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Leaving Neverland: The eerie Michael Jackson interview that's resurfaced following the doco.

 

Content Warning: This post discusses child abuse and may be disturbing for some readers.

Just weeks after new Michael Jackson documentary Leaving Neverland was released, a disturbing resurfaced clip of the late singer is leaving viewers feeling “disgusted”.

The clip, which appeared in controversial 2003 documentary Living With Michael Jackson, shows Jackson’s interactions with a group of disadvantaged children inside his amusement park-like Neverland Ranch.

But while Jackson was well known for befriending and helping thousands of children in his lifetime, there’s one interaction in the documentary that’s particularly eerie.

Watch a snippet of Michael Jackson’s interview below.

In the documentary, we are introduced to Gavin Arvizo, a 12-year-old cancer survivor who befriended the performer.

Even after completing treatment, the pair remained close with Arvizo and his siblings regularly visiting Neverland.

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In some instances, the children stayed at Jackson’s house.

Sitting on a couch holding hands, Jackson and Arvizo respond to interviewer Martin Bashir’s questions about the time Arvizo slept in Jackson’s bed.

“The most loving thing you can do is to share your bed with someone,” Jackson said.

“My greatest inspiration comes from kids,” he added.

“I see God in the face of children. Man, I just love being around them all the time.”

Michael Jackson leaves a court room during his 2005 trial. Image: Getty.
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But what makes the clip all the more disturbing is what came a few years later.

Two years later in 2005, Arvizo claimed that following the documentary's release, their relationship with Jackson soon changed.

In a criminal trial, Arvizo alleged that Jackson had served him and his brother wine and molested him.

Arvizo also claimed that Jackson told him that if men do not masturbate, they "might rape a girl".

Arvizo's younger brother Star supported the allegations, telling the court that he had witnessed Jackson molesting Arvizo twice.

After a highly publicised 14-week trial, a jury cleared Jackson of all charges on June 13, 2005.

But following Arvizo's trial, the allegations against Jackson continued to build.

michael jackson
Even after Jackson passed away, the allegations kept coming. Image: Getty.
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In May 2013, several years after Jackson passed away in 2009, Wade Robson alleged that Jackson had molested him over a seven-year period. Robson's story is examined in new documentary Leaving Neverland.

James Safechuck, who was also interviewed in Leaving Neverland, claimed that Jackson sexually abused him for several years after meeting him at age 10.

In the documentary, both Robson and Safechuck claimed that the heinous crimes spanned several years, and not only were they sworn to secrecy, there were coerced by their attacker to testify on his behalf against allegations from other young victims.

Since the documentary's release, the Michael Jackson estate has called the film "tabloid character assassination".