Well, at the start he came across as a bit eccentric, by the middle a bit of a freek, and by the close of the show: "Why can't you share your bed with children? That's the most loving thing to do, to share your bed with someone." But Jackson, speaking to Martin Bashir on an ITV special yesterday, insisted his love for children was entirely innocent and had nothing to do with sex. "My greatest inspiration comes from kids... it's all inspired from that level of innocence. I just love being around that all the time.”
Talking about his own childhood Jackson talked about how he ‘hated’ his violent father during his Jackson Five days – indicating that it was his father, who used to tell Michael he had a ‘fat nose’, that made Jacko paranoid of his appearance leading to the plastic surgery operations that destroyed his face. Talking about his plastic surgery Jacko would only admit to two operations on his face, saying of stories of extensive surgery: "Oh God, oh please... it's stupid, none of it's true."
Talking about his own children – Prince, Paris and Prince Michael II – he said he was giving them as "normal" a childhood as possible, even though they never saw their mothers. He admitted he had never met the mother of his third child, saying he had not cared who she was as long as she was healthy. Prince and Paris' mother is Debbie Rowe, Jackson's former dermatology nurse who he married in 1997. Jackson said she had handed over the two children to him as "gift" and that she was not involved in bringing them up.