Cape Town - Legendary TV-show host Oprah Winfrey recently sat down for an hour-long special interview with HBO in conjunction with her network OWN to speak to the two men who claimed that late pop star Michael Jackson sexually abused them as boys.
The two men Wade Robson and James Safechuck were joined by the Leaving Neverland film director with a studio audience which consisted of 100 men as well as women who say that they were sexually abused as children.
During the interview Oprah who had received backlash from avid Michael Jackson fans following his 10 year death anniversary, explained that these allegations were beyond Jackson and rather about letting people in on societal corruption.
“I know people all over the world are going to be in an uproar and debating whether or not Michael Jackson did these things and whether these two men are lying or not lying. But for me, this moment transcends Michael Jackson,” she said at the beginning of the two segment special.
“It is much bigger than any one person. This is a moment in time that allows us to see this societal corruption, it's like a scourge on humanity. . . if it gets you, our audience, to see how it happens, then some good would have come of it.”
Although the Beat It hit maker’s estate has slammed the allegations, calling both Safechuck and Robson liars – Oprah continued to highlight three key points during her interview.
The first point was a child’s understanding of the word abuse, which she made in reference to the two men who didn’t realise that they were sexually assaulted until at a later stage in their lives. Further elaborating that children did not know how to articulate the meaning of this word to their parents simply because they had been, “seduced and trapped”.
Robinson who had denied abuse allegations during a sexual assault case laid against Jackson in 1993, candidly revealed that he had, “no understanding that what Michael did to me sexually was abuse. I had no concept of it being that.”
Safechuck, who agreed with Robison said, explained that he started questioning what had happened to him after Robison spoke out.
Another key point that Oprah touched on was the estate’s ferocious response to the allegations, in which they described the two men as opportunists and the entire ordeal as a smear campaign to Jackson’s legacy.
The third point Oprah touched on was the aftermath of the interview that she alongside the two men were already and would still continue to receive.
“So when all the fans and the estate, and all the anger - you guys gonna get it, you know that, right? Y'all gonna get it, I'm gonna get it, we're all gonna get it,” she said looking at the audience which in response applauded.
“We're gonna get it. So are you prepared for that?” she asked the two accusers agreed.
At this point Robison went on to reveal that he had even received a death threat to which he added, “…you know, there's been many of those over the years. It's hard to normalise to that, but there's some level of familiarity with that.”
During her closing, making reference to a statement made earlier, Oprah once again elaborated on how the story was much bigger than one person.
“It's about this thing, this insidious pattern, that's happening in our culture that we refuse to look at.”
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