Celebrity News
Snippets of Oprah Interview With Michael Jackson Family Revealing
(HMG Celebrity News) – Michael Jackson family opened up for the first time since his death in a candid interview with Oprah Winfrey airing on “Oprah” today. The interviews were taped weeks ago when Winfrey paid a visit to the Jackson clan at their Encino, Calif., compound.
Surrounded by their cousins Prince, 13, Paris, 12, and Blanket, 8, talked about growing up with Michael as their dad.
Blanket was shy during the interview, answering “yes” when Winfrey asked if he was still home-schooled. Prince and Paris both describe Michael as “strict.” Blanket, who wants to “produce movies and direct” when he grows up, added that while Prince “could get away with anything,” when it came to being disciplined by Michael, he could not.
Paris told Winfrey:”I kind of felt like no one understood what a good father he was. He was the best cook ever. He was just a normal dad.”
“He made the best French toast in the world,” she added. “He just made the best breakfasts in the world.”
Jackson’s mother and father, Katherine and Joe Jackson also spoke on camera. Katherine on camera first admitted that Michael was addicted to plastic surgery. In addition to coming clean about his nose jobs — she confirms he had more than two — she addresses his skin lightening:
“He didn’t want to start looking ‘like a spotted cow,’ he said,” Katherine explained of [Jackson's] multiple skin surgeries to treat his vitiligo. “I don’t know what in the world he did to change that, but he did.”
Katherine talks candidly about her son’s death and Dr. Conrad Murray’s involvement:
“I can’t accuse him of murder, I don’t know if it was accidentally done or it was intentionally done. I don’t want to get into that, but I have my thoughts. … I don’t think I’ll ever, ever be healed. … It hurts.”
Joe Jackson basically admits to beating Michael (and his other children) in this exchange:
“I don’t think he was afraid of me,” Joe began. “I never beat him. That never happened.”
“You might as well admit it, that’s the way black people raised their children,” Katherine interjected. “He used a strap.”
“I don’t [regret the beatings],” Joe said. “It kept them out of jail and kept them right.”
Katherine said that the hardships particularly the child molestation trial led to Michael’s drug addiction:
“All his life he had to go through stuff like this and it was trying on him,” she said, adding that she never once questioned his innocence. “‘I’d rather slit my own wrists than hurt a child,’ he’d always say that.”
Katherine said Michael continually denied his drug addiction, even as the family attempted to hold an intervention.
“I spoke to him about [drugs] once, when I had heard it and he denied it. I was telling him I didn’t want to one day hear that he had overdosed because it would break my heart…He kept saying, ‘My own mother don’t believe me.’
“Part of me wanted to believe him, but I didn’t believe him.”
