A man who accused Michael Jackson of sexually abusing him has told how he had a ‘breakdown’ after being haunted by his childhood memories.
James Safechuck, who appeared in the 2019 documentary Leaving Neverland, has long maintained that he was exploited by the King of Pop as a ten-year-old.
He has claimed that Jackson – then aged 30 – plied him with gifts and ‘rewarded him’ with jewellery, while he was allegedly being molested at the Neverland Ranch from 1988 to 1992.
In a new interview, Safechuck has now opened up about the ‘painful’ memories which he says have plagued him throughout his life.
It comes as a sequel to Leaving Neverland is set to air, which sees the 47-year-old and fellow accuser Wade Robson discuss their legal battle against the Jackson estate.
The late singer’s estate has always denied the accusations made by Safechuck, as well as any other accusations of child sex abuse lodged against Jackson.
Safechuck has shared further shocking details of the alleged abuse he suffered as a young boy, alleging Jackson orchestrated ‘one giant seduction’ over himself and his family.
He claimed that sexual abuse ‘would happen [to him] every day’ when he was at Neverland, but said the relationship between him and the ‘Billie Jean’ singer was ‘loving’ – even though it was also ‘deeply unhealthy and inappropriate’.
“That’s the hard part for people to wrap their heads around and why there’s so much shame involved,” he told The Times.
The father-of-three explained these feelings also contributed to his ‘breakdown’, which occurred after his wife gave birth for the first time in 2010.
“Michael made you feel like you did it, that it was all your idea,” Safechuck said. “Then you look at your own kid and for the first time you really realise, what? That just makes no sense.”
He said that he was ‘really into jewellery’ as a ten-year-old and claimed that Jackson cottoned onto this.
Safechuck pictured with Jackson in 1988 (Dave Hogan/Getty Images)
Safechuck claimed: “He would reward me with jewellery for doing sexual acts to him. It would happen every day. It sounds sick, but it was like when you are first dating someone – you do a lot of it.”
He says that his ‘understanding of the abuse and what has happened has matured’ over the years.
“I have a better understanding of just the horribleness of what he did, how brutal it was, and some anger has developed,” Safechuck added.
“The sexual acts are shocking to many people, but I lived through them; they are just part of my life. It’s everything around them – the power, the manipulation – that I find the most horrifying.
“It took a little while to get used to having it out there and to get over this fear of everyone knowing.”
Safechuck alleged that Jackson later ‘replaced’ him with younger boys when he reached his teens, however, he claims the late 50-year-old purchased him a car on his 16th birthday.
Safechuck said he suffered a ‘breakdown’ after the birth of his first child (Channel 4)
The dad – who met Jackson at the age of nine while filming a Pepsi advert – also claimed that the star offered to help him get his foot in the door of the entertainment industry.
Safechuck and Robson’s lawsuit against the Jackson estate was revived by a Californian appeals court in 2023, which claims that MJJ Productions and MJJ Ventures had a responsibility to protect them.
The judgement explained that a ‘corporation that facilitates the sexual abuse of children by one of its employees is not excused from an affirmative duty to protect those children merely because it is solely owned by the perpetrator of the abuse’.
“It would be perverse to find no duty based on the corporate defendant having only one shareholder,” it continued, as per the BBC. “And so we reverse the judgments entered for the corporations.”
Jonathan Steinsapir, a lawyer for Jackson’s estate, said he was ‘fully confident’ that the pop star was innocent, while saying that the allegations were ‘contrary to all credible evidence and independent corroboration’.
Speaking of the pending court case, Safechuck said: “People might see this as some sensationalised trial. But this is my childhood. I was sexually abused. I was raped. I’m fighting for my younger self.”
