If you haven’t yet watched Leaving Neverland, you need to get on that.

The two-part documentary has once again brought to the fore the relationships Michael Jackson had with young children, and in particular young boys, during his superstar music career.

Parts of the doccie are really tough to watch, with James Safechuck and Wade Robson explaining in detail how Jackson sexually abused them.

Looking back, it’s hard to understand how Jackson was allowed to travel around the world with young boys, openly admitting that he slept in the same bed as them.

Jackson defenders will point towards his 2005 legal victory over child molestation charges as the final word on the matter, and one of the key witnesses was Macaulay Culkin.

NewsAU has detailed how the pair became friends, and what we know about their relationship.

Culkin has been one of the pop icon’s staunchest defenders, calling the allegations against Jackson “absolutely ridiculous” and describing him as “hilarious” and “sweet”.

The child star recently called Jackson his “best friend growing up”, and said their closeness despite the 22-year age gap “made sense” because of their similar life stories.

The pair first met when Jackson and Donald Trump went backstage to meet Culkin after he performed in The Nutcracker at New York’s Lincoln Center, aged nine.

They cemented the friendship a year later, when the youngster shot to fame in Home Alone in 1990 and Jackson called and said they should get together to talk about their similar experiences.

They had much in common — Jackson had also found fame at the age of 10 in the Jackson 5, and both had problems with their fathers. Culkin has said father Kit was a “mean b**tard” and was “jealous” of him because “everything he tried to do in his life I excelled at before I was 10 years old”. They have been estranged for 23 years.

That bond was further cemented in 1991, when Jackson chose Culkin to star in the ‘Black or White’ music video.

Culkin testified that he had shared a bed with Jackson “at most 10 times” between the ages of 10 and 14:

Culkin and his younger brother Kieran regularly spent time at the remote California ranch when they were young, with the Richie Rich actor describing how they enjoyed video game competitions, water balloon fights and fell asleep on beds in Jackson’s home cinema…

Culkin said there was an alarm on the singer’s bedroom door. “There was like a walkway kind of thing, where if somebody was approaching the door, it would kind of like ‘ding-dong, ding-dong,’” he said. “When anyone would approach the room, yeah, you’d hear this kind of — soft kind of alarm, like ‘ding-dong’ kind of thing.”

But the child star said he always slept fully clothed and the singer had an “open door policy”, adding: “I’ve never seen him do anything improper with anybody.”

When quizzed about sharing a bed with Culkin and his brother, during the infamous 2005 special Living with Michael Jackson, the singer spoke about sleeping in between the pair, before waking up at dawn “to go in the hot air balloon”.

Ask Neverland’s former cleaner, Adrian McManus, and she’ll tell you about little boys’ underwear floating in the jacuzzi and vaseline in Jackson’s bedroom.

She wasn’t the only former employee to question what was going on:

A chef at Neverland testified that he had seen Jackson with his hand up Culkin’s shorts.

Security guard Ralph Chacon said he saw Jackson peforming a sex act on a 10-year-old boy in the shower — but the singer’s defence painted the guard as a bitter ex-employee.

Housekeeper Blanca Francia, who worked for Jackson from 1986 to 1991, said during the 2005 trial that she had seen Jackson showering with Mr Robson when he was seven.

Francia’s son, Jason, was also allegedly molested by Jackson, and reached a settlement with the singer reported to be around $2 million.

In 1993, Jordan “Jordie” Chandler, who was 13 at the time, accused Jackson of sexually abusing him a year earlier. His family settled out of court for $22 million.

I guess you can make your own mind up.

[source:newsau]