UPDATED: 2019/01/28 3:00PM
Michael Jackson’s name was on everyone’s lips after the film Leaving Neverland left its viewers in disgust of the pop star’s actions and wondering if they should even be listening to his music. The nearly four hour long film detailed the accounts of two young boys, Wade Robson and James Safechuck, who allege that Jackson groomed them and then sexually abused them when they were 7 and 11 respectively.
While the singer’s estate has already called the two-part documentary “tabloid character assassination,” his family decided to release a statement as well condemning the film as untrue and calling it a “public lynching.”
They wrote, “We can’t just stand by while this public lynching goes on, and the vulture tweeters and others who never met Michael go after him. Michael is not here to defend himself, otherwise these allegations would not have been made.” They also made sure to note that both Robson and Safechuck said that Jackson did not act inappropriately towards them or molest them during Jackson’s 2005 trial. They also note that the lawsuits filed against the estate in 2013 were dismissed.
They closed out their statement saying, “The facts don’t lie, people do. Michael Jackson was and always will be 100% innocent of these false allegations.”