And looking back on that experience, what do you say to yourself now,
because we all have done things in our lives and you said I don't know what I was
thinking or didn't know what I was thinking or that was a great lesson for me.
I don't know. What do you say to yourself?
Holy mother of God.
OK, first of all, I heard he wanted to meet me when I was 18.
I didn't want to because I thought he was a freak.
Immediately I didn't want to meet him. I thought he was a freak.
So I was like, I don't want to meet him.
And I ended up going, OK, I'll meet him.
My first impression was that he went very much out of his way to disillusion me.
So he sat me down and said, I know you think this and I know you think that
and he was completely normal. I'm not gay.
I know you think this.
I know you think that and started cursing. Started, you know, being a normal person.
And I was like, wow. And then within 20 minutes, like,
I immediately went into oh my God, you're not the person I thought you were.
You're actually really cool. There was a click.
We we started talking and immediately related to one another.
And it just kind of went from there
because we were born and raised in different situations, different upbringings.
And there was a connection on that front.
Superstar and superstar, yeah that fishbowl life, being oddities.
Our different circumstances thing. Still very vulnerable.
I have to say.
I'd been married and had a baby by the time I was 21 and hadn't really
been out there much and didn't know a whole hell of a lot.
He's not stupid.
He didn't get where he was because he's stupid.
It's unfortunate that not a lot of people
know who he really is. When he wants to lock into you and he wants to intrigue you
or capture you or, you know, whatever he wants to do with you, he can do it.
When Michael wants to pull you into his life, somehow he's very good at it.
And then at that point, it was sort of a relationship of like, I need to talk.
And I was sort of like, wow, me?
And he's already pulled me in by making me feel like I'm the one he talks to.
And you feel protective.
You know, it's a mechanism.
So I kind of fell right into that.
Didn't necessarily think it was going to go romantic, but it did.
And, erm
you know,
seemingly all fine and real.
I fell into this whole, you poor sweet misunderstood thing.
I'm going to save you. You know, I fell into that.
I fell in love with him. I did.
In love?
Yes, I fell in love at the time.
And he fell in love with me and I fell in love with him.
And it was very real.
How did he ask you to marry him?
We were in the library in front of the fire, and he pulled out this giant ten
carat diamond out of his pocket and put it on my finger.
I think he got on his knees as well and proposed.
I felt like it was the right I should do
that because it seemed more maybe that's what I should be doing instead of
taking these dear souls and making them feel like they're nothing.
Because he wasn't going to be bothered that you were Presley, right.
He was a Jackson, right.
So in my mind at the time, I'm thinking I'll marry
somebody who's even bigger or as big or whatever than I am.
Then I can actually feel like a wife.
I can be next to the man and I can feel more comfortable that way.
I wasn't seeking publicity myself.
I was kind of looking to feel like I can support somebody else that I admired.
I wanted somebody comparable.
Somehow along the way, I decided that was a solution.
I thought, OK, I'll get with somebody even
bigger than I am and then I won't have to have those problems anymore.
Were people questioning your relationship with him from start?
I mean, your friends and your mom?
Yeah, people weren't really into that one.
I mean, they were trying to, you know, say certain things about it.
But I and I needed to figure it out on my own. Because he was right in this sex
abuse scandal and things. So what did people say to you?
Um, mostly my mom was just like, you know,
look at the timing of this and don't be stupid.
She married the biggest star of her time.
You were going to be the biggest music star of your time.
Nah, I don't think it was that premeditated.
I knew she really didn't want me to do that
and I understand why.
At that time, I was still kind of in that mode.
It was just her reaction to my even dating
him was like, you know, typical mother daughter, like, oh, you don't like him?
Good. He's going to be my husband.
She called me and said, oh Lisa
there's helicopters outside the house and they're saying you married Michael Jackson,
and I was just quiet
and she goes, You didn't?
She goes, you didn't?
Honestly, don't like attention on me,
loved being next to him and taking care of him.
I was on such a high doing that.
I am not lying when I say that he had
something so intoxicating about him and when he was on and when he
was ready to share with you or give it to you and be himself and allow you
to come in, I don't know if I've ever been that intoxicated by anything.
And you did live together?
Yeah, well, let's just put it this way.
If he was in town, he was at my house.
I have to ask you this.
Was it a consummated marriage?
Oh my God
Oprah
I have to ask that question
and you all know damn well you want to know.
I mean, it was a real marriage,
like between the husband and wife? Yep It was a consummated marriage? Yep
It was? OK that's all.
Sexual attraction? I told you everything I said was the truth.
What about the way he looks? I told you.
see now, I'm not attracted to mediocrity or normalcy or things like that.
I think certain things are... I'm weird.
I don't know, I'm whacked.
So these were like romantic nights.
Yeah,
I don't remember them very well, but yes.
I mean, it was normal.
I wasn't going to get married if it wasn't that.
I even remember thinking, how is that going to happen?
You know, I can't even imagine him like that, whatever.
And then he quickly disillusioned me of that idea.
I honestly can tell you that it was
in every sense a normal marriage and everything was spoken.
And, you know, in the middle of the night,
if he needed to wake up and tell me and bounce something off me
and I loved taking care of him. It was the highest point of my life.
One of the very highest points of my life was when things were going really well.
And he and I were united together.
And he and I had an understanding about
some of the people and the things that could go on around him.
And he was with me on those things.
And we were we were a unit.
When you have that situation that you have its drawbacks, which is, you know,
entourage of people, I didn't like the attention.
I mean, It was a shit storm.
I mean, I couldn't go anywhere.
He needed to do his thing.
I would be there uncomfortably, like the MTV thing.
And I heard about it last minute.
All I could think about was, you know, 10,000 people right in front of me and
holy crap
I literally made his hand blue.
I was squeezing it so hard.
I was already neurotic.
I already had to walk on stage and not say anything in the first place.
I was like. I can't. Please, do we have to do that?
It was just it's not in my nature to do that sort of thing.
Whar about that Diane Sawyer interview of you and Michael, was that weird?
Yeah, that was a little strange. It was very strange.
I mean, I was a nervous wreck.
So did you regret doing it? I did.
After it was a little disturbing.
Startling.
I was looking into the future and I was
thinking, I don't ever want to get into a custody battle with him.
I don't want to do this. I don't want to go head to head with him.
So I need to make sure that everything around is good.
I've had children I knew bringing children into certain circumstances.
You have to make sure everything's safe and secure and OK.
And I wanted to make sure that he and I
were really, really united because we were going to be up against so much.
I do feel there was an agenda there, too, though, because I think he wanted children
and he wanted her children. Oh, mother, what are you doing right now?
He would tell me,
he would come tell me, if you're not going to do it
Debbie said she'll do it so we would get into it.
Arguments.
What about him and drugs? I never saw it, but I suspected I don't know though
because there's been talk about painkillers all the way through
It's funny because I don't, I never saw it, so I can't answer.
Did you suspect a drug problem?
Honestly, I didn't really suspect and catch on.
You know, there was just an occasion,
an incident where he had collapsed and he was in the hospital.
This is during the HBO.
It was very confusing what was wrong, because every day there was a different
report and I couldn't tell what was happening.
Dehydration, low blood pressure, exhaustion, a virus.
So I couldn't really get a straight answer
as to what was happening with him. At that point,
I think I got from various
indications, I believed that that was going on then.
How did it end? What happened?
It just kind of went really sour really fast.
It sort of just dwindled out
of control and it went to hell in a handbasket, basically.
Yeah
There was a very profound point in the marriage when he had to make a decision.
Was it the drugs and the sort of vampires or me?
And he pushed me away.
Vampires? Spiders? Vampires? Sucking his blood.
Yeah. So you saw that all around him?
Oh, God, yes. But you filed for divorce from Michael.
Yes. And how did you tell him that was it?
It was when he was you know, I was on the phone.
I'd had enough. There was a lot of stuff going on then.
It got really ugly in the end, it wasn't pretty.
I left him to, sort of
stomp my foot into the ground and go.
I was trying to take a stand and say, come with me, don't do this.
And it was a stupid move because he didn't. Did he fight
you getting a divorce?
No, he I think he got on to getting somebody else pregnant.
Right? Or having a baby.
That's what he wanted.
He seemed to get on that pretty quick.
And I don't know, you know, I got out and then four days later,
I started having chronic panic attacks and my body just freaked out on me.
And I, you know,
Yeah I was pretty much needed to be mopped up off the floor after that one.
I was quiet for about a year and I fell apart physically for a while.
So I went through this whole series
of just body falling apart, you know, stress.
The gallbladder just went to zero function.
I had to get it taken out.
I had Mono and Epstein bar
and that was like just fever that wouldn't go away and really ill. God so much because
it took me a good two years to come out of that, you know.
And I mean, physically, mentally, I really had to I went through a lot
to to remove myself out of that, you know, because you sort of fall into a way
of thinking and existing when you're in that bubble.
And it took me a long time to detach myself.
We again, we're going to get back together.
We spent four more years after we
divorced, getting back together and breaking up
and talking about getting back together and breaking up.
And at some point I had to push it away
because it was just not I wasn't moving forward with myself.
You said you loved him? You think he loved you?
Wow.
God, it's hard for me to answer that question.
I don't know the answer to that.
Do you think that he loved you as much as he could? Yes.
That yes, as much as he was capable of loving somebody and all that.
Yes.
You know, and for whatever reason in my life, I had to go through that.
And I don't know
why I had to go through that, but I did. And I got through it.
And, you know, but I have to say in retrospect that he
honestly tried so hard and went through so much with me.
And I know now and I look back,
he's never done that with any other female or anyone.
I really admire that he really gave it a good shot.
You know, I didn't appreciate it then and I wish I did.
It sort of stigmatized me, you know, without my knowing about it.
So I regret that. I got to ask you about Michael Jackson.
I'm not going to answer though.
You're sick of being asked about that I'm sure.
Yeah, definitely.
No more discussion about him. Ok.
Nicolas Cage
Because I'm always associated with that.
You know, everything's about that.
You were married to Michael Jackson.
That's like the biggest, you know, and it turned me into a freak.
As for Michael's current controversy,
fuelled by the British documentary. That was a train wreck, you know.
Lisa Marie says she never saw any inappropriate behavior.
If I'd seen anything, believe me, his ass would have been hanging from a tree.
So, I don't know.
I never saw anything like that.
Now, I don't know what's happening lately with him.
I really don't. I hope he clears it up.
Coherently, good conversation was in 2005.
It was a very long conversation.
Please keep your head together, please.
If this goes to trial, please hold it together.
And he said, what are you talking about? What do you mean?
He said, you mean drugs?
I said yes because all I saw, you know,
there was a few year period there where random things were coming out whether it was
a Martin Bashir interview or various interviews.
And in those interviews, I saw him intoxicated.
I didn't see the Michael that I knew in that Martin Bashir interview.
He was high as a kite.
From what I saw and from what I knew, he was either too speedy or he was sedated.
It wasn't the Michael that I knew.
And he asked if I still loved him.
And we went into a whole thing about that.
And I told him I was indifferent and he didn't like that word.
And he cried.
And then the final part of the conversation was him
telling me that he felt that that someone was going to try and kill him
to get hold of his catalogue and his estate.
Lisa Marie says she and the Jackson family
spent years trying to save Michael from self-destructive behavior.
She claims it left her emotionally and spiritually exhausted.
But she writes, As I sit here,
overwhelmed with sadness, reflection and confusion at what was
my biggest failure to date, watching on the news almost play by play.
The exact scenario I saw happen on August 16th, 1977.
Happening again right now with Michael,
a sight I never wanted to see again, just as he predicted, I am truly gutted.
Lisa Marie Presley coming out and giving
some giving some statements that she put up on her MySpace page.
And I thought this was interesting because
so many people have speculated for years that their marriage was a sham.
Yeah, this is a very interesting look inside Michael Jackson.
He looked at Lisa Marie Presley at one
point and said, and I quote, I'm afraid that I'm going to end up like him.
Michael was always asking you about your father.
Yes.
And he said, I feel like I'm going to end up the same way.
And did you say why?
Yeah, I was like, what are you talking about?
And I don't understand.
Down to the play by play by play incident was identical.
The one thing that correlates with
with Michael and with my father on this subject is that they had the luxury
of creating whatever reality around them they wanted to create.
They could have the kinds of people who were going to go
with their program or not go with their program.
And if they weren't, then they could be disposed of.
It is the reality of being a God in your own world, right, when it's this unusual
reality in an ivory tower, in this godlike life
mixed with an addiction, that's when you get into trouble.