Oprah backs Jackson accusers
Oprah Winfrey has joined the Leaving Neverland controversy.
The former reigning queen of daytime television is lending her support to Michael Jackson’s accusers with Oprah Winfrey Presents: After Neverland, which will premiere simultaneously on US networks HBO and OWN on Tuesday immediately following the second and final part of HBO’s documentary Leaving Neverland, which makes explosive claims of child sexual abuse against the late King of Pop. The claims have been vehemently disputed by his estate.
The one-hour special features interviews with Winfrey and alleged Jackson victims Wade Robson and James Safechuck, as well as the documentary’s director, Dan Reed. It was recorded on Thursday in front of a New York City audience that included more than 100 people who have claimed they were sexually abused as children.
With 217 episodes of her longrunning talk show dedicated to the topic, ‘‘I tried to get the message across to people that sexual abuse was not just abuse, it was sexual seduction’’, Winfrey said.
‘‘I know people all over the world will be in an uproar and debating whether or not Michael Jackson did these things, whether these two men are lying. But to me, this moment transcends Michael Jackson. It’s bigger than any one person.’’
Robson, 36, and Safechuck, 41, allege that Jackson molested them for several years until they were 14, primarily at his Neverland Ranch in California.
Winfrey asked them whether they believed Jackson’s staff were aware of the alleged abuse of young boys who slept in his bed. Jackson’s former maid previously testified in court that she saw him showering with a young Robson.
‘‘It was very rare that Michael was alone,’’ Robson said. ‘‘He had a machine around him at all times. Secretaries organised most of my phone calls and cars to pick me up to bring me to him. Security guards were always there outside of the door. There were so many people around.
‘‘There’s no way that Michael could have abused at the level that he did and the number of kids that he did without a machine behind him helping him do that.’’
Several times during the conversation, Winfrey grilled Robson about why he previously denied that Jackson ever sexually abused him: first in 1993, when the pop star was accused of molesting 13-year-old Jordan Chandler, and again in 2005, when he testified on the pop star’s behalf in the case of 12-year-old Gavin Arvizo. Jackson was acquitted in the Arvizo trial, and settled the Chandler case out of court.
Both times, ‘‘I was so narrowly focused on my training to be a soldier for Michael and protect him, I couldn’t think about anybody else’’, Robson said. But in retrospect, ‘‘I wish I could’ve been ready to give Jordan and Gavin some validation and justice, and play a role in stopping Michael at that point’’.
Jackson’s brothers have repeatedly claimed that Robson and Safechuck are merely seeking financial gain, after their lawsuit against the singer was dismissed in 2015 because the statute of limitations had expired. But Robson told
Winfrey that money ‘‘isn’t a thought of mine’’ – the real reason he and Safechuck were appealing the court’s decision was to heal.
‘‘Michael forced me to tell the lie for so many years, particularly on the stand, and those were really traumatising experiences for me that had a huge impact on the rest of my life,’’ he continued. ‘‘The feeling was, I want an opportunity to reprocess that experience. I want to get on the stand again, because I’m now able to tell the truth.’’
Winfrey asked Safechuck and Robson at length about the details of Jackson’s alleged grooming process: how he formed close friendships with them and their families, and told the boys he loved them.
‘‘He would make me and my mother feel that we were also saving him, giving him a life that was outside of his lonely existence,’’ Robson explained.
‘‘He would do a lot of crying,’’ Safechuck added. ‘‘He would put on what I now see is an act, saying that he just felt too much. You wanted to be there for him.’’
Safechuck said he still felt traumatised, and would face a lifelong process of trying to forgive himself, Jackson and his own mother, who allowed her son to stay with the pop icon unsupervised.
‘‘You know what’s strange? I felt guilt this weekend, that I had let [Jackson] down’’ by coming forward with the allegations, Safechuck said. ‘‘It’s still there."
– USA Today