At the height of his stardom, the world's biggest pop star, Michael Jackson, began long-running relationships with two young boys, aged between seven and ten, along their families. They now ... Read allAt the height of his stardom, the world's biggest pop star, Michael Jackson, began long-running relationships with two young boys, aged between seven and ten, along their families. They now allege that he sexually abused them.At the height of his stardom, the world's biggest pop star, Michael Jackson, began long-running relationships with two young boys, aged between seven and ten, along their families. They now allege that he sexually abused them.
- Won 1 Primetime Emmy
- 7 wins & 10 nominations total
- Self
- (as James Safechuck)
- Self
- (archive footage)
- Self
- (archive footage)
- Self - Former Wife of Michael
- (archive footage)
- Self
- (archive footage)
- Self - Sister of Wade
- (as Amanda Robson)
- Self - Lawyer of Jordan Chandler
- (archive footage)
- Self - Accuser of Michael Jackson
- (archive footage)
- Self
- (archive footage)
- Self - Correspondent
- (archive footage)
- Self
- (archive footage)
- (as Prince Charles)
- Self - Attorney of Michael Jackson
- (archive footage)
- Self - Las Vegas Reporter
- (archive footage)
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaThe most watched non-sporting, non-news broadcast in New Zealand's history.
- GoofsDuring the 17 month filming of these interviews, James Safechuck's furniture, undershirt, socks, and foliage on the fence outside is a glaringly obvious.
- Quotes
Wade Robson: He was one of the kindest, most gentle, loving, caring people I knew. He helped me... tremendously. He helped me with my career. He helped me with my creativity. With all those sorts of things. And he also sexually abused me... for seven years.
- ConnectionsFeatured in The Latest: Episode dated 20 February 2019 (2019)
Now about the documentary. It's hard to watch. It's mostly two men and their family giving their account of their time with MJ and talking very candidly about sexual abuse and grooming. The document doesn't present you with hard evidence of what happened. I still urge you to watch it before forming an opinion. In my opinion, it's very hard to believe they're lying or faking their emotions. Both of them still seem to carry love for MJ and their "friendship" and it has affected their life and their relationship with their family.
Besides the abuse, it also shows MJ's pattern of befriending boys with a certain age and physical appearance (clearly had a preference for white boys) and showbiz parents who wanted their kids to get famous. He got close to their families, gave them gifts and earned their trust and then spent a lot of time with the kids and specifically the boys alone and invited them to his neverland ranch for "sleepovers". They show all the letters that he kept sending these boys and he comes off as bit obsessive and like a love sick teenger. He got very close to them and constantly demanded their time and attention. But when they grew out of being a child which seemed to be his age preference, he seemed to disappear from their lives and moved on to his next best buddy which was another white 10 year old boy.
Even after being accused of sexual abuse, he still invited kids over and spent time alone with them in his bedroom. It's very strange behaviour for a grown man and fits the definition of grooming to a t. Even if you want to believe no sexual abuse happened, these "friendships" couldn't have been healthy for the kids. Their parents were selling them to MJ hoping to get money in return for the relationship, whatever that was.
The other guilty party in this documentary are the parents. They let their child sleep in the same hotel room as a stranger and let them stay in neverland alone or unsupervised. They describe MJ as lonely and sweet which seems to be his fans defence for his alarming behavior but also ignore all the red flags like the creepy letters and the fact that he wanted to be alone with the kids. Obviously they were hoping their kids would be famous by association with MJ and were seduced by the generous gifts and promise of earning money from their kids and ignored their child well being. Even after the first allegations came out, they didn't seem to be that alarmed. People wonder why these kids defended MJ in court and they explain their side well in the documentary. They considered him a friend and like many child survivors of sexual abuse, they didn't think they were abused.
For people who are curious about the MJ case, this is a must watch. If you want to do more research, you can look into the accounts of theo other children who accused MJ (there are a lot of them outside of the tow in this doc) and the staff who said they caught him being inappropriate with children. You can look into the police reports. Even though they didn't find enough evidence to convict him, there's a lot of damning things in there like artistic nude of literal children and the measures he took to have alone time with these kids and not be seen or heard.
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Details
- Release date
- Countries of origin
- Official sites
- Language
- Also known as
- Leaving Neverland: Michael Jackson and Me
- Filming locations
- Production companies
- See more company credits at IMDbPro
- Runtime4 hours
- Color
- Aspect ratio
- 2.35 : 1