In one of his most candid interviews, filmed for Martin Bashir’s 2003 documentary “Living with Michael Jackson,” Michael opened up about what really happened behind closed doors growing up in the Jackson household.
He described his father Joe as someone who would beat him far beyond what most people picture when they hear the word “discipline.”
MICHAEL SAID IT WASN’T JUST A BELT, IT WAS WHATEVER JOE HAD IN REACH, INCLUDING IRONING CORDS.
His Father Would Beat Him
He remembered hearing his mother Katherine, scream, “Joe, you’re going to kill him, you’re going to kill him,” from another room while it happened.
THE FEAR GOT SO INTENSE THAT MICHAEL SAID HE WOULD PHYSICALLY VOMIT FROM IT, and at times, his own bodyguards had to hold him up because his body couldn’t handle the panic.
Joe Jackson never fully denied this. In multiple interviews over the years, including one with the BBC, he admitted to whipping Michael with a switch and a belt, insisting that wasn’t the same as “beating” him.
Whether you call it discipline or abuse, MICHAEL CLEARLY CARRIED IT WITH HIM FOR THE REST OF HIS LIFE.
His Father Describes What “Beating” Meant To Him
That’s why, when Michael became a father himself to Prince, Paris, and Blanket, he said there was one rule he would never break. He told Bashir plainly that
He doesn’t lay a finger on his children, because he never wants them to feel toward him the way he felt toward his own father.
It’s one of the few times Michael connected his own pain directly to a decision he made as a parent. Whatever people thought of him by the end of his life, on this one point, he was consistent. He broke the cycle, on purpose, every single day. And raised his kids with discipline based on love, not violence.