Bill Whitfield spent about two years standing a few feet from Michael Jackson.
He started in late 2006, in Las Vegas, as one of the men guarding Michael and his three children: Prince, Paris and Blanket, who now goes by Bigi. Years later Bill wrote a book about that time called “Remember the Time,” and in 2014 he talked about it with reporters. One of those talks was with Zoomer, in June of that year.
Again and again, Bill’s memories come back to how badly Michael wanted to be a regular dad.
Michael didn’t want other people doing everything for his kids. He wanted to do it himself. Bill told Zoomer that Michael’s attitude was simple: “I’m going to make their breakfast. I’m going to help them with their homework.”
And it didn’t stop there. “I’m going to do their laundry. I’m going to fold their clothes.”
That’s the King of Pop talking about a pile of little T-shirts.
Bill went on TV that year too, around the time the book came out, and this Good Morning America visit is your chance to see the men who stood guard at the door.
Michael’s bodyguards on Good Morning America in 2014
Most of the time, the family had a nanny to help out. But every so often she’d leave town for a while, and that’s when Michael took over completely.
The guards never needed anyone to tell them she was away. They could tell the moment Paris came outside.
It was her hair.
When the nanny was away, Michael did his daughter’s hair himself. He’d comb it and fix it the best he could, and the results showed. Paris was somewhere between 8 and 10 years old then, and according to Bill, one look at her hair as she came out was all the guards needed. That was the sign the nanny was out of town.
The guys laughed about it. Somebody needed to fix that hair, they joked. But they loved that he tried.
If you’ve ever watched a dad do his little girl’s hair for the first time, you already know the picture. It’s never quite straight, and the kid usually couldn’t care less, because her dad did it.
Bill summed Michael up in a way that stuck. “Mr. Jackson is somebody’s daddy, somebody’s son, someone’s brother.”
His guards said much the same thing to another outlet. They told SBS News in June 2014 that Michael’s happiest time was when he was with his kids.
For more of Bill in his own words, this interview shared by a fan book club channel has him telling stories from his time on the job.
Bill Whitfield shares stories from his years guarding Michael
Bill guarded one of the most famous men in the world. Still, when he talks about those years, a lot of it comes back to small stuff, like a little girl walking out the door with hair her dad had done himself.