Michael Jackson’s Brother Responds to Shocking New Allegations: “Leave Us Alone”
Article via VanityFair
The documentary Leaving Neverland, about two men who say Jackson abused them when they were children, stunned audiences at the Sundance Film Festival premiere last week.
Hours after filmmaker Dan Reed debuted his shocking documentaryLeaving Neverland—a film that details abuse allegedly committed by Michael Jackson—at the Sundance Film Festival last week, the late musician’s family released a strongly worded statement, deriding the project as “tabloid character assassination.” On Wednesday, as disturbing details contained in the film continued to circulate across the Internet, a Jackson family member offered the first televised interview in response to the documentary’s claims from accusers Wade Robson and James Safechuck.
Jackson’s brother Jermaine began his nearly 10-minute interview on Good Morning Britain by not stating whether he has actually seen the four-hour documentary—which contains such distressing allegations that the film festival reportedly had mental-health professionals available to counsel audience members, just in case. Instead, Jermaine produced a page of notes from his jacket pocket and shakily outlined Robson’s previous defense of Michael Jackson, and other arguments the Jackson estate made in its initial statement. (As Vanity Fair’s Nicole Sperlingreported from Sundance, both Robson and Safechuck did initially defend Jackson when other young men accused him of molestation in 1993: “Neither man was able to admit that the sexual relationship they each say they shared with Jackson was abuse until they became fathers, and the weight of their secrets proved overbearing.”)
When Good Morning Britain co-host Piers Morgan countered with purported evidence that Jackson may have molested children—citing Jackson’s multi-million-dollar settlements with accusers and sleepovers Jackson hosted at his Neverland Ranch—Jermaine interjected to argue, “Those were slumber parties, and what they didn’t tell you was that there were little girls there, even with their parents, their uncles . . . they were watching movies.”
“How sure can you be, Jermaine, that Michael was completely innocent?” Morgan pressed.
“Piers, I’m 1,000 percent sure, because Michael was tried by a jury and . . . he was acquitted on all of this,” Jermaine responded. “Our family is tired. Let this man rest. He did a lot for the world. Let him rest. I’ll just say this: there is no truth to this documentary.”
Growing emotional as Morgan continued with more questions, Jermaine begged, “Leave us alone. Leave him alone. Let him rest—please. Let him rest. He deserves to rest.”
During a Q&A at the Sundance Film Festival, Robson revealed that he wasn’t particularly comfortable sharing the documentary with his own family members.
“I was really scared for my mother to see [Leaving Neverland],”said Robson. “Each of us watched it by ourselves, and there are things that I said, things my brother said, that have never been communicated within the family dynamic. It was an intense experience for them. My hope is that while this is not the usual way to healing—for a movie that goes out to the world—hopefully this can open new doors for them. This is an important story to tell.”
The documentary will air on HBO this spring in a two-part series.