I don’t think Michael Jackson ever knew what it was like to be a ‘normal person.’

Interesting that autism was raised in this discussion. There is a form of autism labelled as 'idiopathic autism' where a child endures severe stress as they are developing in childhood  which can lead to states of mind which have been classed as being on the autistic spectrum. One notable point with this form of autism is that, with the appropriate therapy, a child can recover and the autistic traits diminish considerably and natural development can follow. I would not be surprised if Jackson did develop this and it was never treated - plus the apparent total lack of Jackson being unaware of the inappropriate sharing his bed with children....could be a further indication of the disorder. I am a retired psychologist who has worked with both children and adults with this condition, and have been witness to high degrees of recovery.

I just wanted to add that as far as I know no one as an adult has claimed to be a victim of Michael Jackson. Now that he's dead why aren't they all coming out of the woodwork? When Jimmy Savile from the BBC died every single person who was a childhood victim came forward to put it out there how much of a predator he really was. Why hasn't anyone else done that with Michael Jackson? Just curious about it in terms of if it is true why isn't anyone talking about it then now?

The fact you can bring charges to his estate when he's been dead for almost 20 years is wild. They'll never stop trying to ruin his name while simultaneously trying to make money off of him. These people doing this to him are sick in the head.

As a person who is a survivor of childhood sexual abuse by someone close to them, I find it difficult to believe that as an adult he would willingly defend someone who did a sexual assault on him as a child because whenever that happens your nervous system gets hijacked and I don't believe it would be an easy thing to do publicly defending the person who SA'd you as a child. I having been abused couldn't ever stand next to my abuser and defend them publicly. It isn't believable to me. I could be wrong as everyone is different but statistics would say he's making it up.

Wade had to shut down his danceschool in 2011, shortly hé had to sell his house.. he had mayor financial problems. In 2012 hé tried to sell a book about him and Michael Jackson.. this book was rejected multiple time because it had no shocking value. Shortly after he was suddenly molested and he demanded 1.5 billion dollars. James Safechuck had a tech compagny and he faced major financial distress. He saw Wade his claims on television and he contacted the same attorney as Wade. Two people in great financial distress and suddenly they are molested demanding a enormous payday.

To me this whole affair shows how deeply bizarre and disconnected life can be for people who are in close proximity to huge money and celebrity. It's so hard to analyze because the eccentricities, power balances and motives are so remote to average 'normal life' that all gut feelings, red flags or common sense people normally rely on are out the window. Every single situation and person described sounds like a character in a crazy novel; when put all together it's just a fantastical mess.

We can also switch the coin and look at the whole picture here. The testimonies of Wade, James and the Cascio family made before their allegations fit perfectly with hundreds of people  who knew Michael, met Michael.. everyone is stating how humble he was, how friendly he was, how down to earth he was, how wise he was.. he had hundreds of books. And he was a great listener. While he was the biggest star on the planet he was very interested in what others had to say. It matches perfectly with statements made by Wade and members of the Cascio family. So that makes it more likely that their previous accounts are accurate. One of the Cascio family wrote a whole positive book about his friends Michael Jackson.. how can you write a whole book without getting any flashbacks? Writing a book is like reliving every moment and every detail. People have to dig into the memory to recall the full friendship and details.. it works like an EMDR session but far more intens

I call bs, and people should look into the whole 70s-80 "Satanic Panic" reverse memory scandal to wrap their heads around this whole memory lapse/recovered trauma phenomenon. Basically if you get a handle for kids from abusive and coercive homes prompted to make some claims, others from a similar situations follow suit and it becomes a "Salem Witch Trial" type of scenario. That they recounted their stories in very graphic detail is pretty suspect to me as well. Clearly many of these kids wanted to be with MJ because life at home was horrible, which is probably why he set up Neverland in the first place.

Also worth noting LouisTheroux eventually concluded MJ was a paedophile, and whatever others think of Louis and his style, I frankly don't consider him a remotely reliable or professional journalist. His whole appeal is basically the hilarity of him having awkward encounters with much weirder people, the proper journalism on serious topics is where he falls down.

I changed my mind a bit on this over the years, I think you focus on the right red flags. I think it's obvious MJ had a lot wrong with him and was very troubled, he probably had some kind of disorder and degree of disassociation from reality and societal expectations and I think you could argue he had a bit of a saviour complex (even if well-intentioned) making him obsessed with providing a safe childhood he always lacked. He should have known better, but also he clearly didn't have good people around him either keeping his best interests or those of kids in mind, optics went out the window. It's all blatantly inappropriate, but I don't think it makes him an actual predator. As noted, Corey Feldman claimed for years to be a victim of real abuse in Hollywood without publicly naming names, yet MJ gets all the attention despite lack of real proof.

I know there are conspiracy theories as well claiming he actually wanted to shelter kids from predators, but I am doubtful about this, I think he was just a very troubled and forever lonely man who wanted to give kids a childhood he never had. He had a very sad life.

Laytoya's husband Jack Gordon was also forcing her to do tv interviews and feeding her what to say he through an earpiece- 1 talkshow host noticed something wasn't right and straight up asked her if someone was telling her what to say and she panicked- looked terrified and walked off stage!

There’s no way to know for certain on every accusation. However, due to the money that was involved, I’ve never blindly believed Micheal was guilty.
I can say with certainty, if I ever thought some had assaulted my child, I would want that person in PRISON. I would not be haggling over a payout and WOULD HAVE NEVER DROPPED THE CRIMINAL CASE!!!!!

Here's something to consider. If you've ever seen the house that Michael Jackson grew up in, you know it's a TWO bedroom house, about 1000 square feet, if that. He lived there with his parents and eight siblings. The family of 11 lived in this tiny two bedroom home. What do you suppose the sleeping arrangements were? And in the early years when touring, what do you suppose the sleeping arrangements were? Not saying what he did was always appropriate, just pointing out how it could have been perfectly normal to him.

Irrelevant possibly but I work with some 16/17 year olds who don't know who Michael Jackson is. It blew my mind!

Big round of applause for the good Dentist 👏
Wtf 🙄
Hypothetically,had his son actually been abused by Jackson..him trying his grand extortion plan,wasn't gonna look so great for his kid's credibility,though 🤔 and,way to put cash ahead of your son's well being.
This dude,clearly,didn't give a damn about his son getting Justice,or putting his abuser away,so he can't victimize any other kid..he just wanted money 🤨

Evan Chandler - as evil as he was - was absolutely brilliant in how he set Michael up. The ONE fact that screwed everything up was the fact that the civil trial went first. That was so unfair because it would have forced Michael to reveal all his alibis and all his evidence of innocence which then the prosecution could circumvent at the criminal trial. Which is actually exactly what they did in the 2005 case. They changed all their original dates on the indictment because they found out Michael was across the country in Miami on the dates they said the abuse took place. Mark Geragos - Michaels then attorney - then went on tv and gave away Michael’s whole alibi like an idiot!

So it was absolutely what was going to happen in 1993. Michael was backed into a corner where he would either settle or be forced the give away his defence which would have screwed him in the possible criminal trial.

It was so egregious that California actually changed that law and made it so a criminal trial must come first before a civil. They called it the Michael Jackson law.

But its ok for the dentist.to drug his own son 🙄

I have CPTSD and I have some memories I have suppressed from the trauma that caused my issue in the first place. I’ve always been aware of actively suppressing the worst memories and they surface occasionally, one at a time over years, not in some movie like unfolding of all them in some big flashback. My understanding from a therapist is that your brain and body kind of “know” when you’re able to deal with a certain event and surfaces things one at a time. This has been my experience to be honest.

Now my therapist could hold that theory as their own. However, it doesn’t explain my own experience over how I’ve processed my own trauma over a decade with individual memories surfacing and not the entire experience. As a result, I don’t believe Robson or James.

Buckle up folks. Comment section could be wild. Personally, I think it’s really hard to see his life from his perspective because there was nothing “normal” about it, right from the start. He had such trauma. If he were guilty, no excuse, but we don’t know and that’s the truth. We can’t know. His mind and world view were completely different. And everyone, EVERYONE, had a reason to say whatever they wanted: money. So. I dunno. But he did a lot of good for people and that’s not even including his incredible musical legacy. So. 🤷🏼‍♀️
I know you guys will handle this really well, thanks so much for doing this episode.

If I changed my story as many times as these people have, I would be embarrassed to stand up in public and say "no, THIS time I'm telling what really happened."

What kind of parent or person would  take a settlement/money for the "abuse" of your child??? I WOULD NEVER AGREE TO THIS. If someone abused my child I would want that offender prosecuted to the fullest extent.  I would want that person to be known by all and imprisoned for hurting my child...no amount of money would be enough for me to stay silent to protect a predator