Wade Robson, Jimmy Safechuck and their families describe their relationship with Jackson and how the two men were allegedly abused as boys at Jackson’s Neverland Ranch in California and at his apartment in Century City. The Jackson estate has denied the claims and have issued a statement in response to the documentary, “The two accusers testified under oath that these events never occurred. They have provided no independent evidence and absolutely no proof in support of their accusations.”

Following the documentary, public opinion on Jackson has become divided. His music has been pulled from various radio stations around the world in response to the allegations, while the BBC has not pulled the singer’s music with a spokesperson confirming that they do not ban artists, “We consider each piece of music on its merits and decisions on what we play on different networks are always made with relevant audiences and context in mind”.

However, despite the allegations made in ‘Leaving Neverland‘, Jackson’s music has climbed up the charts. According to an article on the Evening Standard website and at the time of writing, Jackson’s ‘Number Ones‘ album had climbed from 87 to 43 on the iTunes music charts, and his greatest hits compilation ‘The Essential Michael Jackson‘ had reaches number 79. Jackson’s 1978 album ‘Bad‘ ranked at 147 while 1982’s ‘Thriller‘ sat at 172.

In the UK, many viewers of the documentary were disgusted by Jackson’s alleged actions, with some going on twitter to praise the bravery of Safechuck and Robson as well as announcing they would never listen to the artist again.

I am so impressed by the courage of James Safechuk and Wade Robson. #LeavingNeverland It breaks my heart to see how they are struggling with what happened to them.

— Rayanne Rodier (@RayanneRodier) 6 March 2019

 

How can anyone defend a 44 yr old man in a position of power, befriending children, their families, grooming them over a period of time, sleeping in bed with them for weeks. The images of him just looking at them are enough for me. #leavingneverland

— Lolly (@Laurenyvetteb) 6 March 2019

Avid fans of Jackson protested outside Channel 4 headquarters on the day the first part of the documentary aired on television. They brandished banners of the singer’s face with the words ‘innocent’ placed over his mouth. This coincides with a fan-funded bus advert campaign professing the king of pop’s innocence.

‘Leaving Neverland‘ is available to watch on All 4.

There will be items for sale from other artists such as Britney Spears, Alicia Keys, and Katy Perry. The auction will take place on 29 June in Profiles in History: an auction house which specialises in Hollywood memorabilia, located in Calabasas, California.

Initially fans were expected to fork out $8,000, but realistically the auction will expect the jacket to sell for a whopping $100,000.

In an interview, auctioneer and Profiles in History president Joe Maddalena, said:

“It’s definitely the most important piece of screen-worn Prince clothing that’s ever come up for auction.”

“This is the first time ever for something like this, and it might be the only time because the rest of the costumes may be in his personal wardrobe.”

The jacket was rumoured to have been gifted to a make-up artist and was received by Profiles in History before his death.

Prince passed away in an elevator in Paisley Park, Minneapolis on 21 April. Initially discovered unconscious, Prince later died at the scene. See our article.

This follows news that Prince’s music vault was drilled open unveiling a huge amount of material, so much a new album can be released every year for the next century.

On 29 June we will discover the astronomical figure the jacket sells for.

This was in fact part of a project the two artists hoped would lead to a substantial body of work, but unfortunately the collaboration fell short of its potential due to time constraints. According to Queen’s manager Jim ‘Miami’ Beach, the lead singer found Michael Jackson’s larks slightly unnerving, “Mercury rang me and said: ‘Miami, dear, can you get over here? You’ve got to get me out of here, I’m recording with a llama'”, referring of course to the camelid Jackson graced the California-based studio with.

It is hard to know what form the final outcome of this fusion will take. One would usually suspect that as the songs were recorded by two of the worlds best-loved music icons and have not been publicised yet, that their quality may be dubious. There have certainly been some ‘royal’ partnerships that could have been treated with more restraint… The songs could materialise as the fun, hoppy, synth-driven ballads we all hoped for, ‘Radio Ga Ga’ (1984) meets ‘Billie Jean’ (1982) but on the other hand it could result in the overflows and impulses of two stars who had certainly peaked by that point.