Among Diana Ross fans and Michael Jackson fans, there are some people who theorize
that your mom was actually kind of, in a way, the love of his life.
Have you ever heard? Yeah I've heard it yeah.
And do you have any thoughts on that?
So many people are now claiming that they
discovered the Jacksons, you know, but what was your relationship?
Well, actually, I did.
I think Berry Gordy discovered them at a step.
The boys were came to Detroit for a showcase for Berry Gordy.
And I remember them wearing these little green outfits and these hats.
And they did a show and we knew then
that it was going to be something special. When he started his career
I introduced them on their very first
television show, which was The Ed Sullivan Show.
And I got an opportunity to introduce them on The Ed Sullivan Show,
and the rest is just history.
And then I had my own television special
at that time and I introduced them, the Jackson 5 on the television special.
I think I gave them an opportunity
on my television specials to be introduced for the first to the American audience.
And they were really young then.
You certainly have added a fantastic group to the musical scene as a talent scout.
Well, if you're speaking about the Jackson 5, I don't feel that I've
added them. I think I just opened the door for them
and instead of them walking in,
they ran in and trampled me as they were coming through the door.
We did a television special and so on,
and I played with Michael.
I wasn't introducing you Michael. You weren't?
No. Well who else do you think makes
the stage come to real life besides me or Ed Sullivan?
And they came to live with me in California for
it seemed like just a few months, but I don't know how long it was there.
They were moving from their home and to California.
So they stayed with me for a while.
And Michael's very creative.
And we kind of, I took a special interest in him and we were very close.
How did you feel when you heard you got
the part in 'The Wiz' and especially playing with Diana Ross?
Very happy. I love the play so much.
I've seen it six times before
I even knew I was going to be in it.
I would talk to Diana on the phone.
I say, are you going to see 'The Wiz' next week? She would say, Yeah.
Next thing I noticed, I was in it.
Diana and Michael had had a relationship in the past from their Motown days.
And it shows in film that kind of warmth
and friendship between the two. Which was very important
to the relationship between Dorothy and the Scarecrow.
His energy and my energy were very much the same.
He was a little kid that worked very hard
and love to stand up in front of someone and perform.
And I was
fairly successful at that moment.
And again, it's just the same as is the Supremes.
Michael Jackson began to be the focal point because he was so outstanding.
We did a movie together and since then, I mean, he's just had blockbuster success
with his album 'Off The Wall'.
Ladies and gentlemen my baby
Do you plan to cut an album with Michael Jackson?
Oh, Tanya, I would like that a lot.
Michael and I have been friends since he
was really little kid, and he's doing such extraordinary things writing
Right now, he's doing an album or writing a song with Paul McCartney,
and he's supposed to be coming in town soon.
And I would like that.
I'm going to try. Michael Jackson and Diana Ross.
16 classic songs of love that will last
forever from two of the world's greatest artists.
Diana Ross and Michael Jackson. Love songs, it's too good to imitate.
We've shared many magic moments together,
the early days and television specials, recording and doing the movie 'The Wiz'.
Well, you know, Michael,
he's an exceptional human being, talented beyond his years, a dream in motion.
To me, Michael is brilliant and he's just as a little boy growing into his talent.
If he's grown from where it started to being a big success now.
Where will he be, you know, in the future?
Then he went on to have his own career, which he's very, very talented.
And and he became so very, very successful, just like skyrocketed.
One of my favorite people in the whole entire world is Diana Ross.
She has been so special to me
and has taught me so many incredible, important things
and I'm just so honored.
When he spent time with Diana Ross, with 'The Wiz',
he always had this admiration for Diana Ross when she was young.
And I think it got to a point where he really loved her and he really liked her.
Still to this day, she was just this
dream for him and he had this ongoing just fascination for her.
He loved her.
Diana Ross and Michael Jackson
and it's nice to have you both here tonight.
Is he your escort tonight?
Absolutely, this is my date look.
What I didn't know is that you were going to get so sexy.
You're embarrassing me.
Well I always knew you would.
What?
Be sexy.
Do you guys think she's sexy.
Your new album, some superstar playing on that?
Michael Jackson, of course.
How did this collaboration come about?
You know, Michael and I, we're in love, and there's nothing we can do about it.
There's nothing to say. So.
Michael did, you can rip my shirt, drag me in the dirt.
I will be your slave, anything you say. I do.
He did that.
Are you ever sensitive to like the people
speaking on Michael Jackson and/or his relationship with your mom?
Because I know,
like a lot of people thought, I mean, we knew he was she was like a mother
figure to him, but people also thought like he loved her.
I think so.
I think it was a lot of things.
I think he. I know.
I know he loves her, loved her.
And I think he also
maybe he was in some sort of way.
My mom always says, no, it wasn't.
But, you know, I feel like I feel like he
I feel like he was you know, there was so much about my mother he
loved, you know, and I think some of the you know,
what he had told me was a lot of the most amazing times he spent
as a child was always with my mother. In a way, she was his showbusiness mother.
And she seemed to have a real soft spot
in her heart for him. We have Michael Jackson somewhere out there
Is he out there? Where is he?
There he is, that's my child.
Hey, that's Michael.
And then I kind of took care of them until their parents came,
so we just built a relationship in the early days like a parent.
And I feel like that since the beginning
of their careers, I feel very much as if they are my children.
What did you think?
He was in love with Diana Ross and that was real.
But he wanted to be Diana Ross.
Very true.
Great talent wasn't all Jackson and Ross shared.
Michael, many believe, wanted to look like her, be like her, sound like her.
There's rumors that he wanted be you, changed his looks to look like you.
It's been said that Michael Jackson underwent plastic surgery to make himself
look more like you.
I'm not like other guys.
I don't think so. Is that true?
No. Well, I don't think he has.
No one's ever. He's never told me that.
Do you think he wants to look like you?
Do you buy that?
No, I don't buy that at all.
But is it unnerving for you to have
a young man that's undergone plastic surgery to make himself look like you?
Well, I don't think he's trying to look like me.
I really don't. I think he wants to look like what he
perceives as makes him feel happy about himself.
You know, I don't think he's trying to look like me.
I do think he's quite beautiful, though.
We have a lot of the same bone structure.
Yeah well Michael does now because he's had it all done.
Do you take that as a compliment?
I refuse you to insult Michael. He's a friend of mine.
I love him.
And I don't like people making fun of him. I get real serious when I talk about Michael.
And I think we should really kind of look at his life with compassion.
He makes incredibly good music.
And, you know, we were thinking also
tonight, I mean, this kid has grown up in the business since tiny.
I mean, you know, I think it's hard to have a real normal life,
you know, he's secluded. I think he is very secure and very.
He's got it all together, being in the kind of position that he is.
Does it break your heart to see what is happening?
Yes, all the support I saw the family on television the other night,
and I sat there and I I've just felt the pain, you know,
and I know they're trying very hard to pull together.
And it's just a family in trouble
and they need our prayers. For the right thing to happen. really.
I don't know anything about what's going on.
Diana hasn't seen Michael since he was hospitalized in New York last month,
but she hopes his split with his wife, Lisa Marie Presley, is not permanent.
I'd like to see them make it together.
I'd like to see them both.
You're friends with Michael Jackson.
How do you think the media has treated him?
Please I can't go there. No?
But I, you know, I just think, you know, it's such a painful subject.
It's just so hard.
That's as much as Diana Ross has ever said
publicly about the troubles of her longtime friend, Michael Jackson.
Can't do anything that, you know,
is not scrutinized? Overly scrutinized, don't you agree?
Yeah,
I understand
Are you close now? Not as close now.
I don't get to see him very much,
and that's because, again, my life is just gone in a different direction.
I live in Europe a lot of the time with my husband.
So it's just that we don't see each
other half as much as I would like to see him.
Have you been in touch with him personally?
Yes, I did.
I spoke and spoken to him twice. And he's getting the help he needs?
I hope so, yeah.
I'm not sure if his- see, I have been away from Michael's life
for quite some time, so I don't know all the people that he has surrounding him.
And Michael, I don't see these guys that much,
I'm so happy to look back and see their faces, anyway.
I don't see him very much. I haven't seen him really in years,
I just saw him a little bit in New York where he's
recording his new album, but I don't see him often.
On stage,
Michael had an emotional reunion with his old friend Diana Ross,
and as he left the stage, I met up with him for an exclusive, rare interview.
Michael, you get to see Diana again,
I love her, really.
Congratulations.
If you need me, call me.
No matter where you are, no matter how far.
Just call my name.
I'll be there.
If you need me call me.
Her public statements since his death,
she says, I can't stop crying, I'm unable to imagine this.
Of course, one of the week's surprises
came when Diana Ross was named in Michael Jackson's will.
She may take custody of Jackson's children if his mother is not able to.
I'm trying to find closure.
I want you to know that even though I am
not there at the Staples Center, I am there in my heart.
I've decided to pause and be silent.
This feels right for me.
Michael was a personal love of mine.
A treasured part of my world. Part of the fabric of my life.
In a way that I can't seem to find words to express.
Michael wanted me to be there for his
children and I will be there if they ever need me.
I hope today brings closure for all those who loved him.
I think they loved each other very much as
good friends, and I think that they inspired each other in such a
great friendship there that I think people may have felt like it was something more than that.
But I think, truthfully, it was just a really close friendship.
You just could never get enough of you and Michael Jackson and 'The Wiz' and your
exuberance and your viger. Stop in the name of love.
That's the message from Diana Ross
in a tweet defending her lifelong friend Michael Jackson. Over the weekend
Ross tweeted, This is what's on my mind this morning.
I believe and trust that Michael Jackson
was and is a magnificent, incredible force to me and to many others.
She ended the tweet with a reference to her hit song, 'Stop in the Name of Love'.