Michael Jackson (75 page)

‘Oh, I slept with Michael,’ answered the boy, casually, according to a later recollection.

‘What?’ June exclaimed. ‘What are you talking about? You don’t do that,’ she said, now scolding him. ‘Never do that again,
Jordie.’

‘Why?’

‘Because it’s not right,’ June said, upset. ‘Promise me you will never do that again, ever, Jordie.’

‘But, Mom – ’

‘But,
nothing
,’ she cut him off. ‘Promise me!’

‘I promise,’ said Jordie, sounding defeated.

The next day, Jordie told Michael about June’s concern. Now, Michael was the one who was upset. He didn’t understand why June
would so object to his sleeping with her son. Did she not trust him? With Dave Schwartz not around the house, it seemed right
that Jordie have a male influence, Michael reasoned. He decided to take up the matter with June. According to what June later
recalled, Michael pulled her aside and, fixing her with an earnest look, said, ‘Jordie and I share a special and innocent
friendship. Why did you tell him he can’t sleep with me?’

‘Because it’s completely inappropriate, Michael,’ June said, holding her ground. ‘And I don’t want Jordie to be hurt.’

‘But I’m not like that,’ Michael said. ‘How could you think I would hurt Jordie?’ he asked. ‘We have a friendly, honest, true
and loving relationship.’ Michael then told June his theory about ‘conditioning’. That children are innocent until conditioned
by the world to be otherwise, at which point they become cynical, judgemental adults who lie, cheat, gossip and treat each
other poorly. It would be his desire, he said, that Jordie remain pure and untouched by the adult world, unconditioned. Michael
began to cry.

June didn’t know how to respond to Michael’s heart-felt monologue. His theory, while idealistic and naive, was probably harmless.
However, there was still something disconcerting about the proposition that Jordie never be permitted to grow into a well-adjusted
adult. After all, it couldn’t always be moonbeams and lollipops for her son. Did she really want him to end up like the thirty-four-year-old
man standing before her, sobbing? Or, was she now just being ‘cynical and judgemental’, thereby proving Michael’s point? At
a loss, she apologized to Michael for hurting his feelings. The two embraced. ‘You must trust me,’ Michael said.

‘I do,’ June assured him. ‘I do trust you.’

The next day, Michael gave June a $12,000 ruby-and-diamond bracelet from Carrier’s. June stared at him as he presented the
gift, dumbfounded. ‘A token,’ Michael told her. ‘It’s nothing. I just love you.’

Afterwards, Michael continued telephoning and visiting Jordie, with June’s approval and much to the astonishment of many in
the Chandler and Schwartz families. Why would a wealthy, world-famous and busy superstar work so diligently to forge a deep
and meaningful bond with one of his teenage fans? No one seemed to have the answer to that question. However, the scenario
wasn’t quite as odd to those witnessing it from Michael’s camp. Many of them had seen young friends of Michael’s come and
go over the years and had long ago learned not to question their employer about it. Though clearly obsessed with certain boys
along the way, no one ever saw him do anything inappropriate with them, no one ever accused him of anything improper… and,
so, that was the end of it. The explanation always had something to do with Michael’s ‘lost childhood’ and his having young
friends because they were innocent and trusting… a bit of a tiresome excuse. Therapy might have been a better way to go but,
as one of his long-time associates put it, ‘Don’t even go there with Michael.’

On Friday, 2 April Jordie Chandler and his mother and sister again went to Neverland to visit Michael. While there, they noticed
that a pair of mannequins, both dressed as fierce-looking Sikh Indian guards, had been positioned in front of the heavy, mahogany
double-doors leading to Michael’s bedroom. Michael said he had them placed there in order to keep ghosts away from the room.

Inside his bedroom, Michael had a giant, gold throne placed directly in front of the fireplace. It was very strange.

That night, June and Lily stayed in the guest quarters. Jordie stayed with Michael in a room fit for a king.

June Chandler spent much of the next five days at Neverland walking alone and mulling over the odd goings-on. On one hand,
she trusted Michael and didn’t believe that anything inappropriate was going on between him and Jordie. But the fact that
Michael and Jordie were now sleeping in the same bed was troubling. However, it was Michael Jackson with whom Jodie was sharing
a bed.
Michael Jackson
. June and her children were staying at Neverland, receiving expensive presents and being treated like royalty. She was swept
away by it. Today, a parent might conclude that precisely because it
is
Michael Jackson with whom he or she is dealing, she might have had good reason to err on the side of caution if only because
of his controversial reputation with children – deserved or undeserved. However, ten years ago, June simply did not know what
to make of the situation. Therefore, she allowed it to continue, especially since her husband was not living with her and
the children and, she reasoned, a strong male influence on Jordie might not be a bad thing.

Michael accompanied June, Jordie and Lily in the limousine back to Los Angeles. However, he did not then return to Santa Barbara,
deciding instead to retreat to his Westwood hideaway. He had a medical problem, and needed to be close to his dermatologist.

In fact, a week or so earlier, Michael had decided to bleach his scrotum with Benoquin, a bleaching cream prescribed to him
many times over the years by his dermatologist, Dr Arnie Klein. Michael had been using the cream for years to bleach his skin.
However apparently, he had never tried it on his scrotum. As it happened, the cream burned and stung, causing a great deal
of discomfort. Debbie Rowe, the assistant to Michael’s dermatologist attended to him. To show his gratitude, Michael gave
Debbie a white GMC truck.

No sooner was Michael settled in at his home that he began to long for Jordie. He had to speak to him; he called him.

June didn’t like the way the conversation unfolded as she listened to her son’s end of it. He responded to questions with
what sounded like a code of simple answers, ‘yes,’ ‘no’ and ‘maybe’. When he hung up, June asked him what he and Michael had
discussed. He was evasive.

Five minutes later, Michael’s telephone rang. It was June calling to tell him that, again, she was concerned about his relationship
with Jordie. Michael was bewildered. Hadn’t they already covered this territory? Either she trusted him, or she didn’t… however,
she had to make a choice, as Michael told her.

Michael suggested that she come to his hide-out so that they could discuss the matter personally. When June arrived, she found
Michael in his pyjamas. Once again he pleaded with June to give him a chance.

He had often been misunderstood in the past, he told her, and he truly did care about her and her children. Hadn’t he proved
as much? It seemed unfair, Michael pointed out, that after all he had done for her and her family she would now doubt his
motives. He had only been kind and generous to them, he reminded her. June had to agree.

Michael then told June that he was lonely at his hide-out and asked if she would take him back to her home. She complied.
Without changing from his pyjamas, Michael got into the car with her. It’s no wonder, as she later told it, that she felt
as if she was dealing not with an adult, but with a child.

Once at the Schwartz home, June suggested that Michael retire to one of the guest rooms. However, perhaps testing her to see
if she really did trust him, Michael asked that he be allowed to sleep in Jordie’s bed… with Jordie.

The next weekend, June, Jordie and Lily were again guests of Michael’s at Neverland. The weekend after that one, Michael had
to leave Los Angeles on a business trip. He didn’t want to go, telling his associates that he had become so attached to Jordie
and his family that he couldn’t bear to leave them. At the Burbank airport Michael sobbed as he hugged Jordie, telling him
that he would ‘do anything’ to not have to go to Philadelphia. ‘I’m going to miss you so much,’ he told the youngster, as
June and Lily looked on.

‘But you’ll be back soon,’ the little girl offered.

‘I know,’ Michael said, still hugging Jordie tightly and crying. ‘But it’s just that I love you guys so much. You’re my true,
true family.’ He sighed as he buried his face in Jordie’s hair. Then, he embraced Lily. Then, June. ‘I’ll be back,’ he told
them, ‘and we’ll have more fun. I promise.’ He then turned to Jordie and said, ‘Don’t forget the wishes. Always say the wishes.’
He winked at him, conspiratorially.

‘I won’t forget,’ Jordie promised. He winked back.

By the time Michael left Burbank, Jordie, June and Lily were so emotional they couldn’t stop crying. It was as if they had
all been swept away by some surreal melodrama. After all, Michael would only be gone for a little more than a week. They really
didn’t know Michael that well, and he didn’t know them, either – not really. Yet, the relationship had become so intense, June
couldn’t help but feel a little uncomfortable about it. ‘What wishes?’ she wanted to know when she and Jordie were alone.

‘Nothin’ he said. ‘It’s between me and Michael.’

‘I don’t like that, Jordie,’ June said. ‘You know I don’t like you keeping secrets.’

Jordie didn’t respond.

In truth, the ‘wishes’ were six rules that Michael and Jordie had come up with, mostly as a joke between them. However, the
wishes seemed to have real significance to Michael, and he often reminded Jordie of them. He said that if they repeated these
wishes three times a day, perhaps they would actually come true for them:

1. No wenches, bitches, heifers or ho’s (whores).

2. Never give up your bliss.

3. Live with me in Neverland forever.

4. No conditioning.

5. Never grow up.

6. Be better than best friends.

One person was not as taken by Michael Jackson’s relationship with Jordie as everyone else: Jordie’s father, Evan Chandler.

The odd situation between Jordie and Michael Jackson evolved so quickly, Evan couldn’t seem to keep track of it. When June
would telephone him to tell him about their Neverland visits, he found it difficult to believe that a world-famous entertainer
would have that much time to spend with his ex-wife and their child. Also, June and Evan had been arguing about Evan’s involvement
in Jordie’s life; June didn’t feel that Evan was spending enough time with his son. Evan disagreed. However, he couldn’t help
but feel that he might be losing his place in Jordie’s life to Michael. He didn’t believe that Michael was doing anything
wrong with Jordie. Rather, he simply felt the presence of another man, an influential male figure, in his son’s life – and he
didn’t like it. It didn’t help matters that June would often make reference to the fact that Jordie saw Michael more than
he did his own father. ‘Michael is completely influential on your son,’ she told Evan during once conversation, ‘and he’s
taking over where you have left off.’

When he learned that Michael was sleeping with Jordie, Evan became upset. ‘It’s preposterous,’ he told his ex-wife, according
to what he later recalled. ‘It isn’t right.’

‘Well, that’s what I thought, at first,’ June explained to him. ‘But you have to be there. You have to see how kind and gentle
Michael is with Jordie.’

‘Bullshit,’ Evan said, angrily, according to his memory. ‘It’s not right and I want it to stop.’

‘Well, it’s not going to,’ June told him. ‘I’ve already been through this with Michael, and I know it’s fine. I’m Jordie’s
mother,’ she said, ‘and I know what’s best for him.’ How dare Evan try to tell June how to raise their son? She was doing
the best job she could do, she felt, and had given the matter regarding Jordie and Michael serious consideration. She did
not want Evan to second-guess her.