Dancer and choreographer Wade Robson and James Safechuck have been thrust again into the general public highlight. They’ve not solely needed to deal with a combative Michael Jackson property and indignant followers over abuse allegations for over a decade — they have been scared of threats, protesters and the general public’s reactions to their damning claims in opposition to Jackson.
Within the Emmy-winning bombshell documentary Leaving Neverland, which aired on HBO in 2019, the 2 males alleged the King of Pop sexually abused them as minors. Six years later, Robson, now 42, and Safechuck, now 47, mirror on their ongoing authorized battle with Jackson’s property over molestation allegations in filmmaker Dan Reed’s hour-long sequel, Leaving Neverland 2: Surviving Michael Jackson, which will probably be launched on Actual Tales YouTube within the U.S. on Tuesday, March 18 at 8 p.m. ET.
The brand new documentary additionally delves into the private toll and backlash Robson and Safechuck confronted from the media and Jackson’s world fanbase after popping out. “It is fricking terrifying,” Robson stated in Leaving Neverland 2. “The response of the entire world, indignant Michael followers and media, a certain quantity of them will be extraordinarily vicious.”
Safechuck provides that he was additionally fearful earlier than Leaving Neverland was launched. “The scope of what occurred was just like the factor I used to be most afraid of,” he admits within the new documentary. He claims that Jackson all the time stated, “Your life can be over if individuals knew he would need me to suck on his nipples after which he would end himself,” including, “I used to be sleeping and I wakened and Michael stated that he had carried out oral intercourse on me whereas I used to be sleeping, and I used to be like, ‘Oh, okay.’ ”
Jackson’s property has vehemently denied the allegations. “We stay totally assured that Michael is harmless of those allegations, that are opposite to all credible proof and unbiased corroboration, and which have been solely first made years after Michael’s demise,” Jonathan Steinsapir, legal professional for the Property of Michael Jackson stated to ipromiseyoumedia in April 2023. “We belief that the reality will finally prevail with Michael’s vindication but once more. Michael Jackson himself stated, ‘Lies run sprints, however the reality runs marathons.’ ”
Within the new documentary, Robson additionally displays on the March 2019 interview he and Safechuck did with Oprah Winfrey whereas watching it on digital camera. “She [Winfrey] obtained what I and James had been by way of, , attending to the purpose in life the place it was now not an choice to preserve it a secret.”
Again then, Winfrey’s questions didn’t point out her 1993 particular with Jackson through which he spoke candidly about his troubled childhood and pores and skin situation only a few months earlier than Jordie Chandler accused Jackson of abuse — however did, in quite a few methods, convey her acceptance of each Robson and Safechuck’s tales. At a number of factors throughout the section, she interjected to elucidate to the viewers why a toddler may react to Jackson’s alleged conduct or how sure beliefs are lodged within the brains of kid abuse survivors.
“Watching this documentary was an intense and really emotional expertise for many individuals right here. It is an viewers of over 100 women and men right here who say that they have been sexually abused as youngsters,” Winfrey stated on her present in 2019. Robson responds within the section by admitting that he was going to take “what really occurred to his grave. No query. That was the way in which it was.”
However Winfrey argued the difficulty of sexual abuse was too essential to stay silent irrespective of how a lot her program angered his followers. “I felt like she [Winfrey] actually personally understood and has had some model of that have herself,” Robson stated. (Winfrey is, herself, a survivor.) “She stated, ‘We’re all going to get it.’ I revered her knowingness of what sort of backlash she was going to return up in opposition to.”
Winfrey made it clear that she discovered the lads’s allegations credible, however the Jackson property pushed again aggressively in opposition to Robson and Safechuck again then, dismissing them as “opportunists” and “perjurers.” Earlier than going public along with his abuse claims in 2013, Robson was certainly one of Jackson’s most vociferous defenders, denying the pop star had ever behaved inappropriately and serving as a key protection witness in Jackson’s 2005 youngster molestation trial.
Safechuck additionally testified that he was by no means abused as a part of the singer’s 1993 molestation trial, however declined to testify on his behalf within the follow-up trial. Each males declare they have been groomed by Jackson to remain quiet — and Jackson allegedly advised them that their lives can be ruined in the event that they broke their silence.
“[Jackson] stated, ‘We will not allow them to do that to us.” We will not allow them to take us down—us, us, us.’ I undoubtedly had an actual worry of what he stated about if anybody ever discovered that he and I might go to jail,” Robson stated. “So sooner or later, I labored up the braveness to inform Michael that I do not need to testify. After that, I acquired a subpoena to testify, and so there it’s. I obtained no alternative. That is what I am doing. I wasn’t capable of inform the reality, completely not.”
Legal professional Ron Zonen, the prosecutor in Jackson’s prison trial, stated in Discovering Neverland 2 that he won’t prosecute Robson for perjury. “That is a kind of issues the place only a few individuals have any management over what occurs, least of whom, consider it or not, however the one who’s experiencing but, that is simply not one thing inside his emotional management.”
Within the documentary, Vince Finaldi, the previous lawyer for Robson and Safechuck, defended his shopper for mendacity on the stand in 2005. He stated {that a} kid’s sexual abuse sufferer isn’t going to return ahead and say what occurred till they’re prepared.
“So that you quick ahead after the Santa Barbara investigation, Wade will get married, he has a toddler and it is a boy,” Finaldi stated. “And as we have seen many occasions with youngster sexual abuse litigation, oftentimes if somebody can have a triggering occasion that may trigger the sunshine to go off and for them to start out understanding that what occurred to them as a toddler was not proper and it wasn’t loving and it wasn’t regular. It was abuse and it was fallacious.”
Jackson’s supporters say Robson and Safechuck are simply making an attempt to get wealthy. They be aware that the accusers proceed to hunt damages from the property although their circumstances have been initially dismissed due to statutes of limitations points.
“That is all about greed and cash. It was all the time concerning the cash. It was all the time concerning the cash, cash, cash. Go down the rabbit gap and do some precise homework on this case,” one fan claims in Leaving Neverland 2.
The documentary additionally showcases an interview with Gayle King from February 2019, through which Jackson’s brothers Jackie, Marlon and Tito and nephew Taj all defend Michael and declare Robson and Safechuck are in search of monetary acquire.
Each males stated it took them years to return to grips with what occurred to them as youngsters. Robson suffered two nervous breakdowns and Safechuck had insomnia and despair. And but their emotions towards Jackson have been sophisticated. Now, they are going to have their case tried in opposition to the late King of Pop’s corporations in entrance of a jury within the decrease courts in November 2026.
“Pursuing this was the act of combating again. I needed to struggle for little James. I needed to struggle for him and struggle for myself,” Safechuck stated. Later within the movie, he added, “A part of me is type of increase this power and this defend to undergo it. Imagining myself in trial, within the seat, discovering the power and combating for little Jimmy. When it comes, I will be prepared.”
Robson agreed. “No matter’s the ultimate end result, I do not actually see how I lose,” he admits on the finish of Leaving Neverland 2. “If I get the chance to get again in there and get on the stand and inform the reality like I wasn’t capable of for many years. That is a win for me.”
Leaving Neverland 2: Surviving Michael Jackson premieres on U.Ok. through Channel 4 and Actual Tales YouTube on March 18.
In case you or somebody has been a sufferer of sexual abuse, textual content “STRENGTH” to the Disaster Textual content Line at 741-741 to be linked to a licensed disaster counselor.
