Michael Jackson and LaToya Jackson during The 3rd Annual BET Awards. Photo / Getty Images
Michael Jackson and LaToya Jackson during The 3rd Annual BET Awards. Photo / Getty Images
The Leaving Neverland documentary is shifting popular opinion on whether or not Michael Jackson sexually abused young boys.
And while the world seems to be in collective shock, let's not forget that his sister LaToya Jackson stuck her neck out back in the 1990s and broke away from her family to claim that she was "definitely" sure her brother was a paedophile, reports news.com.au.
The world largely wrote her off as crazy and trying to cash in on her famous brother but as she pointed out: "Who gets money from doing a press conference?"
She gave that initial press conference in 1993 in Israel to speak about the sexual abuse claims levelled against her brother, Michael Jackson, saying she "cannot, and will not, be a silent collaborator of his crimes against small, innocent children".
"If I remain silent then it means I fuel the guilt and humiliation these children are feeling and I think it's very wrong," she said at the time.
"Now you stop and think for one second and you tell me, what 35-year-old man is going to take a little boy and stay with him for 30 days?" she said. "And take another boy and stay with him for five days in a room and never leave the room? How many of you out there are 35 years old?
"How many would take little kids and do that? That are 9, 10, 11 years old? I love my brother but it's wrong. I don't want to see these kids hurt," she said.
Wade Robson and Michael Jackson. Photo / Supplied
Wade Robson. Photo / HBO
"These kids are going to be scarred for the rest of their lives and I don't want to see any more innocent, small children being affected this way," she said. "I love Michael very dearly but I feel even more sorry for these children because they don't have a life any more, they don't."
LaToya, now 62, admitted she had never seen her brother in bed with young boys but she had seen hush money cheques paid to the parents of children who he used to have sleep overs with for "very, very large sums".
LaToya Jackson said she was abused by father, Joe Jackson. Photo / Getty Images
She said she had seen two cheques that were shown to her by her mother, Katherine Jackson, who was "disgusted" by the payoffs and called Michael a "f**got".
She said she was speaking out because she was sexually abused by her father, Joe Jackson, and knows the effect of that sort of abuse on a child as they become an adult.
She claimed the abuse from Joe Jackson was sexual towards her as well as her eldest sister Rebbie Jackson, who left home at 16 to escape him.
"It started with me when Rebbie left home," she said.
Michael Jackson and LaToya Jackson during The 3rd Annual BET Awards. Photo / Getty Images
LaToya also claimed in the interviews at the time that her brother's marriage to Lisa Marie Presley was a sham and was done to cover up the abuse claims.
"I know that he doesn't have interest in women," she said. "He would never touch a woman. He would say 'Oh, I can't stand them".
LaToya later recanted her statements, saying her then-husband Jack Gordon, convinced her to make the comments.
Janet Jackson (left), LaToya Jackson (centre), and Rebbie Jackson (right). Photo / Getty Images
The interviews are noteworthy in light of the new Leaving Neverland documentary in which Australian Wade Robson and James Safechuck accuse the Thriller singer of sexually abusing them for years.
Jackson's estate has denied wrongdoing and filed a $US100 million (NZ$147m) lawsuit against the makers of the documentary.
"Ten years after his passing, there are still those out to profit from his enormous worldwide success and take advantage of his eccentricities," the suit claimed.
