In 1993, Michael Jackson professed his love for Brooke Shields on TV. Then she called him up.

In 1993, Michael Jackson professed his love for Brooke Shields on national television.

Speaking on Oprah Winfrey’s talk show, the performer explained that he was privately dating the actress and model.

"We try not to just be everywhere and go everywhere," Jackson explained, claiming they were keeping their relationship behind closed doors.

"It’s mostly at home. She'll come over, I’ll go to her house because I don't like going out in public."

Now, 30 years later, Shields has recalled the moment in a recent interview with The Sunday Times.

"I called him up and I think I said, 'This is kind of pathetic that you need to do this. I am having a shot at normal life – you cannot drag me into crazy town'," she told the publication, ahead of her upcoming documentary Pretty Baby: Brooke Shields. 

According to Shields, Jackson reportedly laughed off her reaction. 

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When asked if the pair ever dated or kissed, the 57-year-old said, "No! There was one moment when we were in the car and the cameras were there and he grabbed me to kiss me, and I said, ‘No! Stop! We are just friends and you need me as a friend.'

"I remember the early days when other actresses were after him and he was kind of cute, before the shift. But it never ever crossed my mind."

Throughout his long running career, Michael Jackson was connected to a number of women – from his marriages to Debbie Rowe and Lisa Marie Presley to his alleged flings with Diana Ross and Madonna.

Speaking in the 2019 documentary Leaving Neverland, one of Jackson’s accusers, James Safechuck, alleged the singer pursued relationships so that the public wouldn’t get suspicious about his close friendships with young children.

"I remember Michael saying he was going to have to have these public relationships with women so people wouldn’t think anything," Safechuck said in the documentary.

"He would always say he was going to get married. He said, ‘One day, I am going to go get married but it wasn’t going to mean anything.'"

For Jackson and Shields, their relationship was never conventional.

The pair, who bonded over their time in the spotlight as young children, first met in 1978

"We were like two little kids," Shields wrote in her 2016 memoir There Was a Little Girl.

"From the day we met, we saw something of ourselves in each other."

From there on, the pair remained close friends for many years but "nothing happened" between them.

"Of course we loved each other, but nothing happened romantically," she explained in her memoir, according to People.

"I would be like, 'Oh please, knock it off.' He was like this kid who would ask you [about dating and romance]. Nobody was telling him and nurturing this stuff and I think he was terrified. He was terrified and sort of juvenile. I think there was an arrested development," she continued.

"But he wanted us to never not be with each other."

Following Jackson's death in 2009, Shields went on to speak about their bond at his memorial.

"Whenever we went out together and there would be a picture taken, there would be a caption of some kind, the caption usually said something like ‘an odd couple’ or ‘an unlikely pair.’ But, to us, it was the most natural, and easiest of friendships," Shields said in her speech.

It's believed the pair hadn't spoken for over a decade before Jackson passed away.

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Not long after Jackson's death, Shields opened up more about her relationship with the King of Pop.

"I would say, ‘You have me for the rest of your life, you don’t need to marry me, I’m going to go on and do my own life and have my own marriage and my own kids, and you’ll always have me,'" she told Rolling Stone. "I think it made him relax. He didn’t want to lose things that meant something to him."

Within the interview, Shields also claimed that over time, Jackson became "more asexual" to her.

"You saw women who were more sexual, who wanted to throw themselves at him and feel like they were going to teach him. We just found each other, and we didn’t have to deal with our sexuality," she recalled.

"As I grew up and started having boyfriends, I would share with him, and he was like a little kid who talked about the bases – what first base was, what second base was, and it sounded very odd to the outside, I can imagine, but to the inside, to someone who’s never really left his bubble, you can understand how he would be curious."

Shields married professional tennis player Andre Agassi in 1997 before the couple divorced in 1999.

She has been married to American producer Chris Henchy since 2001. The pair share two daughters, Rowan Francis Henchy, 19, and Grier Hammond Henchy, 16.

Read more on this topic:

'I'm amazed I survived it.' Brooke Shields was just a child when she was sexualised in Hollywood.

"Nothing could have prepared me for it": Brooke Shields on raising teens during the 'A**hole' Stage.

This article was originally published on March 19, 2019, and was updated on March 27, 2023.