Six years after his death, Michael Jackson’s top secrets revealed by his former security guards

Since his shocking death, many people have attempted to make sense of his decline over his final years, but few were as well-placed to observe it as Bill Whitfield and Javon Beard. Both men served as Jackson's security team from December 2006 right up to his untimely death, and had remarkable access to the man behind the myths.

In their book, "Remember The Time: Protecting Michael Jackson In His Final Days", Whitfield and Beard, along with Tanner Colby, present an unprecedented first-hand account of the last years of the superstar's life. 

Whitfield and Javon Beard's book revealing MJ's secrets in his latter years

The authors exclusively spoke to Express.co.uk and revealed some incredible insights into The King of Pop's personal life - his security fears, the extreme lengths to which he went to protect his children Paris, Michael aka "Prince" and Prince Michael aka "Blanket", and his increasing distance from his own family. But they also stressed the more positive sides of his character that often get lost or overlooked in all the drama. 

"We had the privilege of serving as Michael Jackson’s personal Las Vegas security team for the last two and a half years of his life. In that time we got to know a man, a kind and generous person and a loving father, who was completely different from the cartoonish figure portrayed in the tabloids," they said.

Bill Whitfield and Javon Beard's Top 10 revelations about Michael Jackson:

1. SECRET LOVERS

Mr Jackson had at least two secret girlfriends who lived abroad. We met them when they flew in to visit during a summer vacation in Middleburg, Virginia.

He kept their presence a secret from his family, his managers, even his children.

We were the only two privy to their arrival, and even we were never told their real names; he referred to them only as “Friend” and “Flower".

2. BUGGED BY BUGGING

Michael Jackson lived in fear of being secretly recorded. Before Mr Jackson entered any HOTEL ROOM or conference room, he would have us sweep the room for cameras or listening devices.

If he even suspected that a room was bugged, he’d insist on changing rooms. When he discovered that a limousine company had failed to disconnect the security cameras mounted inside a car we’d rented, he had us confiscate the vehicle and hold it in the garage until the company agreed to turn over the recordings it had made so that they could be destroyed.

It wasn’t just paranoia. In 2003, a private conversation between Mr Jackson and his lawyer had been taped without their knowledge and shopped to the tabloids.

3. FAMILY SPLIT

By the time he returned to America from Bahrain and Ireland in late 2007, Mr Jackson was almost completely estranged from everyone in his family except his mother.

Only the mother Katherine was allowed to approach the King

She would drop by unannounced and he always welcomed her. Everyone else had to have an appointment to see him. Even Janet.

On numerous occasions, his famous siblings would arrive, sometimes breaking through the security gate, only to be turned away.

4. BOOK WORM 

Too famous to leave his house very often, Michael Jackson was a huge reader.

He devoured books on history, art, science, you name it.

On a single trip to the bookstore, he’d drop $5,000 on books like he was buying a pack of gum.

During a 2007 visit to Los Angeles, he found a used book store he liked so much that he bought it for $100,000 cash on the spot and had the entire collection hauled back to his Las Vegas home.

5. CODE NAME KIDS

Most people know that in public, Mr Jackson required his children to wear masks in order to hide their identities from the paparazzi. That wasn’t the only precaution he took.

MJ's kids had to wear mask in public

He also gave the children code names to use with each other and for us to use over the radio. They were never to use their real names outside of the house.

6. KING OF CLASSICS 

Michael Jackson may have been the King of Pop, but in his private time he listened almost exclusively to classical music. Bach, Beethoven, Tchaikovsky - that was the soundtrack running in his car and his house all the time.

7. A FRIEND IN DEED

Much to our surprise, Mr Jackson revealed to us that after OJ Simpson was acquitted for the murder of his wife, he allowed the disgraced football player to take refuge from the media at his Neverland Ranch.

8. MEDIA BLACKOUT

In his final years, Michael Jackson had virtually blocked out the entire world.

Thanks to the relentless and typically negative tabloid coverage of his life, Jackson wouldn’t watch broadcast or cable TV, only DVDs. He had no computer and would typically have one of us search the Internet and send emails on his behalf.

Secret breakers, Whitfield and Beard with their Lord MJ

On trips to bookstore and newsstands, we had to pre-screen the newspaper and magazine racks to make sure there were no Michael Jackson-related stories that he or the children might see.

The only American news Mr Jackson consumed was The Wall Street Journal, which he read religiously every morning, because it was one of the few places he was unlikely to read crazy allegations about his personal life. 

9. HITTING THE HOOPS

One of Mr Jackson’s favorite pastimes was playing basketball. He and his brothers learned how to play at Marvin Gaye’s house back in the Jackson 5 days.

He would go out to the driveway all the time and just shoot hoops by himself for a few hours. It was his way to relax and unwind. He had a pretty good jump shot, too.

10. NEVER NEVERLAND

After Santa Barbara sheriffs ransacked Jackson’s Neverland mansion in 2003, he declared that he could never live there again; it was no longer a home where he felt safe.

Five years later, in 2008, the estate was exactly as the sheriffs had left it: drawers ransacked, furniture overturned, everything gathering dust. Jackson and his children spent the remaining years of his life living in hotels and rented homes.

Michael Jackson sometimes stylized as MJ, born as Michael Joseph Jackson (August 29, 1958 – June 25, 2009) was an American singer, songwriter, record producer, dancer, and actor. Called the King of Pop, his contributions to music and dance, along with his publicized personal life, made him a global figure in popular culture for over four decades.

The eighth child of the Jackson family, he debuted on the professional music scene along with his elder brothers Jackie, Tito, Jermaine, and Marlon as a member of the Jackson 5 in 1964, and began his solo career in 1971. In the early 1980s, Jackson became a dominant figure in popular music. The music videos for his songs, including those of "Beat It", "Billie Jean", and "Thriller", were credited with breaking down racial barriers and with transforming the medium into an art form and promotional tool.

Remember the times: Michael Jackson with the family based group Jackson 5

Jackson's 1982 album Thriller is the best-selling album of all time. His other albums, including Off the Wall (1979), Bad (1987),Dangerous (1991), and HIStory (1995), also rank among the world's best-selling albums. Jackson is one of the few artists to have been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame twice. He was also inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame and the Dance Hall of Fame as the first and only dancer from pop and rock music. His other achievements include multiple Guinness World Records, 13Grammy Awards, the Grammy Legend Award, the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award, 26 American Music Awards—more than any other artist—including the "Artist of the Century" and "Artist of the 1980s", 13 number-one singles in the United States during his solo career,—more than any other male artist in the Hot 100 era—and estimated sales of over 400 million records worldwide.[Note 1]Jackson has won hundreds of awards, making him the most awarded recording artist in the history of popular music. (Just a brief history of his).

Read his full history Here

Mutiganda Janvier

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