Thaindian News

Washington, September 26 (ANI): Michael Jackson had installed mannequins in a room in his Neverland home to make himself feel that he was surrounded by people, it has emerged.

The new tapes, which the King of Pop’s former confidante Rabbi Shmuley Boteach has come up with, have the late singer speaking about the statues.

“I felt I needed someone… I was too shy to be around real people… I didn’t talk to them (mannequins), it wasn’t like old ladies talking to plants,” Contactmusic quoted Jackson as saying in the tapes.

“I always thought about, ‘Why do I have these?’ I love them, it’s like real babies, kids, and people, but it makes me feel like I am in a room with people,” he added.

Boteach believes that Jackson felt uncomfortable amidst real people.

He said: “You get chills listening to this. His celebrity had created a degree of isolation, where he could not simply feel comfortable around other people - he felt that everybody wanted something from him; he felt that he was trapped in this cocoon of fame.”

“He wanted people just to understand, ‘I may not be perfect but, before you judge me, know what I’ve been through, and he always wanted American families to heal based on his example.

“I think that what he shared in these conversations… was immensely courageous. For a superstar to bear his soul with this degree of rawness… so that families would learn.

“He did all this because he wanted to consecrate his fame to a higher cause and that cause was: ‘Parents prioritise your kids, don’t neglect them because look at what it did to me.’” (ANI)