Madonna says Michael Jackson ‘innocent until proven guilty’ of child sex assaults
- Queen of Pop, no stranger to accusations that turn out to be untrue, says she always considers the agenda behind allegations like those in Leaving Neverland
- ‘Is there some kind of extortion thing happening?’ she asks. The film profiling adults who make new claims about Jackson led to a backlash against late singer
The Queen of Pop isn’t ready to dethrone the King of Pop just yet – despite a global backlash caused by a recent documentary that reopened allegations Michael Jackson sexually abused children.
In a wide-ranging interview for the June issue of British Vogue, Madonna offered her thoughts about HBO’s hard-hitting film Leaving Neverland.
The Dan Reed-directed documentary – which profiles the two adult men who made new allegations that the late music icon sexually abused them as children – has been the subject of much debate since it debuted in late January on the premium cable channel. Jackson’s music was banned from radio stations in Canada, New Zealand and Australia in the wake of the two-part film’s airing.
Madonna, who once was a rival and then friend of Jackson’s, said she didn’t watch the film, and that she didn’t want to take the claims against him at face value.
“I don’t have a lynch-mob mentality, so in my mind, people are innocent until proven guilty,” the Material Girl singer told British Vogue. “I’ve had a thousand accusations hurled at me that are not true. So my attitude when people tell me things about people is, ‘Can you prove it?’”
