People remember Michael Jackson as the most controlled performer in history — every step planned, every camera angle agreed weeks in advance, nothing left to chance. What people forget is that, by every account of those who worked with him, he was also a terrible flirt who found it hilarious. And one night captures it all on tape.
The woman was Tatiana Thumbtzen. She had been cast as his love interest in the video for “The Way You Make Me Feel” in 1987 — the one where he chases her through a street set all night. She says he flirted with her constantly during the shoot. There was even meant to be a kiss at the end of the video, but the director cut it, saying Michael was “too shy for that.”
Then she joined the Bad World Tour, performing the same cat-and-mouse routine with him live, in stadiums, every night.
Michael Jackson and Tatiana Thumbtzen, The Kiss
On 3 March 1988, at Madison Square Garden in New York, she decided to do something that was not in the choreography. Halfway through the routine, she kissed him on the cheek.
His reaction is why this story is worth telling. The dancers told her afterward that she had “made Michael’s day.” And she said she could hear it herself — for the rest of the song, he was giggling through every note he sang. The most disciplined performer alive, standing in front of 20,000 people, unable to keep a straight face because a girl had kissed him.
He clearly did not mind. Because when she rang him before the next show and asked if she could take it further, he didn’t say no.
The Way You Make Me Feel Live July 15th 1988 Wembley
So the following night, in front of another full house, she kissed him on the lips.
The crowd went up. And backstage, the atmosphere changed instantly. She has described the hostility she walked into afterward — at one point being confronted by Miko Brando, Marlon Brando’s son and one of Michael’s closest friends, who accused her of taking advantage of him.
Michael’s manager, Frank DiLeo, fired her.
They removed her from the tour, and she never spoke to Michael again. No one ever explained why. And here is the part that has always stuck with fans: Michael himself did not do it. By her own account and most others, the decision came from his management and inner circle, who guarded his public image with total rigidity and viewed her as a threat to it.
Witnesses said Michael had enjoyed the kiss in the moment. He never said anything.
That’s what this story really shows. Not that Michael Jackson was a flirt — though the evidence for that is everywhere, from Tatiana to the popcorn he threw at Siedah Garrett in the studio to make her fluff her takes. It is how little control he actually had over his own life. A woman made him laugh on stage; he was delighted, and the people around him removed her from his world before the week was out.
He kept giggling through that song, though. You can still hear it.