What Did Lisa, Michael Jackson’s Ex-Wife, Say in Her Oprah Interview?
Oprah: You had to die to find out that your friend loves you?
Yesterday, a recorded interview by Oprah Winfrey with Michael Jackson’s former wife, Lisa Marie Presley, aired. This is Lisa Marie’s first and only interview since Michael’s death on June 25, 2009. Lisa and Michael’s marriage lasted less than two years—from May 1994 to January 1996.
Lisa seemed honest and calm, unlike her previous interviews. There was no sign of the usual joking, mockery, or anger. Instead, pain and regret were visible on her face. Lisa looked very tired. Oprah’s questions were not easy for her at all. Of course, Oprah spoke very respectfully.
It seems that Michael’s fans’ reception of Lisa’s remarks has generally been good—unlike her previous interviews.
Lisa’s words suggest that she and Michael had caused each other deep, complex emotional pain. They both used each other as a “tactic” to make the other come toward them. Divorce was another tactic, but it failed. Their last conversation goes back to 2005, when she told Michael she didn’t love him anymore and made him cry. Michael told her he felt people were trying to kill him so they could obtain the rights to his songs (Sony ATV catalogues).
Read her conversation with Oprah below: The interview took place at Lisa Marie Presley’s home—far from the chaotic streets of Los Angeles—in London, where she lives with her husband Michael Lockwood and her young twin daughters, while working on creating a new music album.
After Michael’s death, she learned many things, but she doesn’t know how. She delayed doing the interview so she could understand this matter. On the other hand, she wanted to complete the interview before her album’s release next year. In all her previous promotional interviews, the main topic was always Michael Jackson. She thought that dedicating an interview to Michael could prevent next year’s interview from focusing on the King of Pop.
Their relationship quickly changed from a simple friendship in 1993 into something beyond that. Michael “intoxicated” Lisa. At the time, Lisa was married and had a five-year-old daughter and a two-year-old son. She left her husband to be with Michael. But then Michael left her alone so she could be with her former husband. And Michael would get angry and distance himself from her. Lisa divorced—only to pull Michael toward her—and that was a “mistake.” Her tactic didn’t work. Michael married another woman. But even four years after the divorce, they were still together, and Lisa traveled around the world with him.
The day after Michael died, Lisa expressed her regret in an emotional post on her blog and wrote that she had put all her past anger and pain aside. All her love for Michael had returned to her, and she was deeply devastated...
And those were the only words she had spoken over the past year and a few months.
Dealing with the media
Lisa said that in her previous interviews, whenever the conversation turned to Michael Jackson, she would always become angry and defensive because the interview was meant to promote her album—but in the end, it turned into an interview about Michael Jackson. Now, she wants to talk about more private matters.
She said her anger was because she “didn’t understand” her relationship with Michael.
Oprah looks at the issue from the public’s perspective: people didn’t know what to make of it. After his death, you wrote on your blog that your relationship was real. It wasn’t fake; it was a real marriage—and that shocked many people.
For years, the world believed their marriage was fake and done to attract people. Lisa responds that she understands this, and that:
“Michael was a master at deceiving the media.”
“And no one knew the real me.”
Lisa emphasizes that before people start talking about Michael, they must know exactly how Michael was raised. His life was unlike anyone else’s, because he was raised in a completely different way from everyone else, with a completely different life—except for his father (Elvis Presley)...
“With the talent he had, he learned how to bring himself to the place he wanted in his career. He was skilled at creating and playing roles.”
Lisa said she had blamed Michael’s behavior on her lack of interest in him. But the truth was something else!
“Now I understand. That behavior was actually a rescue tactic for him.”
Oprah: So you only reached this understanding after his death? Yes.
How did Lisa find out about Michael’s death?
She was in London. That day she cried the whole time without knowing why. Later, her actor friend, John Travolta, texted her: “Are you okay?”... “Yes, what happened?”... John told her that Michael had been taken to the hospital.
“I was so shocked that I couldn’t cry. Honestly, I was knocked off my feet in that moment.”
The next day, Lisa wrote something on her blog.
“I was putting my daughter to sleep while a flood of tears was pouring down. And in an instant, I realized that all my feelings had changed.” Because
“The man I couldn’t help was taken to the forensic doctor for an autopsy.”
Did Lisa suspect Michael of drug use?
No—until December 1995, when Michael fainted while rehearsing for a show on the HBO channel and was taken to the hospital. Lisa Marie went to the hospital and stayed there for six days.
“I was confused about what the problem was? Every day they told me something new: dehydration, low blood pressure, extreme exhaustion, a viral infection...”
And that’s when she became suspicious of drug use.
“There were times when I would take him out of the doctor’s office and he wasn’t conscious.”
At the time, Lisa thought it was because of the injections he needed to fight his skin condition.
What was Lisa’s relationship with Michael like?
Oprah: Was there that intimacy between you that allowed you to talk about anything with him? Lisa says yes.
“Honestly, it was a completely real and normal marriage—in the literal sense.”
“Sometimes in the middle of the night he would get up and wake me to talk about something.”
“He had trouble sleeping. Like a little gremlin.”
Lisa called him that because Michael was always awake and kept wandering around.
“And if he couldn’t sleep, then I couldn’t sleep either. He would go back and forth. I wasn’t bothered, but sleeping was hard for him.”
Oprah: Do you think you were his nurse many times?
“Very often... and I truly loved those moments. I loved taking care of him. When we were of one mind and one language, those were the best moments of my life. I’ve never been so intoxicated in my life. I loved being by his side. And now all that love and feeling I had for him has returned.”
Best and worst
Oprah: Earlier you told us that living with Michael Jackson was the best and worst time of your life. What was the worst?
“When I talk about him now, it’s all good.”
Oprah: When you were getting divorced, were you angry with him?
“I was very angry with him. Because we were one, but then he suddenly pushed me away.”
Why did they split?
“A situation came up where he had to choose between me and those bloodsuckers—people around him. And he pushed me out.”
Oprah: Many people have said he was controlled by the people who used him.
“Something shared between my father and Michael was that both of them created the reality they wanted for themselves. And if someone opposed them, they would step out of that circle.”
“Michael didn’t mean it that way at all. He wasn’t a bad person; that was his method. But I took it personally. My interpretation was that I would also be pushed away.”
And my father was the same. Sometimes I would ask his employees why they did it. They would say, because if we don’t, he will fire us.
“When this abnormal reality mixes with addiction, it creates problems.”
The similarity between Michael Jackson’s death and Elvis Presley’s
Elvis died on August 16, 1977 when Lisa was 9 years old, in the bathroom of his home due to an overdose of drugs.
Does she see a similarity between Michael’s death and his father’s? Yes, she does—but she doesn’t understand it.
“This thought disrupts me. Why did this curse have to come for me twice? And both of them were extraordinary people whom I remember with the greatest love and respect. They had the same fate. It was an honor to be with them. My father’s death was painful, and this happened to me again.”
But there’s another point... Across the street, a little farther from Michael’s rented home—where the King of Pop died—there is Elvis Presley’s former house, where Lisa grew up, and after Elvis died, her mother sold it.
Oprah: What do you say about this game of fate? Right across the street!
“The feeling I had after realizing this can’t be described. And I don’t know whether he knew about it or not.”
“This kind of thing always happens to me, and I think about what life wanted to teach me. The events that happened to them are very similar.”
He knew
Oprah asks her about her blog and why she published a post titled “He Knew” one day after Michael’s death. Lisa wrote that Michael had known more than a decade before his death what fate was waiting for him.
“We were sitting by the fire in Neverland when he said he was afraid his fate would be like my father’s. And he asked me about the timing and how my father would die.”
Why did Lisa fall in love with Michael?
“For himself. Because he was extraordinary. He was an incredibly dynamic person. If you were around him and he showed you who he was—if he showed you his real self—you would be intoxicated. I’ve never felt this kind of intoxication with anyone else in my life except my father. He was my drug. I’ve never been intoxicated by anything else like that. I wanted to stay with him always.”
Oprah: I know what you mean. When I saw him for the first time in 1992 before his interview, it was like his light was shining on me, and I wanted to stay in that light. I wanted to stay by his side. We toured around Neverland, ate sweets, and had a great time. And I told myself, God, I wish I had been his friend.
Oprah: Did you feel that he was interested in you during that first meeting?
“Very much. He had been friends with women before, but I don’t think he ever had that kind of deep feeling for them. And he fell in love with me, and I fell in love with him. And it was very real.”
How did Michael propose to Lisa?
“We were in the Neverland library by the fire. He took a 10-carat diamond ring out of his pocket, knelt down, and then put it on my finger.”
“I thought this marriage would last forever.”
Michael’s problems and his desire to become a father
Oprah: You were both very famous, and wherever you went together, a circus would start.
“A lot of the time when we were together, there weren’t cameras there. Because we had to go to places for the production of his album ‘History.’”
Oprah: Did you ever think he controlled your relationship in a way that benefited him?
“Sometimes. But he knew I didn’t like it. But for his career, he had to do those things. For example, our kiss at the MTV ceremony (1994), which I didn’t want to do because those kinds of things aren’t in my nature. After coming off the stage, he showed me his hand, which was bruised. I had pressed his hand very hard. But I understood that as his wife, I had to do things like that.”
Oprah: Was there pressure to have children?
“Yes, from the beginning. And I wanted to have children with him, but I was thinking about the future. I didn’t want to get involved in a legal battle with him over custody. I wanted to make sure everything was okay first. I had two children myself, and I knew what having children is like. I wanted to wait longer.”
Divorce and marriage to Debbie
Oprah: A few months after your divorce, in October (1996), news came out that ‘Debbie Rowe’ was pregnant. How did you feel?
“Well, I think his move was revenge against me. Because I didn’t want to have children, and I knew all along that he (Debbie) was ready and waiting. She told Michael that he could have a baby for her... Michael (to provoke me) would say that if you don’t do it, she will. And I would say you can’t seduce me like that.”
Oprah: When you said you thought he would push you away, did you mean that?
“Yes, exactly. But now I understand it. But at the time I was upset with him. I did things that upset him. I also did stupid things.”
“I left my husband for Michael.”
Lisa married Michael Jackson 20 days after her divorce from Danny.
“When I was with Michael, I felt guilty about it.”
“Danny was still part of my life, and Michael couldn’t accept that. He would ask, why are you still with Danny?”
Danny was always around Lisa, and Michael would get angry. Danny and Lisa went on vacation to Hawaii. And after they returned, Michael, who was deeply hurt, hid himself from Lisa for weeks, and she couldn’t find him.
“If you treated him badly and his feelings were hurt, he would become cold and indifferent toward you.”
“Now when I look back, I see how hard he tried. He really fought hard to have me, and I didn’t understand it back then. He never did that for any other woman. Sometimes it happened that we would argue for three days in a row, and we only had time to eat and sleep. Now I admire his efforts—he fought so well—but at that time I didn’t appreciate him. I wish I had.”
Love after separation
Oprah: Did you have to die for you to understand that he loved you?
“(Sighs) Yes, unfortunately. When we were together, we loved each other. But then the doctors and their medicines came, and I got scared because my father’s memory came back to me.”
“We were together for four years after the divorce too. We talked about getting back together, then we would fight, and it would be like that again... and then I pushed him away because I was looking for stability.”
Oprah: So even though you divorced, you still loved him.
“Very much. I left him so he would come to me. And that was my foolishness, because he didn’t come. He’s stubborn. I’m stubborn too. I did that stupid thing and left. And after that, we still traveled around the world together (the History tour and after that).”
The last time they spoke
“In 2005, I had a long phone conversation with him. I wasn’t interested, and he could feel it. He was trying to tell me that he was right about the bad people surrounding him. He was trying to get close to me with his words, and I was suffocating his feelings. I don’t know how I managed to do that, but I did. He asked if I still loved him, and I said I had become indifferent. He was upset and cried. He tried to understand why I had become so uninterested. And in the end he told me that they wanted to take him down to get the rights to his songs and his wealth. And he told me names that I won’t say here. But he was worried about his life.”
Accusations against Michael
Oprah: I’ve asked you this before, and I know it’s not an easy topic. But I have to ask again. Did you ever notice any inappropriate behavior from him toward children?
“The answer is definitely no. In no way... During the 2005 trial, I asked him to stay away from drugs, because I had seen him affected by those drugs in cases like Martin Bashir’s interview. He wasn’t the Michael I knew.”
Oprah: He said shocking things in that interview. One of them was that sleeping in a bed with children is not a problem.
“I think he said those things out of arrogance and defiance toward others. Because he was furious at the things people were saying. He was like a stubborn child, and he wanted to say things that he felt others didn’t want to hear.”
Lisa said she believes, of course, that Martin Bashir twisted Michael’s words in a mischievous and dirty way. She believes Michael is innocent.
“Only the people who were in the room know what happened. I mean, it’s not fair... What I can say is that I never saw such behavior from him.”
Funeral
Oprah: Have you come to terms with his death now? You were present at his private funeral. What did it feel like to be in the room with his coffin?
“I was the last person who stayed with him there. Most people had already left, and I came back to be with him. I didn’t want to leave him.”
Oprah: Did you find peace?
“No. I mostly wanted to apologize to him for not being there with him.”
Could Michael have been saved?
Oprah: Do you think you could have saved him?
“Oh God, that’s a very hard question. I know it would be simplistic to say I could have, but I wanted to. If I had called him, if I had stopped pushing him away, if I had called and asked how he was... I really regret that I didn’t do it.”
Oprah: Do you think his friends and family discouraged him?
“I think they tried. If they didn’t want to be around him, if you wanted to force him to face something he didn’t want to face, you would push him away—even his own family. I think it was like a train that was going on its own special track, and no one could stop it. I have to think that way to ease my pain.”
Lisa’s personal life
Oprah: What does your current husband feel about these events related to Michael?
“When this interview is over, he will be very happy. Because then I can let go of this. He understands me a lot and allowed me to face everything I needed to face.”
A lesson of life
Oprah: You said life wanted to teach you a lesson through the similarities between Elvis Presley and Michael Jackson. What is that lesson?
“I feel lonely. It was an honor to be with my father and Mike.”
Lisa said she is afraid of June 25 (the day Michael died) the way she is afraid of August 16 (the day her father died).
This is the last time
Oprah: When we were arranging this interview, you said this time would be the last. Will you say nothing else?
“No. I don’t want to talk about these things anymore. If anyone wants to know something in the future, they should refer to Oprah Winfrey’s show (this current interview).”
Source: eMJey.com