Michael Jackson’s nephew revealed Thursday that when he was molested as a child, Jackson “was a support system for me and my mom.”
Taj Jackson, 39, claimed he was a child sex abuse victim in a series of Twitter messages posted in response to Wade Robson’s televised claim that Michael Jackson molested him. “I will not let them smear my Uncle’s legacy,” he tweeted.
Robson, a dancer who frequently visited Jackson’s Neverland Ranch as a child, called Jackson “a pedophile and a child sexual abuser” in an interview Thursday on NBC’s “Today Show.” He said Jackson “performed sexual acts on me and forced me to perform sexual acts on him” from ages 7 to 14.
Apparently Taj Jackson, one of three sons of Tito Jackson, posted a series of Twitter messages in defense of his uncle, Michael Jackson.
“I hate that Wade made me do this, this way,” Taj Jackson tweeted. “But since my uncle Michael is no longer here to defend himself. I will.”
“I am writing these words knowing that the minute I press send, my life will never be the same afterwards,” he tweeted, before claiming in another tweet that he was sexually abused as a child by a relative.
Michael Jackson “was a support system for me and my mom,” he tweeted. “He wrote a letter to her that many have seen already, u just didn’t know what it was about.”
He posted a photo of that handwritten note from Michael Jackson to Taj’s mother Dee Dee Jackson:
“Dee Dee, Please read this article about child molestation and read it to Taj, T.J. and Taryll. It brings out how even your own relatives can be molesters of children, or even uncles or aunts molesting nephew or nieces. Please read. Love MJ.”
It was his own childhood experience that qualified him to question Robson’s accusations, he said. “That is how I KNOW Wade is lying. Because I AM a survivor.”
Robson, now 30, denied in testimony at Jackson’s child molestation trial in 2005 that he had been molested by the singer. Jackson was acquitted, partly based on the testimony of Robson, his sister and his mother. Tom Mesereau, the lawyer who successfully defended Jackson in the trial, said he was one of his strongest witnesses.
Robson said Thursday that his denial was the result of Jackson’s “complete manipulation and brainwashing” of him.
“Don’t forget I was living at Neverland when Wade testified during my uncle’s case,” Taj Jackson tweeted. “I sat there and ate dinner with him and his family.”
Robson, who filed a creditor’s claim against Jackson’s estate this month, insisted in the NBC interview he was not now coming forward because of money. “The idea that I would make all of this up and put myself, my wife, my son, my entire family through this extremely stressful and painful experience all for the sake of money is completely incomprehensible,” he said.
Taj Jackson’s tweets challenged Robson’s explanation. “What people will $ay and do for money and to $tay relevant is $ickening. De$perate times call for De$perate mea$ures. I will not sit back and let someone flat out lie about my uncle. PERIOD.”
“I always told my uncle Michael that I would take a bullet for him,” he tweeted. “I mean it today just as much as I meant it back then.”
Taj Jackson’s brother T.J. Jackson was appointed as a co-guardian of Michael Jackson’s three children last year.
