But he admitted to sleeping with children...?
"You can have my bed if you want it. Sleep in it. I'll sleep on the floor. It's yours.' I always give the beds to the company" - Michael Jackson
Michael has been widely criticized for his statements regarding children sharing his bedroom. It is not illegal for him to do this and it does not make him guilty of anything besides going against a societal norm.
As Tom Sneddon put it - "Under California law, merely sleeping with a child, without affirmative, offensive conduct' isn't criminal, and law enforcement officials would also have to have cooperation from a victim before any charges could be brought"
Sexual abuse does not always occur at night or in a bed. If you argue that the sleepovers are wrong because they provide an opportunity for sexual abuse to occur, then I guess you could also argue that no adult should ever be alone with any child. Whether or not they're related is irrelevant because there's something called incest that people seem to have forgotten about.
So why are the sleepovers viewed as wrong? It's Jackson's personal belief that there's nothing inappropriate about falling asleep next to a child and there's no logical reason that proves otherwise.
To understand this mindset, you have to understand how he grew up. The Jackson family of 9 children lived in a very small house. Michael and his brothers slept two at a time on each floor of a triple bunk bed. Later, they slept together in cars or hotel rooms, sometimes with other people.
Beds used to be a place of meetings, coming up with ideas, rehearsing, talking, watching TV, falling asleep and sleeping. Nothing sexual. It´s other people who think about the bed only as something sexual.
This idea of exclusive bedrooms has racial and socio-economic classist undertones as well. In many ethnic cultures & poor households, people don't have the luxury of having private rooms, as explained in this video clip
https://reddit.com/link/1j6j9wa/video/wxati9nsahne1/player
Perhaps he should keep children out of his bedroom to avoid any appearance of impropriety but, again, bad judgement does not make a person guilty.
With that said, I'd like to point out that if there was anything inappropriate going on during those sleepovers, why would Jackson draw attention to his behaviour by talking about the sleepovers so openly on national television? Also, if he really wanted to molest children, why wouldn't he do it somewhere that wouldn't look suspicious?
Finally, we do not know the context of the sleepovers, how often they occur, with whom, if there is supervision, etc. Any conclusions drawn about Jackson's behaviour are presumptuous and speculative at best. What we do know is that Michael Jackson has said that he never invites children into his bedroom.
When they raided his Neverland home in 2003, a folding futon was found on the lower level of his bedroom, which corroborates his claim of sleeping either on the floor or in sleeping bags while letting the child have the bed.
His bedroom at Neverland had an upper & lower level. It was the size of a small apartment so it was not a regular bedroom in the way one would typically imagine.
Testimonials Of Those That He Shared His Bed With
- Karen Faye, Dennis Tompkins, Michael Bush on ABC 20/20 Friday June 25th 2010 :
>Michael Bush: When they say bed, a lot of people think sexual, and that was a farthest thing from Michael's mind. I mean we would go do an award show, you come back, everyone jumped on there with 15 people on a bed, watching a show or cartoons or whatever a movie he had to show.
Question: You never saw you never heard anything of the course of a 25-year relationship that made you think that Michael Jackson was a pedophile?
Karen Faye: No nothing, nothing. I absolutely feel I would have seen something over the years but not a thing.
- Karen Faye, April 2019
>"I would spend hours in Michaels bedroom doing his hair at night, as children would be sleeping all over his room. He would even go tuck the covers over them making sure they were warm and comfortable. I had free access to everything in MJ’s homes and hotels.
There were times when Michael wanted time for himself. The parents and kids would be so insistent on being with him, he would always give in. He always put them first. This is so unfair to run this evil scam on MJ. It hurts me tremendously.
I witnessed on many occasions...the parents PUSHING their kids on Michael. “Go ask Michael” “go play with Michael” “go tell Michael to get the chefs to make us some food”,”go ask Michael to take us shopping”, “get his credit card”
Kids slept everywhere around his room. On the floor, in big chairs, in front of the fireplace. MJ’s room was 2 stories. Michael usually let them sleep in his bed and he slept elsewhere. I often fell asleep in his bed.
Michael’s bed was like a living room sofa. After concerts, everyone (fans, friends, co-workers) would jump on his bed visit talk and laugh...in Neverland and his hotel suites. I am sure most ppl do the same thing.
I witnessed many times, Michael telling the kids to go back to the guest quarters with their parents and the kids and the parents BEGGING him for the kids to stay in the main house with him. Michael had a difficult time saying no.
Michael did most of his work, composing, writing, dancing at night, so he wanted that time for himself. He would wait for the kids to fall asleep, and then slip out to the theater, where he was set up to work"
- Kit Culkin, Macaulay & Rory's father - taken from 2005's Lost Boy
>"Michael’s bedroom (an enormous room with alcoves and dressing rooms and a fireplace and French doors leading out to a private garden, as well as a stairway leading to the entire upstairs) was almost always an open place to hang out in, as was most all of the rest of the house. My children would sit on the bed, as would I, to play cards or checkers, or watch television or whatever, but then we would do so most everywhere else also. They might of occasion fall asleep there, just as they might of occasion fall asleep most anywhere else, and at most any daylight hour. While they had a bedtime, I rarely enforced it, as they were, after all, at Neverland to play; and as is most always the case with children (as any parent will tell you), they never enforced it themselves, thinking that they should get some rest so as to be better rested to play again the coming day. Children don’t worry about “the coming day”. Therefore, I was constantly and most usually after suppertime, having to round them up and often carry them (sometimes by golf cart) to their accommodations. They’d fall asleep watching a movie at the movie theater or playing with the toy trains in the toy trains room, and there was one occasion, I well remember, when one of them was actually found asleep on the carousel!”
- June Chandler, Jordy Chandler's mother
Admitted in her 2005 testimony that she was allowed to go into Jackson’s bedroom and stay there whenever she wanted:
>And why were you in the bedroom those ten times?
>Because I’m Jordie’s mother. I’m allowed to go into the bedroom.
>
>Were you dropping clothes off?
>
>Oh, I might have. I don’t recall.
>
>Did you ever sit down and watch T.V. or anything in there?
>
>Yes.
>
>How often did you do that?
>
>A few times.
>
>Did you ever have food delivered to you in Michael Jackson’s bedroom?
>
>I don’t recall
- Joy Robson, Wade Robson’s mother
Also stated in her 2005 testimony that she was allowed to go to Jackson’s bedroom any time she wanted:
>Did you go into Mr. Jackson’s room at all hours of the day?
>At any time I wanted to, yes.
>
>Do you recall being in his room during the day?
>
>Yes.
>
>Do you recall being in his room during the evening?
>
>Yes.
>
>Do you recall being in Mr. Jackson’s room late at night?
>
>Yes.
>
>Did you ever get the feeling that somebody was trying to keep you out of Mr. Jackson’s room?
>
>No
- Frank Cascio, My Friend Michael: An Ordinary Friendship with an Extraordinary Man
>What Michael said on Bashir’s video is true. “You can have my bed if you want. Sleep in it. I’ll sleep on the floor. It’s your’s. Always give the best to the company, you know.” Michael had no hesitation about telling the truth because he had nothing to hide. He knew in his heart and mind that his actions were sincere, his motives pure, and his conscience, clear. Michael innocently and honestly said, “Yes, I share my bed, there is nothing wrong with it.” The fact of the matter is, when he was “sharing” his bed, it meant he was offering his bed to whoever wanted to sleep in it. There may have been times when we slept up there as well, but he was usually on the floor next to his bed, or downstairs sleeping on the floor. Although Bashir, for obvious reasons, kept harping on the bed, if you watch the full, uncut interview, it’s impossible not to understand what Michael was trying to make clear: when he said he shared his bed, he meant he shared his life with the people he saw as family.
>Now, I know that most grown men don’t share their private quarters with children, and those who do so are almost always up to no good. But that wasn’t my experience with Michael. As one of those kids who, along with his brother, had any number of such sleepovers with Michael, I know better than anyone else what did happen and what didn’t happen. Was it normal to have children sleep over? No. But it’s also not considered especially normal for a grown man to play with Silly String or have water balloon fights, at least not with the enthusiasm Michael brought to the activities. It’s also not normal for a grown man to have an amusement park installed in his backyard. Do these things make such a man a pedophile?
>I’m quite sure that the answer is no.
>The bottom line: Michael’s interest in young boys had absolutely nothing to do with sex. I say this with the unassailable confidence of firsthand experience, the confidence of a young boy who slept in the same room as Michael hundreds of times, and with the absolute conviction of a man who saw Michael interact with thousands of kids. In all the years that I was close to him, I saw nothing that raised any red flags, not as a child and not as an adult. Michael may have been eccentric, but that didn’t make him a criminal.
- Nicole Richie
>"You know, a group of us would all sleep in the same room,” she said. “It was like, absolutely nothing more than just…an adult kind of wanting to be a kid again. Just, you know, enjoying the company of children. I grew up with him. I have spent many evenings there and many days there.” Noting that she could “only speak for myself,” she still added “that absolutely nothing went on.”
Nicole also said that she wouldn’t have held her tongue had Jackson tried anything with her.
>“I’m not a quiet person,” she said. “If there was something going on, I’d be like ‘who are you?’… and I’d tell my parents. But my parents would never put me in hands that they thought were dangerous. I never had any complaints, and you know, I love him.”
- Lottie Rose’s daughter. Lottie Rose was Michael Jackson’s hairdresser between 1981- 1994
>Lottie Rose: He would allow me to bring my daughter with me. She would stay the nights and slept in Michael’s bed. I would be working on him. At Neverland, because the drive was so long, I would stay and we would have our own little room.
>Her daughter: I met MJ when I was 11 years old… Just so happens, I was at my mom’s hair salon on a Saturday when she received a phone call from Bill Bray, MJ’s right hand man at the time. He told my mom that MJ liked her work (she did the hair for the soft sheen print advertisements) they called soft sheen and they referred them to her.
>My mom thought it was a joke until the limousine pulled up in front of the salon. She told me about MJ at the very last minute… I couldn’t believe it and went crazy while Bill was pulling the limousine around to the back of the salon. Let me tell you… it was the best night ever for an 11 year old.
>Really nice guy, very friendly and the best part was that I practically had MJ’s attention all to myself.
>He was not shy at all. In fact, I was very shy and afraid to meet him at first because he was MJ.
>However, he was very friendly and helped me to warm up to him.
>MJ and I talked mostly about me and my friends, what we did for fun, where we liked to go, what it was like to go to the mall, favorite stores, amusement parks, favorite rides, going to the beach, movies and more… He would also call me at home from time to time to chat on the phone.
Michael loved to play practical jokes. He would tell my mom that muscles or bubbles was around, and then would rub her leg to make her think it was one of the animals. She would hop around and scream sometimes… was really, really funny!”
- Simone Jackson, Michael's cousin
During her testimony at the 2005 trial, we learned that she too slept in Jackson’s bed
>Did you ever spend the night in Michael Jackson’s room?
Yes.
Okay. By yourself?
Yes.
Did you ever spend a night in his room in his bed with him?
Yes.
By yourself?
Yes.
All right. How old were you when you did that?
I was about eight or nine
- William B. Van Valin (adult hetero male), “Private Conversations In Neverland":
>“In Michael’s room there was a couch with a King sized roll out bed in it. It was always in the rolled out position and it was always turned down like you were in a hotel. It faced the biggest TV I’d ever seen at that time. We would put in a movie, order from the kitchen whatever we were hungry for and watch movies until late at night. If Michael fell asleep while we were watching a movie, I would turn the volume down slowly, unplug it (because if I used the controller it made a loud noise as it turned off ) and quietly leave the room and go home. I remember I did this one night and was tiptoeing to the door when I heard Michael say, “See you tomorrow, Barney.” For whatever reason, it was very difficult for Michael to sleep. So, if he fell asleep I was always careful to let him stay that way. Sometimes he’d ask me to read something to him and I’d find a book and just read it out loud then slip away when it seemed he was asleep.”
- Elizabeth Taylor on Larry King
https://reddit.com/link/1j6j9wa/video/ge44847rehne1/player
- Michael Jackson story time with kids
https://reddit.com/link/1j6j9wa/video/i07kwfeqfhne1/player
In the interview with Bashir, Gavin also admitted that he had specifically asked Jackson to be allowed in his bedroom and sleep there with his brother Star:
>“Gavin: There was one night, I asked him if I could stay in his bedroom. He let me stay in the bedroom. And I was like, ‘Michael you can sleep in the bed’, and he was like ‘No, no, you sleep on the bed’, and I was like ‘No, no, no, you sleep on the bed’, and then he said ‘Look, if you love me, you’ll sleep in the bed’. I was like ‘Oh mannnn?” so I finally slept on the bed. But it was fun that night.Jackson: I slept on the floor. Was it a sleeping bag?Gavin: You packed the whole mess of blankets on the floor.”
https://reddit.com/link/1j6j9wa/video/okni0nkjehne1/player
In actuality, both state that Jackson slept on the floor and at the 2005 trial Gavin testified that Jackson’s friend and personal assistant, Frank Cascio had also slept in the room that night, as well as Gavin’s brother, Star and Jackson’s two children, Prince and Paris. All the children slept on Jackson’s bed while the two adult men, Jackson and Cascio, slept on the floo. In his 2011 book entitled My Friend Michael: An Ordinary Friendship with an Extraordinary Man, Cascio recalls that it were the Arvizo children who insisted that they wanted to sleep in Jackson’s bedroom despite of the fact that Jackson was reluctant to let them.
>“Gavin and Star kept begging, I kept saying no, and then Janet [Arvizo – the boys’ mother] said to Michael, “They really want to stay with you. It’s okay with me.” Michael relented. He didn’t want to let the kids down. His heart got in the way, but he was fully aware of the risk. He said to me, 'Frank, if they’re staying in my room, you’re staying with me. I don’t trust this mother. She’s fucked up.' I was totally against it, but I said, 'All right. We do what we have to do.' Having me there as a witness would safeguard Michael against any shady ideas that the Arvizos might have been harboring. Or so we were both naive enough to think.”
So what did these sleepovers really mean in Jackson’s life?
According to German psychologist and psycho-therapist Dieter Speck due to his childhood trauma – his loss of childhood, his father beating him etc. – Jackson assumed the dual roles of being a child and a father at the same time.
https://reddit.com/link/1j6j9wa/video/h2oyljx4ehne1/player
In the children who he surrounded himself with he saw himself and he wanted to gave them the – non-sexual – fatherly affection and love that he never got from his own father. In other contexts he was a child himself. Speck does not think that Jackson was a pedophile or that his relationship with children was sexual
