’s that innocent. (laughs) He’s not that innocent. He definitely knew what he was doing. In his own little way.
– Ola

I think things got pretty sexy between Ola and Michael. Some very sweet kind of physical interaction going on beteen the two of them. I would say not first (base), I would say second base… maybe… third.
– Nancy Griffin

I felt so in love that night. You can see it in my eyes. You can see it for sure.
– Ola

ELIZABETH TAYLOR

After that, we talked on the phone every day, on every stop of the tour. And I thought, Wow. Doesn’t she have other things to do? After all, she’s Elizabeth Taylor! At the end of the tour, I asked her if I could come by for tea. She said, “Yes.” I brought Bubbles along. She didn’t mind…
– Michael

Really, we got to know each other on the telephone, over three months.
– Elizabeth

I mean, our childhoods are very similar, and we have that from the very beginning in common. Um, I was a child star at nine, had an abusive father, um, and that kind of brought us close together in the very beginning.
– Elizabeth

Other women, probably attracted to Michael’s relative innocence, approached him even more directly. But other women were simply friends, and he received 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.
– LaToya

When I honored Elizabeth at the American Cinema Awards, for instance, Sophia arrived arm in arm with Michael Jackson, which had made me smile a little. Michael was closer to Elizabeth than he was to Sophia.
– David Gest

Elizabeth Taylor was going to visit and Michael wanted some privacy. Jermaine made a wisecrack about Elizabeth and was quickly put in his place. “Don’t ever talk bad about Elizabeth Taylor to me, Jermaine,” Michael said softly. “She’s beautiful. The most beautiful woman I’ve ever met.” By this time Michael and Elizabeth were already well acquainted but their friendship would grow during this brief stay in the hospital. She came for visits several times a day and sometimes brought him violets, which stood in sweet contrast to the dozen black roses LaToya had delivered from London.
– Margaret Maldonado

Brooke is a nice girl but she’s not Elizabeth Taylor. That’s the kind of lady I want to be seen with.
– Michael

Yes and no (do I get jealous about Liz dating other men). I know that if we ever did anything romantically the press would be so mean and nasty and call us, “The Odd Couple.” It would turn into a circus and that’s the pain of it all. You know I push her in a wheelchair sometimes, when she can’t walk. It’s none of their business what we have together. I have to be with people who like me.
– Michael

He is the least weird man I have ever known. He is highly intelligent, true, intuitive, understanding, sympathetic, generous almost to a fault, of himself.
– Elizabeth

She’s a warm cuddly blanket that I love to snuggle up to and cover myself with. I can confide in her and trust her. In my business, you can’t trust anyone. Elizabeth is someone who loves me – really loves me .
– Elizabeth

But Elizabeth is also like a mother – and more than that. She’s a friend. She’s Mother Teresa, Princess Diana, the Queen of England and Wendy. We have great picnics. It’s so wonderful to be with her. I can really relax with her, because we’ve lived the same life and experienced the same thing.
– Michael

[Elizabeth Taylor and I] we’re like brother and sister, mother and son, lovers… it’s a potpourri…it’s something special.
– Michael

Elizabeth Taylor is gorgeous, beautiful, and she still is today, I’m crazy about her. I would like to have (proposed to her).
– Michael

No (he never proposed to me)! And I never proposed to him.
– Elizabeth

I want the world to know what a wonderful, giving, caring, generous man he is and how good he is. Oh, he’s wildly funny.
– Elizabeth

He’s a very sensitive, very vulnerable, very shy person. I believe totally that Michael will be vindicated.
– Elizabeth

I am a friend of Michael Jackson’s… I love him like a son and I support him with all my heart.
– Elizabeth

She’s been a source of strength and counsel as this crisis came about. I shall never forget her unconditional love and encouragement in helping me through this period.
– Michael

I love him. There’s a vulnerability inside him which makes him the more dear. We have such fun together. Just playing.
– Elizabeth

There’s a kind of magic between us.
– Elizabeth

He is one of the most loving, sweet, true people I have ever loved. He is part of my heart. And we would do anything for each other.
– Elizabeth

To my True Love Elizabeth. I’ll love you Forever, Michael.
– portrait in Neverland inscribed by Michael

MARVA KING

Then, I met Michael. One day I was invited to the studio and I met Michael. I was like, “Oh my God! I’m here with Michael Jackson!” and then my childhood thoughts and dreams just went through my head and Michael was admiring this beautiful waist top that I had. It had so many different panels of lace and he said, “It’s so beautiful!” He kept walking around me, and I froze! I couldn’t even talk. I think I’m star struck! I did pretty good until I got to him, because I had a crush on him as a kid. Oh my goodness, I’m like, “Michael Jackson is admiring me!”
– Marva

It took a while, because he had a lot of security and stuff, like, “What does she want?” and “Why is she really around?” You know, they watched me for a while. They studied me religiously, but then they learned, “Okay, she’s not so crazy and she doesn’t have any other motive, except she wants to work and she’s friends with Michael.”
– Marva

Michael ended up taking to me, so I ended up becoming one of his playmates. We had too much fun! We were two young adults that were real childish, but we had so much fun! I would travel with him sometimes, and we would torture the press, we would hide and do things (laughs) and just have a lot of fun.
– Marva

TATIANA THUMBTZEN

As for the dress and boots…..well, it was the look I put together for the initial audition. It worked as Michael liked the look, from what I was told.
– Tatiana

I saw him turn to the person next to him and say something. I later found out from David Banks, one of the video’s writers, that Michael had said, “She’s the one. The rest are extras.”
– Tatiana

That’s why it’s my job to cast the girl, because it’ my job to think they are cute. So I can do that if I really like them, like some of the girls you see in my videos. I have cast them because I really like them and it caused a problem afterwards because they start to really like me, and I don’t want to get that serious, and it becomes a problem sometimes.
– Michael

By our fourth take, the heel of my boot was caught in the cars upholstery and Michael put his hand on my leg to help pull it out. It blew my mind that he had actually touched my leg, which I pulled away and began to tumble out of the car falling on my butt and hard too! Michael started laughing hysterically as Joe Pytka yelled, “Get up, keep it going, keep it going, and don’t stop.” As I did, Michael got out of the car and started wiping my butt off.
– Tatiana

The fall caused a run in my stockings and the stylist wanted me to change. I started walking off the set and Michael asked, ”Where are you going?” I explained that she wanted me to change my stockings. He disapproved by saying. “No, I like it. I think the run is neat. It’s sexy.”
– Tatiana

During a quick break from the scene, Michael pointed out two birds high above us perched on a ledge — they were making love. He said, “Look,” while pointing up. I became embarrassed and shy and I looked away blushing. Michael stood gazing at me with this sweet smirk on his face that was somehow naughty.
– Tatiana

Between the scenes, Michael said to me, ”I heard you wanted to dance in this video.” I admitted it was true and I said, ”I thought I would get the opportunity to dance with you.” Michael replied in a soft and sweet voice, “Don’t worry, we’ll work together again.”
– Tatiana

It was quietly rumored that we were supposed to kiss at the end of the video scene but Joe came up to me and whispered in my ear, ”Don’t kiss him, he’s too shy for that, don’t kiss him!” Therefore, of course I respected his direction.
– Tatiana

I expressed how great it had been working with him and then he asked me if his team had my number. As I left, I could hear Michael say to Frank :”Aren’t you going to give it to her?”Frank replied, “No, why don’t you give it to her? It’s from you.”They were bickering like kids and before I knew it Frank tossed one of Michael’s hats to me. A black fedora with his name embroidered in gold inside the rim that he used in the Bad Tour. I caught the hat as if on cue and as I walked off I recall saying, ”I love you Michael” I guess the fan was coming out of me.
– Tatiana

To be honest, I could not help but to think that [Katherine] was checking me out. She wanted to see the girl she had heard about. The girl that had captivated Michael’s interest or tweaked Michael’s curiosity, and I eventually found out I was correct about her suspicion. She admitted it to me later.
– Tatiana

Yes, I know Tatiana very well. Yes, in fact, right after Michael did the commercial with Tatiana he called me in his room and he talked to me about her because he really liked her and had fallen in love with her and he asked me, what did I think? And I said, “Well if you’re in love with her let her know.”
– Katherine Jackson

Not long after the video production was over, Michael’s stand-in, Craig, who had become a friend of mine, called and said, “You know, Michael talks about you all the time. He asks me how you are and told me to tell you hello. I think he really likes you. He says stuff like how incredibly beautiful you are and how sweet you are.”
– Tatiana

In January, Michael was shooting a new video entitled Leave Me Alone. To my utter surprise, Craig called to say that Michael invited me to come and visit him but that I would need to clear my visit with Michael’s personal secretary Joli.
– Tatiana

On February 8th Frank Dileo, requested we meet at his office in Ventura. He told me how he could tell I had a thing for Michael and advised me to move on for my affection for him. He told me to focus on my career instead. He also made a comment about having me over to see his new home someday, but without mention of Michael being around or his own family being there.
– Tatiana

On their first date towards the end of the 80s Michael’s manager Frank Dileo was present as a sentry dog. Frank knew that Michael was interested in her and the three of them met at a restaurant. Without informing Michael, Frank had tried to court her even though he was married.
– Joe Jackson

Michael’s family felt this was Frank Dileo’s doing. It was clear: they did not trust his manager.
– Tatiana

”Ah, ha, you see! You are a threat to him. If Michael falls in love and wants to marry you, then Dileo fears the person Michael is close to could have more value and credibility than he does with Michael.” Katherine said.
– Tatiana

I remembered the family complaining that they could not reach Michael when they wanted or even needed him.
– Tatiana

Joseph made a remark about Bill that made it obvious that he disliked Bill. Katherine also said that she did not trust Bill.
– Tatiana

I came to learn through one of the band members that Michael told them to stay away from me and not to bother me. I thought this was respectful of him to do and my mother especially liked it!
– Tatiana

Joli, Michael’s secretary joined me. She told me that she knew Michael had feelings for me, because he spoke of me often. Yet, she said that she was confused to why he had not responded to my request to speak with him yet. She promised me that she would make the call happen.
– Tatiana

Ingrid said that she heard from many people in the industry that Michael cared for me, but she felt his professional camp had taken control of the situation by brainwashing him and telling him lies about me.
– Tatiana

Certainly, Michael’s friends Corey Feldman and Little Richard, both his sisters and brothers knew that he had romantic feelings for her but we had not uttered a word about it since it wasn’t clear whether their relationship was serious or not.
– Joe Jackson

I heard Michael through the door of a private room going through his vocal warm up. One of his security guys remarked to Michael that I looked beautiful and I heard Michael reply, ”I know. ”
– Tatiana

When I stepped out onto the stage, I passed Mike and heard him say, “Work it! Work it! That’s it!”
– Tatiana

As I grabbed his collar, I landed a big wet one on his cheek. I kissed him. I did not think anything of it, and I did not think he would be ticked off. The dancers told me that he was happy and excited about the kiss. Telling me, “OOHHH, Boy! You just made Michael’s day! He was happy!” I pretty much thought it was a good thing.
– Tatiana

I apologized to him because I had kissed him on the cheek. I said, “I am sorry if I threw you off in any way,” Mike intervened by saying, “OH! NO! NO! It was fine! It was great! I liked it!.” Then I asked him, “Well would it be all right then if I did it again, and perhaps take it a step further?” He said “Oh sure! That’ll be great!”
– Tatiana

I took it upon myself to change the routine a bit, something just came over me.
– Tatiana

I thought about whether or not I should follow through on the kiss. For some reason I was questioning myself. As I stepped up to him and put my arms around his collar, he looked deep into my eyes, almost as though he was challenging me. Then he did this sexy little thing where he bit his bottom lip. I placed my arm around his waist, and I landed a kiss right on his smacker! Never for a moment did I feel this was one-sided, as he at this point, put his left hand on my rear.
– Tatiana

Scott said that, again, this is not unusual when working with A-listers. There are even contracts that specify whether the person can be touched, where, and by whom.
– Scott Thompson

The next person to greet me was Michael’s mother Katherine. She walked towards me and gave me a big bear hug. She later admitted to me that she saw absolutely nothing wrong with us kissing. She approved.
– Tatiana

Miko was in a rage. He yelled, “How dare you f****** take advantage of him like that! You f****** b****! Who the f*** do you think you are? I cannot believe you are f****** took advantage of him like that in front of all those people.”
– Tatiana

Michael’s mother called me saying she was very interested and concerned about me. I first spoke with Rebbie for a few minutes and she said that they were concerned about me. They wanted to know why I was fired from Michael’s tour and she stated that her mother wanted to speak with me herself.
– Tatiana

As I prepared to go onstage and accept for him, the announcer said,”Since he could not be here tonight as he’s still on tour, we accept this on his behalf.” Well, so much for that! No one informed me of the change.
– Tatiana

He said that his friend had contacted MJJ records to get in touch with me but was told that I was booked, unavailable, and in Europe. Well my friends, I have never been to Europe.
– Tatiana

One of Hugh Hefner’s assistants told me Hef was good friend of Michael and that he did not want to involve himself with anything that was not ”Pro-Michael Jackson.-Never did I consider my story against Michael in any way.
– Tatiana

Majestic relayed a message to me that he heard that Michael’s response to me signing with Joseph was, ”She can’t be that stupid!”
– Tatiana

My mother advised me to write Michael a letter during this time and to pass it through my new contacts within the family.
– Tatiana

David Banks told me I was living in a fantasy world but I did not see it yet.
– Tatiana

My friend, Iris Parker kept telling me to wake up and smell the coffee. She said that it was time for me to move on for good.
– Tatiana

Majestic said, “People just fuck you in this town and don’t kiss you first, huh, Tatiana?”
– Tatiana

I approached the gate and I asked Bill Bray, Michael’s assistant if he could please relay to Michael that I would like a moment with him. He told me that he would see what he could do. Before I knew it, Bill yelled ‘’Well hurry up! If you are coming, come on! We do not have all day! We’ve got another award to get.”
– Tatiana

He kept repeating exactly the same words to me that he said on stage. As though he had been scripted. He said, ”Oh Tatiana! It is so good to see you! I had no idea you were going to be here.” It was like an instant replay, and it was so weird. I said, ”Michael, I would really like to talk to you.” Right after I said that, Bill Bray grabbed Michael’s arms and pulled him away saying, ”We gotta go!” They did this as if they planned it.
– Tatiana

Majestic helped me understand what really happened to me that night. He said that when Bill Bray yelled for me to “Come on” it was probably giving Michael a cue for him to come outside his trailer so that I could not go inside. Then, when Bill pulled his arm saying,”We gotta go,” that was also a planned skit. He made it clear to me that Michael did not want to speak to me. Just as David Banks pointed out before, if Michael wanted something, he got it! ”What Michael once he gets,” he said.
– Tatiana

Ingrid also shed some light on the walkie-talkie incident that occurred when I was being escorted from behind the stage left to stage right. I learned that the missing words of the puzzle were, ”Michael does not want to see or speak to Tatiana before the show.”
– Tatiana

When they see me running the other way (they know I don’t reciprocate). Yeah. Some of them follow me around the world and it’s hard.
– Michael

No (I never tell them directly I don’t reciprocate), because it would hurt them too much.
– Michael

Tatiana says the friendship blossomed into a love affair that lasted about a year.
– Maury

Yes, there was a romantic attachment between us. We became somewhat involved after the video.
– Tatiana

It’s just like Michael says in the song, “It’s nobody’s business but mine and my baby’s.” I’m not going to sit here and talk about my sex life or his sex life, I’m very private, that’s my business.
– Tatiana

The lie slipped out of my mouth simply because of my feelings for him. I felt that an injustice was being committed. Plus, I wanted Michael to see how much I loved him.
– Tatiana

The unknown dancer has never been near a celebrity and couldn’t believe that my son wanted her. She could barely overcome the excitement and openly spoke about their relationship. It wasn’t pleasant for Michael because he did not want her to be put out on a public review before he had the opportunity to spend some real time with her.
– Joe Jackson

[Prince and I] met by chance one night at a club and started talking about an interview I had given to the Star tabloid during the scandal involving Michael Jackson and the underage boy. Prince was upset that I had spoken to the tabloid; he attacked me for my comments and he was especially bothered by a line that quoted me as saying that Michael would never get married. He shouted, “Did you need the money that bad? Are you that poor-that broke, that you sell your story to the tabloids?”
– Tatiana

You were spoken of with very kind words.
– Bill Whitfield to Tatiana

He considered [marrying me] years ago, from what I have recently been told (by a woman Michael knew). And after he passed away, someone who knew him looked me up to tell me that he spoke about me to them on June 8th 2009.
– Tatiana

MADONNA

The last video I went crazy over and wanted to see over and over again was Billie Jean.
– Madonna

From then on I went through an “I want to be like Michael Jackson” phase. I can do everything he can do only I’m a girl! I still idolize him above any performer. He transcends almost every level, appeals to everyone.
– Madonna

I’d love to dance with Michael Jackson.
-Madonna

So in the nightclub I was all over the place, I combined everything. Street dance, modern dance, a bit of jazz and ballet, I was Twyla Tharp, I was Alvin Ailey, I was Michael Jackson. I didn’t care, I was free.
-Madonna

I saw him play at Madison Square Garden, and I was blown away. He was flawless.
– Madonna

At the same time she will come to my concert and cry. She comes there and tears rolling down her face for the song and the presentation of the song. There are some good qualities in her.
– Michael

He’s up for a couple of things that surprise me.
– Madonna

“I said, “Look, Michael, if you want to do something with me, you have to be willing to go all the way or I’m not going to do it.” He keeps saying yes.”
– Madonna

Madonna laid the law down to me before we went out. “I am not going to Disneyland, okay? That’s out.” I said, “But I didn’t ask you to go to Disneyland.” She said, “We are going to the restaurant and afterwards we are going to a strip bar.” I said, “I am not going to a strip bar.” Guys who cross-dress [note: House of Xtravaganza]!
– Madonna

“We drove to the restaurant in my car. It was dark out, but he was still wearing sunglasses. I said, ‘Michael, I feel like I’m talking to a limousine, do you think you could take off those glasses so I could see your eyes?’ He paused for a moment, then he tossed the glasses out the window, looked at me with a wink and a smile and said, ‘Can you see me now, is that better? In that moment, I could see both his vulnerability and his charm.”
-Madonna

Later we went back to my house to watch a movie and sat on the couch like two kids, and somewhere in the middle of the movie, his hand snuck over and held mine. It felt like he was looking for more of a friend than a romance, and I was happy to oblige. In that moment, he didn’t feel like a superstar. He felt like a human being.
– Madonna

He was a real paradox, one of the world’s greatest performers and obviously very confident on stage, but in real life he was shy and you really felt for him.
– Madonna

(At the Oscars) it was pouring rain, the limo door opened and Michael got out first. I got out right after him, and my bodyguard leaves with Michael under the umbrella. I was left standing in the rain. It was so fascinating to see how people responded to him.
– Madonna

At the time I was with Madonna she was into these books, a whole library of women who were tied to walls. She said, “I love spanky books.” Why do I want to see that? How would you like getting a phone call and she is telling you that she is putting her fingers between her legs. I would say, “Oh Madonna, please.” She said, “What I want you to when I hung up the phone is rub yourself and think of me.” That’s the kind of stuff she says. She does. When I see her she says, “This is the finger I used last night.” Wild, out of control. She is not sexy at all.
– Michael Jackson

Michael was also working on a commercial in a studio nearby where Madonna was shooting a movie. Madonna walked in one day and Michael was telling me something like, “You know Madonna can be naughty, a bad girl. Sometimes she needs to be spanked.” He hadn’t realized Madonna was standing right behind him.
– Joe Mantegna

So that’s what we were doing: watching movies, having dinner, hanging out, going to the Oscars, being silly, seeing if we could work. He got relaxed. He took off his sunglasses, had a glass of wine, I got him to laugh.
– Madonna

To work with him and become friends and hang out with him, was exciting for me. I used to love picking his brains about musical stuff.
-Madonna

[My people] knew nothing about it. This was totally between her and me.
– Michael Jackson

I was madly in love with him, totally smitten. He was mind-bogglingly talented.
– Madonna

I think she was sincerely in love with me and I was not in love with her. She did a lot of crazy things and that’s how that went.
– Michael Jackson

Every time I call her she’s either talking to or about Michael Jackson.
– Sandra Bernhard

”Michael Jackson isn’t very masculine. He looks like Diana Ross. He has those beautiful doe eyes. He even talks like a girl and he’s conquered the world.”
– Madonna

Madonna visited MJ in the studio exactly one time. They spent a little while in his “private” room in the back, and then she left. When I asked Michael later about her visit, he said that she “scared” him. I think we all speculated that she tried to make a “move” on him, but Michael never said. In any event, we never saw her again after that…
– Sam L Parity

In a moment of unintended self-revelation, he [Michael Jackson] told me (with his hand cupped over his mouth in a gesture of ”I shouldn’t”) about how a highly popular female entertainer (I’ll withold the name) had once exposed herself to him (his words) just to see how he would react; a confession that caused him to visibly blush.
– Kit Culkin

He ran away from me.
– Madonna

We’re like oil and vinegar, oil and water. We just don’t mix.
-Madonna

I could have pushed myself out into his world, but I’ve spent all my time trying to be in touch with people, and he spends all his time hiding, cloaking and padding things around himself. It’s very evident when you see him work.
– Madonna

I felt like a peasant next to them, like this big clumsy farm girl. Like, when I’m hungry, I eat. When I’m thirsty, I drink. When I feel like saying something, I say it. And they have these manners and they’re just so careful about what they eat and what they say.
– Madonna

I haven’t seen that documentary [Living With Michael Jackson], but it sounds disgusting, like he [Martin Bashir] exploited a friendship. Publicly humiliating someone for your own gain will only come and haunt you. I can assure you, all these people will be sorry. God’s going to have his revenge.
– Madonna

People have said so many things about me that aren’t true, and I never once had a second thought that the accusations against him might be true.
– Madonna

There is no question that Michael Jackson is one of the greatest talents the world has ever known. That when he sang a song at the ripe old age of eight he could make you feel like an experienced adult was squeezing your heart with his words. That when he moved he had the elegance of Fred Astaire and packed the punch of Muhammad Ali. That his music had an extra layer of inexplicable magic that didn’t just make you want to dance but actually made you believe you could fly, dare to dream, be anything that you wanted to be. Because that is what heroes do and Michael Jackson was a hero.
– Madonna

When I first heard that Michael had died… All I could think about in this moment was, “I had abandoned him.” That we had abandoned him. That we had allowed this magnificent creature who had once set the world on fire to somehow slip through the cracks. While he was trying to build a family and rebuild his career, we were all passing judgment. Most of us had turned our backs on him. I thought, “my God, he was so unique, so original, so rare, and there will never be anyone like him again. He was a king.” Michael Jackson was a human being but he was a king. Long live the king.
– Madonna

NAOMI CAMPBELL

I wanna kiss him. (giggles) I may kiss him but I mean if I kiss him it won’t be for the screen.
– Naomi

He is sweet and shy and sensitive and seems to be a very caring, soulful person.
– Naomi

The sweetest thing Michael said to me was, um, that I reminded him of a fawn, which is like a baby deer. He said that is what he thought I looked like. I thought that like a “Bambi,” and I thought that was very sweet.
– Naomi

To me he is a wonderful person, inside and out. He was everything I thought he would be, or even more.
– Naomi

Look at him! Look at how beautiful he is!
– Naomi on Michael

I had fun with Naomi, but, I hate doing that. (Laughing) She’s a sweetheart. She’s a champ.
– Michael

I keep hearing that he’s frightened of me. (laugh) But I think it’s because the directors would tell me, Herb would say you have to touch him everywhere, and I’d say, but he doesn’t want me to touch him–“You can’t touch me there!” and Herb would say, “You have to do it!”
– Naomi

“Naomi! Herb!” photographer’s shout as Herb attempted to steer Naomi down the red carpet. How’s the video?” “I want to suck Michael Jackson’s cock!” Naomi dutifully tried to inform the free press as Herb shoved her in the door while attempting to gag her with his spare hand.
– Sharon Oreck

I like to touch people all the time. I mean, I had to push a little bit further but I like to be that way.
– Naomi

He just said I was crazy. He was frightened of me because I’m a nymphomaniac.
-Naomi

We were joking ALL the time. It was like, jokemaster. It was constantly jokes, jokes, jokes. We had a lot of fun. We were like two children. We had water fights and (giggles) cream can fights, whipped cream can fights.
– Naomi

UKNOWN WOMAN

“Well, you know what you gotta go and find out. You can’t afford not to take a chance. I mean you can’t be completely totally alone.”
– Sam Stein

“I can’t afford to mess up.”
– Michael

“Sometimes it’s hard for me to get close to people.”
– Michael

“As far as having a relationships, Is the baby moving? (joking)”
(Laughs uncomfortably.) “No, we’re careful, there’s no babies.”
– Sam and Michael

MELISSA

She told me she goes like, “Michael, why can I never get the chance to see you and never get through to you,” and I said.. “I well I don’t wanna call you because I said you know… spend some time with you and stuff.” So she goes, “I love you Michael and I’ll do whatever it takes and all that,” right?
– Michael

I was kinda interested in her… and I know I can trust this girl, like I told you a long time ago right? I said I know I can trust her, I don’t have any bad feelings.
– Michael

You know that’s what she said…. like it doesn’t matter, no matter what you know… she told me that she’s afraid she’s going to lose me as a friend or whatever, she’s afraid she’s not going to see me.
– Michael

Well… I’m gonna, I’m gonna be with her.
– Michael

LISA MARIE PRESLEY

When she was eighteen I used to tell my lawyer John Branca, do you know Lisa Marie Presley ’cause I think she’s really cute. And he’d laugh every time. He goes, “I’ll try my best”, that’s what he’d say. Then he’d come back and I’d say “well did you find out?” He’d say “no, there’s nothing”.
– Michael Jackson

Michael wanted to meet me earlier in my life, and I said, “No way.” I thought he was a freak, and I had no interest in meeting him. But when I finally did, he immediately dashed any preconceived idea I had about him.
– Lisa Marie

I didn’t think of him like that when I first met him. We had something though. We were sitting talking and after 20 minutes I’d forgotten who he was.
– Lisa Marie

He was very quick to, the first time I met him, sit me down and go, ‘listen, I’m not gay, I know you think this and I know you think that. And he started cursing, and he started being a real person. And I thought ‘wow’. I was always saying, ‘People wouldn’t think I was so crazy if they saw who the hell you really are: that you sit around and you drink and you curse and you’re fucking funny, and you have a bad mouth, and you don’t have that high voice all the time.’
– Lisa Marie

He’s not stupid, he didn’t get where he was because he’s stupid. It’s unfortunate that not a lot of people know who he really is. He doesn’t let anybody see it. And he has some idea about how he should represent himself in the public, that he thinks works for him, which is the sort-of meek victim, meek-quiet thing that he does, which is not like how he really is. So, he doesn’t let a lot of people see that.
– Lisa Marie

When Michael was about to leave, he offered Lisa a penetrating look and in a conspiratorial voice said, “You and me, we could get into a lot of trouble. Think about that, girl.”
– Brett Strong

Then I met Michael and I could tell he was interested in me – we had a connection at the time.  I made the mistake of saying I was not happy in my marriage, and the courting started. Flowers. Calls. Candies. You name it . . . everything started coming.”
– Lisa Marie

I fell in love… for him. Because he was an incredible, an incredibly dynamic person. If you were in his vicinity and he wanted to give – and he showed you who he was, and he was willing to do that in any way, meant that… I have never felt so high in my life. I have never felt so high in my life as that. I am not lying when I say that. He had something so intoxicating about him and when he was on, when he was ready to share with you or give it to you, and be himself and allow you to come in. I don’t know if I’ve ever been that intoxicated by anything.
– Lisa Marie

Lisa, kept calling me after that. Constantly calling me. And she wanted to get together with Michael more. Lisa met with Brett a few times to talk about it, remarking that she had “a few things in common with the Jacksons and maybe she should pursue a friendship with Michael.” I always talked about him as a passionate man [who was] extremely loving…and that attracted Lisa, that loving part, and loving children.
-Brett Strong

I began getting phone calls from an amazed Brett about this time. “He’s saying, ‘Gosh, Lisa’s calling me and Lisa’s really interested in Michael!’ ” Brett’s impression, was that Michael was absorbed in his work, but that Lisa was really interested in him. “And I said, ‘Come on! What do you mean?’ [Brett] said, ‘You haven’t met him, but he’s very charismatic.’ And I said, ‘Yeah, but I can’t believe it.’ He said, ‘Yeah, she’s kind of pursuing him.’
– Mike Edwards

I think it was the passion of a woman who fell in love. And Michael wasn’t even interested at all. And he is a gentleman; he wouldn’t have wanted to pull her away from her marriage to Danny. And she pursued him.
– Brett Strong

I know that Lisa is the one who pursued the relationship.
– Bob Wall

I started calling him, he started calling me, I sort of became his friend.
– Lisa Marie

By mid 1993, Lisa Marie was deeply in love with Michael – and she made sure they got together regularly. I realize now that she was pursuing Michael – and that she was determined to make him her husband.
– Brett Strong

One of the things that Michael told me was, “Man, I didn’t know that Lisa was going to divorce her husband for me.”
– Teddy Riley

He’s not sexually seductive, but there is something riveting about him. He doesn’t let people see who he is. When he does, it’s hard to shake.
– Lisa Marie

Yes, she did have sincere feelings for him, according to what she told me. She did. She didn’t do it because Michael coerced her. She genuinely cared about him. She told me she knew he was interested in women.
– Myrna Smith

I was already friends with him, there was already some romantic stuff going on a little bit before [the allegations] happened (in August). So it was like, I was already like, you know, I was the only one he would be calling so I felt all privileged and, you know, that he was trusting me and telling me what happened and it was very convincing and I believed him.
– Lisa Marie

He called…I was in touch with him through the whole process of this – charges going on. I was talking to him when he disappeared. I was actually supposed to go to Santa Juan, Puerto Rico when he left and disappeared, and I got a call that he wasn’t going to be there and I was actually a part of the whole thing with him, by talking to him on the phone, so…
– Lisa Marie

You look like a woman who needs to let go and have some fun. You look like a woman who needs to hook up with me.
– MJ to Lisa, Magic &Madness

At the time there was sexual attraction. Yeah.
– Lisa Marie

Of course, I wouldn’t have married him at the time if I hadn’t (felt physically attracted to him). It wasn’t instinctive to me right off the bat. He needed to make that overture because I wasn’t going to.
– Lisa Marie

No, he was… whenever he was ready to make a move on me, it happened. I wasn’t the instigator, I wouldn’t, you know, I um… that wasn’t something I could imagine at the time.
– Lisa Marie

…obviously I didn’t resist (him kissing me).
– Lisa Marie

I wouldn’t have married him if I wasn’t [sexually satisfied].
– Lisa Marie

Yes, these were romantic nights. I mean, it was normal. I wasn’t going to get married if it wasn’t that.
-Lisa Marie

Yeah, in private we were doing all the things that married people do: kissing, going to bed together, having sex…. That was part of it, for a while.
– Lisa Marie

Apparently, Michael Jackson is a freak in bed. Lisa said he was amazing, and she’s been around. Everyone was saying, ‘No way, Lisa. It can’t be true. Michael Jackson? Are we talking about the Michael Jackson, the one with the glove?’ However, she wasn’t joking, and it wasn’t long before she didn’t think it was funny, either.
– Monica Pastelle

My taste in sex is probably “porn style.” [Laughs] I am a little dark on the subject. I like it rough, the way they do things in porn movies.
– Lisa Marie

Man, we were backstage after the show, and here comes Mike with this chick, and he’s all up in her face, kissing on her, and we were saying, “Who the heck is this girl?” Finally he introduced her: Lisa Marie Presley. You could have knocked me over with a feather. I said to the guys, “Check this out. The King of Pop and the King’s daughter, together. It had to happen.” They looked pretty cozy.
– Otis Williams

Yeah, anyway we were spending a lot of time together. I don’t know how it didn’t manage to get in the press, because we weren’t hiding it. I was in Las Vegas, we were in…everywhere… bookstores. We were not hiding it.
– Lisa Marie

On the way to the movie theater, he turned to her and said, “Lisa, here. Come here. Sit here.” He said it just like a regular man, not in that little-boy voice of his. It was like, you’re going to sit with me, woman, and she did. I was very impressed, but I was also confused. I mean, who was this guy?
– David Foster

I know that he and Lisa Marie were absolutely 100% in love because I was around them, and it was amazing. It was a great love story. I know that.
– David Foster

Michael asked me, “Can I bring my love interest?” It was romantic. Later, I asked Michael how things were going and he said, “Great. I just got to kiss the most beautiful girl in the world. I hope I’m worthy of her. I think I might marry her.” For a while, those two were really getting it on.
– Donald Trump

He told her that she was the only woman he could see himself marrying. And I was like, ‘You gotta be kidding.’ but Lisa responded, “Myrna, you don’t understand.”
– Myrna Smith

Michael was the one who mentioned marriage. On the telephone. He first asked me…We were going out four months, um…right? Four months? I was separated for four months and I said…he said what would you do if I asked you to marry me? And I said I would.
– Lisa

A big I would. You were really enthusiastic! (laughing)
– Michael to Lisa

Lisa and I were in the living room [at Neverland] having a glass of wine. We had just finished watching All About Eve, starring the great Bette Davis. We both love that movie. I just walked over to her, reached into my pocket and pulled out this huge diamond ring. “So what do you think?” I asked her. “You want?” She screamed out, “Yes, yes yes.” I never even officially popped the question. We never actually discussed marriage. It just sort of happened.
– Michael Jackson

We were in the library in front of the fire and he pulled this giant 10 carat diamond out of his pocket and put it on my finger. I think he got on his knees too and proposed. I did think it would be forever.
– Lisa Marie

I love Lisa Marie. Why won’t people believe that? Why won’t the public let me be happy?
– Michael Jackson

Lisa didn’t live at Neverland. We visited Neverland the way…I lived at her house in the city and every once in a while we visited Neverland. It would be like our fun weekend.
– Michael

I honestly can tell you that it was in every sense a normal marriage and everything was spoken. In the middle of the night, if he needed to wake up and tell me, bounce something off me, and wake me up and wanna talk… if there was trouble… He was like a little gnome. I used to tell him he was a gnome running around the room because it was hard for him to sleep. A lot of times I couldn’t sleep either if he wasn’t sleeping. I’d just hear him piddling. It was a bit endearing but then I didn’t mind it. But he did have a hard time sleeping, yes.
– Lisa Marie

And I really loved that role and I loved taking care of him. It was the highest point of my life, one of the very highest points of my life. When things were going really well and he and I were united together and he and I had an understanding about some of the people and the things that could go around him and he was with me on those things and we were a unit and I could take care of him. Loved being next to him, taking care of him. I was on such a high from doing that. It was a very profound time of my life.
– Lisa Marie

But believe me; the love affair between them is real. It’s not a phoney marriage designed to make Michael look better. Michael definitely wants to have children with Lisa Marie – and she says she can’t wait to have his baby.
– Brett Strong

I am very much in love with Michael; I dedicate my life to being his wife. I understand and support him.
– Lisa Marie

The press release was Lisa Marie’s idea. She wanted to set the record straight. If it was up to me, I would have just said, “Let people think what they want.”
– Michael Jackson

After the (Scientology) test, Lisa Marie hugged him and kissed him on the lips. She was so proud and happy. It certainly looked like they were a happy couple.
– Terry Dangers

There was a lot of teasing, a lot of kidding around, like any other newlywed couple.
– Steve Manning

I was there when Lisa Marie was around. They acted like two kids in love. Held hands all the time and she hung out at the studio for quite a while. I never questioned their love for each other.
– Robmix

He’s cuddly with Lisa Marie in the studio.
– Jimmy Jam

Michael and Lisa Marie were great together and a lot of fun to be with.
– David Nordahl

Lisa Marie is great, they feel very good together. They are inseparable. She comes very often to the studio.
– Bruce Swedien

We did mundane married couple things, like watch TV together. I remember Alanis [Morissette] broke like a bat out of hell back then. I pulled him into the room and said, ‘You gotta listen to this.’ He liked her and then when she took the Grammy, he goes, ‘Well, that’s your girl, you were on it.’”
– Lisa Marie

For Diane Sawyer to ask all the other questions and then have someone else ask that – why? I’m sick of this whole stupid thing about, ‘Do they have sex?’ Somebody asked me that and I said, “No, they just sit there, look at each other and masturbate.’ I mean it’s STUPID. I wish people would shut the fuck up and leave him alone.
– Janet Jackson

What I saw made me think of the scene which two in love act as if they were alone in the world, in spite of the crowd which surrounds them. That only comes when two people are deeply enthusiastic about one another. I did not even need to guide Michael and Lisa. I did not need, for example, to ask them to intertwine. They spontaneously did it and most naturally. They spoke to each other in a very soft tone, the tone of two people very much in love with one another. Between shots, they were whispering and giggling to each other. They were so happy it was hard to keep their attention on the camera. They were so much into each other.
– Dick Zimmerman

I was in the studio just last Sunday and he was on the phone three times to Lisa within an hour. They are very much in love and anyone who doesn’t believe that is just stupid.
– Janis DaSilva

The warmth displayed in the You Are Not Alone video is for real. The shots in the last scene were done without Michael and Lisa Marie knowing it, literally off-camera.
– Wayne Isham

I had a lot of fun with Lisa Marie on the set. But when the director said, “Action”, she became very shy. I was giving her a hard time too!
– Michael Jackson

As for Nic and Michael, there were good times, but people are just interested in the bad stuff. It’s just sensationalism. With Michael, I learned a lot. Nothing was all that terrible.
– Lisa Marie

She was asked [whether or not she wanted me to be father to her children] on TV and she said, “No, they have a father. Their father is Keogh,” that other guy.
– Michael

And I did things that hurt him. I did stupid things too. Danny was still very much part of my life. Michael didn’t quite know what to do with that sometimes. That made him uncomfortable and I understood that. Michael would wonder, “Why are you in Hawaii with Danny?” I’d take a vacation and Danny would go. Michael would get upset and “Where are you?” and he would disappear for a couple of weeks and I couldn’t find him.
– Lisa Marie

She had no problem doing that but her and I had several big arguments ‘ cause she’s very territorial with her children. Her children were [her major concern]….and I said “No, all children are our concern,” and she never liked that coming from me.
– Michael

I wanted children and she didn’t. She felt she had her kids. She promised me before we married, that would be the first thing we’d do was have children. It disappointed me that she wouldn’t keep her promise to me, you know?
– Michael

The great sex continued, though. It was the thing that made it difficult for her to see straight where he was concerned. Whatever was going on in the privacy of their bedroom was enough to keep her hooked into the relationship. However, things were getting strained. When they weren’t in bed making love, they were fighting.
– Monica Pastelle

We’d go shopping and go to dinner, people would come over. Although that was only for the first six, seven months, then all that kind of dwindled away.
– Lisa Marie

We hit rough waters, we would fight, we would argue, three day arguments sometimes, taking a break to eat and sleep. I have to say that I really admire that he really gave it a good shot, you know.
– Lisa Marie

Michael always spoke with affection and respect for Lisa Marie Presley, with the one exception when he told me that she has wanted him to get involved with Scientology and got pushy. He had to tell her that he had no interest in becoming a Scientologist. Michael was dismissive of Scientology and spoke of how the practices of Scientologists that he had been exposed to were not sufficiently spiritual or substantive for him.
– Schmuley

As much as he can love anyone else, possibly. I don’t know how much he can access love, really. I think as much as he can love somebody he might have loved me.
– Lisa Marie

It was like a drug. He was like a drug for me. I felt like I just always wanted to be around him, always wanted to be part of – I felt so high. I’ve never felt like that around another human being, except for one, which was my father.
– Lisa Marie

I was still very much in love with him when I left him. I left him to sort of stomp my foot in the ground and go… I was trying to take a stand and say, come with me, don’t do this. That was a stupid move, because he didn’t. And he’s you know, he’s a stubborn… I’m stubborn, he’s stubborn. The two of us it was like you know…
– Lisa Marie

I know Lisa was great. She was a sweet person. But it is hard to tie me down. I can’t stay in one place one time so that’s why I don’t know if I can really be completely married all the time. Yes, (marriage is too confining). I don’t know whether I’m disciplined enough.
– Michael

But I want to say this because it’s important: I didn’t feel appreciated [by Jackson]. That was why I left. It might have hit him later because I never took or wanted anything. He may have realized that at some point. I have no idea.
– Lisa Marie

I’m not easy to live with in that way for a wife. I not easy and I know I’m not easy. And women want to be the center. And I remember LMP would always say to me,” I’m not a piece of furniture.” “I’m not a piece of furniture.” “You just can’t…” and I say, “I don’t want you to be a piece of furniture,” and you know, there’d be some sick little girls calling on the phone and she’d get mad and hang up on them.
– Michael

He was an amazing person and I am lucky to have gotten as close to him as I did and to have had the many experiences and years that we had together.
– Lisa Marie

The press only report the bad things. They don’t know how much love there is between them.
– Taryll Jackson

Lisa Marie was just with me in Africa. We (went to) IMAX theaters, simulated-ride safaris, dinner. We went parasailing. It was wonderful.
– Michael

He cares about her very much, but it didn’t work out and he was devastated. He loved her very much. Still does.
– Debbie Rowe

“She regrets (not having my baby). She said so. She’d like to (have a baby with me), yes,” he says putting a mischievous finger to his lips. “Shh.”
– Michael

The only thing I know for sure is Lisa definitely is not back with Danny. She really did visit Michael there [the Beverly Hills hotel MJ was staying at]. I definitely think Lisa wants Michael back. They spend a lot of time together. I talk to Mike pretty often.
– Flo Anthony

The hardest decision I have ever had to make, which was to walk away and let his fate have him, even though I desperately loved him and tried to stop or reverse it somehow. After the divorce, I spent a few years obsessing about him and what I could have done different, in regret. Then I spent some angry years at the whole situation.
– Lisa Marie

We again, were going to get back together, we spent four more years after we’d divorced getting back together and breaking up and talking about getting back together and breaking up. At some point, I had to push it away because it was not, I wasn’t moving forward with myself. And actually afterwards, he and I were still… I was still flying all over the world still with him to follow.
– Lisa Marie

We’ve had a few benign conversations recently, but I wouldn’t consider us friends. We didn’t speak for four years.
– Lisa Marie

After we got divorced she would hang out with my mother all the time. I have all these letters saying, “I’ll give you nine children. I’ll do whatever you want.” and of course the press don’t know all these stories and she just tried for months and months and I just became too hard-hearted at that point. I closed my mind on the whole situation.
– Michael

I remember that’s how she felt (regretting having his child) at the time [laughs]. No matter what I say, I’m in trouble with this question. The next issue of TV Guide will probably say “Well, Lisa said she doesn’t ever want to see him again!” Lisa’s sweet. I like her very much and we are friends. And who knows what tomorrow brings? I have no idea how she feels today. I’ll just say that. She comes to my house and sees the children, and we talk on the phone, that sort of thing.
– Michael

I’ve been through two bad divorces. I just got out of the second one. Even when married to those women that I was married to, I’d go to bed hurting. I was hurting.
– Michael

Lisa… we’re still friendly, but she’s running around.
– Michael

We’ve had no contact since our divorce.
– Lisa Marie

I’m not with him, nor have I been for a very long time.
– Lisa Marie

I walked away a long time ago.
– Lisa Marie

If I were to bump into Michael in the hotel lobby, I’d just say “Hi’… and then walk. We have no contact at all.
– Lisa Marie

The last time I spoke to him was sometime in 2005. It was a very long conversation. I was so removed from him and he could feel it and he could hear it. And I think that’s one of the things that killed me in the end too was that I was very distanced and he was checking to get a read, he was trying to throw a line out to see if I would bite emotionally and I wouldn’t. I was pretty shut off at that point. I don’t even know how I managed to be like that but I was. He asked if I still loved him and we went into a whole thing about that and I told him I was indifferent and he didn’t like that word and he cried. He was trying to find out where I was at and how I could become so detached.
– Lisa Marie

I more wanted to apologize. I felt like I wanted to apologize. For not being around.
– Lisa Marie

DEBBIE ROWE

I go ‘Hi’. And he goes ‘Hi,’ and I said, ‘You know what? Nobody does what you do better, and nobody does what I do better. Let’s get this over with.’ And he laughed, and we just became friends. It was just right away.
– Debbie

(Michael spoke to me about her) sometimes. Not exactly (in a way that made me believe he was in love with her or would marry her).
– Katherine Jackson

I think that she loves him very much. She admired him very much.
– Arnold Klein

I wrote ‘Remember the Time’ when Michael {Jackson} told me about falling in love with {Debbie Rowe}, the woman he just married. I don’t know why he didn’t marry her the first time around.
– Teddy Riley

She has been so enamored and in love with Michael her entire life. She is a nice girl.
– Brian Oxman

When he went into the rehab, I remember that Debbie was so, so relieved. When Michael got out of rehab he started dating Lisa Marie. But he never stopped seeing Debbie, even after he married Lisa Marie.
– Tonya Boyd

She cared about him, would be up all night long on the phone with him. She said he was best on the phone…. she said, “He’s unique, kinky, actually.
– Tonya Boyd

I know when Michael was addicted, Debbie stayed on the telephone for hours and hours, pleading with him to save himself. She told me that she said: “If you die, I will be crushed. I wouldn’t be able to survive it. You are my very life.”
– Tonya Boyd

He’d call and say, ‘Hi what are you doing? Do you want to get a video?’ We’d sneak out without security. We got caught. I thought, ‘Oh my God! This is like a Beatles film. We’re getting chased by people. We’d go out and do stuff, sneak him into premieres and things… yeah, we had a good time, we had a good time.
– Debbie

But it was true, just the same: Michael was seeing Debbie Rowe while he was married to Lisa. Lisa knew it. At one point, she and Debbie had a tense telephone conversation during which Lisa said: “Look, nursey. I’m sorry that you’re in love with my husband. But he’s mine. So get lost.”
– Monica Pastelle

[Debbie and I] soon had to leave cuz Lisa Marie was on her way. She was in that video and well, it was time to go.
– Tonya Boyd

I knew he wanted a family, so one day a few years ago I said to him: “Michael, I’ll give you the baby you want.” He said no. He said he wanted a traditional family. So he married Lisa Marie. When that broke up, when she left him, I said “I’m serious, I’ll give you the baby you want.”
– Debbie

One day she starts telling me she was planning on having him a baby! She told me this way before she was ever pregnant.
– Tonya Boyd

Well, I said, I said, you know, my offer still stands… I said if you want to be a daddy…I want to do it.
– Debbie

And I knew Debbie Rowe was offering to do it for him while we were married, according to him. She was a nurse who had a crush on him and offered to have his babies.
– Lisa Marie

We started by fooling around a bit and the next thing we knew we were doing it. We knew we were going to try for a baby.
– Debbie

Michael and I do have sex. We get it on.
– Debbie

This is a natural conception. Debbie finds it amazing that people won’t believe that. She told me two years ago, “Michael likes girls.”
– Tonya Boyd

She said it was natural, and I believe her.
– Mary Colandro

I think they did have sex. I really do, and I can’t guarantee that. I think they did have sex in their relationship.
– Arnold Klein

I know that they had sex together. That’s what she told me. That Debbie had sex with Michael… I have no doubt. I wasn’t in the bedroom. But I have no doubt that when she would tell me her — these little things about their private life — that it would…
– Iris Finsilver

I can’t wait to see him again. We’re going to stay all day and night in bed – I can’t wait.
– Debbie

They had relations together. You betcha they did.
– Brian Oxman

Yes, I had sex with Debbie.
– Michael

Sleeping with Michael was the weirdest experience of my life. I once had to pretend I was a peasant girl at his ranch while he put on a suit of armor and conquered me. Michael was an incredible lover who left me exhausted.
– Debbie

We’ll take suites with two rooms. I need my space. When I need to sleep, I need to sleep. He’ll stay up until 4 am pacing, thinking. Sometimes he’ll come up to me in the middle of the night when I’m asleep and stick things in my nose or my ear and wake me up. Sometimes I wake up and I won’t hear him and I’ll be in a panic. When I realise he’s asleep, I go into his room and climb into bed with him because than we can sleep together.
– Debbie

One of the best things to do is… what I think… When you love someone… don’t you ever wake up in the middle of the night and just look at ’em? And see the beauty. I mean that’s… peace. That’s… calm. That’s, that’s how that person is. You know you don’t see the stress of the day or what’s going on, you know. And I could sit and stare at him for hours. ‘Cause it was calm.
– Debbie

At the time when the story broke, Debbie was supposed to meet him in Australia. She presumed that the trip would be off, that Michael would be so upset about what had happened that he would refuse to see her. She cried a lot that day.
– Tony Boyd

We call it investigative journalism. She really is Michael Jackson’s best friend. Theirs is a brotherly-sisterly love. She didn’t do this for monetary gain, but monetary gain will result. She made it clear her role is to deliver (the baby) to Jackson after three to four weeks. It will be looked after by two nannies hired by Jackson.
– Stuart White

I picked up the telephone, hoping it was Michael calling for Debbie from Australia, and this woman said: “Would you please put Miss Rowe on the phone?” ‘I thought it was a reporter, so I said: “She’s not here.” And the woman said: “Well this is Michael Jackson’s mother. I simply must find her.” Immediately handed Debbie the phone.
– Tonya Boyd

Debbie is a nurse who loves her work, who loves taking care of people. Every day she wants to get up and look after others, to help them and make them better. That’s why I love her, and that’s what gives her bliss in life, God bless her.
– Michael

There’s different Michaels. There’s, like, my Michael. And the Michael that everyone else sees.
– Debbie

We have the most conventional marriage two uncoventional people can have.
– Debbie

I haven’t abandoned him, a lot of people think I’ve abandoned him, I haven’t abandoned him. I haven’t abandoned my husband. I’m there, it’s not like I’m that far away. I can be there in 13 hours.
– Debbie

Sure, and I miss Michael a lot too. But, I don’t feel like I have to be there, I don’t think being there 24 hours a day makes a better relationship
– Debbie

It’s very hard. We haven’t been able to spend time as a family. Not at all.
– Michael

I’m really independent, and Michael understands that, and I’m really fortunate to have a husband who does understand that. Who knows that I need to work, and I need to have my own self. Because he is so big, and he is so Michael. I don’t need to live with him 24 hours a day. And he’s working right now. And when he comes home we’ll have time, and we’ll be together more.
– Debbie

Michael consistently told me that it was Debbie Rowe’s wish not to be involved with the children. The impression he gave me was that he felt it was better for the kids not to have their mother in their lives if such involvement was not voluntary.
– Schmuley

They’re adults. Say what you want, have any judgment you like about it, but it’s their life, and they get to live it whatever way they choose.
– Tonya Boyd

I heard Debbie’s doing good, she’s fine. Paris is strong like Debbie.
-Michael

As Mr. Jackson knows, no one can tell me what to say.
– Debbie

We are a family unit. Michael and I will always be connected with the kids. I will always be there for him. I will always be there for the children. And people make remarks, oh, I can’t believe she left her children. Left them? I left my children? I did not leave my children. My children are with their father where they’re supposed to be
– Debbie

SHANA MANGATAL

I recall the many appearances he made in DC (such as the Jackson’s Reunion Tour and others) she would literally bother us to take her to the hotel to join the many fans who were camped outside showing their support to the Jackson’s. What was so amazing and what makes me believe this was a bond, Jermaine Jackson was walking into the hotel and somehow he saw my sister and brought her inside to receive an autograph from Michael Jackson and the Jackson’s.
– Todd Mangatal

I even remember her saying she was going to marry Michael, yes to me this sound like an obsessed fan, but again, I think it was more than that, it was destiny for her to have the opportunity to meet and know the star she adored.
– Todd Mangatal

About a year after arriving in LA she got a great job with a major talent management company, and who their biggest client turned out to be was Michael Jackson, so she had the opportunity to get to know the star she idolized from childhood.
– Todd Mangatal

So, she plans on doing something about the accusations by telling the truth of what she knows about her good friend.
– Todd Mangatal

It was a close personal relationship. I don’t want to go into detail about it but yes it was intimate.
– Shana

Michael would kill me if I said that (we had sex), I refuse to discuss those details. But I will say that he’s a normal man, he’s a red blooded man. He’s very flirtatious, he loves women.
– Shana

No, as a matter of fact I’m scared he’s gonna be angry that I’m finally coming forward. I’ve sat back for ten years and not said a word during all the other allegations going on.
– Shana

He was the love of my life. When you look at him, you don’t see the freakish appearance that comes through in pictures. I see his heart.
– Shana

Shana told me that in the time she knew Michael he married Lisa Marie Presley and it devastated her. But when he got back from his Honeymoon he apologized.
– ET

At the end of the day she did spend a little time with Michael, who expressed his appreciation to her for “being there for him”, for her help with the event and it’s success, and most importantly for all her support.
– Todd Mangatal

Michael and I used to talk about show biz alot. He gave me alot of advice. He knew I wanted to be an actress, so he put me in Is This Scary and Ghosts. I’ll always be grateful to him for that.
– Shana

He did not want me to do it. Sometimes he didnt know what was best for himself though! Thankfully, after I did it he thanked me (although he asked me not to do any more interviews..lol!)
– Shana

The most touching moment for me was when Rebbie spotted me. She came over to me and gave me a big hug. She thanked me for being there for her brother and told me she had heard so many good things about me. That meant so much to me and I’ll always have a soft spot in my heart for Rebbie.
– Shana

The last time I saw him, the first thing he mentioned was how much fun we had filming this [Ghosts]!
– Shana

I supported MJ on ET in 2003, because the situation was dire and he needed someone to speak up and say something positive. He was my friend and I will always stand by him through thick and thin.
– Shana

Everything I have ever said or written here on FB is the 100% TRUTH.
– Shana

After reviewing the matter for some months now, I have found no evidence that Shana Mangatal was Michael Jackson’s secret girlfriend. I will retract everything I said about this matter.
– Firpo Carr

The “evidence,” given to me by a very credible source, lead to a deadend; and, yes, I do believe I was mislead.
– Firpo Carr

Shana responded by making a heartfelt personal appeal to reconsider the retraction. She asked that I just leave things as they are.
– Firpo Carr

Lisa did a FANTASTIC job in articulating exactly how it felt. The interview was great. I was in tears through the whole thing. I completely relate, and I understand.
– Shana

1981-1984 :: Brooke Shields

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

TV Guide, Volume  33, 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

Brooke, People, Feb 22, 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

Feb 26, 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.

Teri Shields, Fall, 1994

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.”

The Lady In My Life