Actress Brooke Shields has opened up about her friendship with Michael Jackson.
Mother-of-two Brooke, 57, was close with the pop icon and even accompanied him as his date to the Grammy Awards in 1984.
She said she had a spat with Jackson after he falsely claimed the pair were dating during a live TV special with Oprah Winfrey.
In an interview with The Sunday Times Magazine, she said: “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.”
Jackson reportedly just laughed it off.
Asked if they ever kissed, she replied: “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 even crossed my mind.”
Jackson faced numerous allegations of child sexual abuse that were brought against him both during his life and after his death.
Brooke said she has been left “shocked” by the allegations but finds them “hard to believe”.
“I … I don’t know how to think about it. Because it’s so hard to believe. I wish I knew the truth. Then I could figure out how to structure the narrative in my head. But I’m as shocked as I think the world is,” she told the magazine.
Jackson always maintained his innocence, and was found not guilty of child molestation in 2005.
Jackson, who rose from child stardom in the Jackson 5 to be one of the most successful solo artists of all time, was dubbed the king of pop. He died in 2009 aged 50.
He is set to be portrayed by his nephew Jaafar Jackson in a forthcoming biopic directed by Antoine Fuqua.
