Growing up in the spotlight, Michael Jackson's personal life was all
too often speculated in the press for public consumption.
However, not many people really knew what kind of person Michael Jackson was behind
closed doors, not in the way Stephanie Mills does.
While many celebrities today have no problem showcasing their romantic
relationships in public, this wasn't really the case for Michael Jackson.
The Grammy and Tony Award winning actress
was one of the few women the King of Pop had a romantic relationship with,
and she has never been afraid to open up about their time together,
dating for over a year and a half in the late 1970s.
Stephanie Mills has a unique insight into a young Michael Jackson,
an intimate view of the man before extraordinary fame and success shaped him
into the pop icon the world became so familiar with.
Here's the detail.
Before Michael Jackson appeared
in Stephanie Mills life, the Brooklyn native began her professional
career at age nine, appearing in the Broadway musical
Maggie Flynn after winning amateur night at the Apollo Theater.
Six weeks straight at age 11,
Mills went on to become the opening act for the Isley Brothers.
Mills career took off when, in 1975, she was cast as Dorothy in the Broadway
musical The Wiz, an African-American adaptation of The Wizard of Oz.
The musical became a sensation, and her song, 'Home' from the show will
become her signature tune for years to come.
In 1977, Motown Productions acquired
the film rights to 'The Wiz' and signed the teenage Stephanie Mills
in anticipation of having her star as Dorothy in the film adaptation.
However, Motown actress, singer and superstar Diana Ross pleaded
with Motown CEO Berry Gordy to cast her instead, but he declined,
saying that the then 33 year old Ross was far too old for the part.
However, she contacted Rob Cohen of Universal Pictures,
who offered to finance the film if she were to play Dorothy.
As a result,
Gordy and Cohen agreed to a deal casting Diana Ross in the role of Dorothy,
who was no longer a child but now a schoolteacher to fit in with Ross's age.
At the time, Pauline Kael, a film critic, described Ross's efforts to get
in the film as perhaps the strongest example of sheer will in film history.
Michael Jackson,
a former Motown star and close friend of Diana Ross, was cast as the scarecrow,
even though Jackson's father, Joseph Jackson, was wary of the project
and saw it as a threat to the Jackson's group cohesion
while on production.
Michael and his sister, Latoya Jackson, were moved into a Manhattan apartment
in Sutton Palace away from his controlling father.
Michael Jackson experienced freedoms he had never previously enjoyed before.
And part of this was a social life.
Apart from becoming a frequent visitor to New York Studio 54,
Jackson and the other cast members would regularly go see The Wiz on Broadway
and after the show, hang out backstage with the stage cast members.
This is where Stephanie Mills
and Michael Jackson first met and their romance blossomed.
We spent a lot of time together.
I got a chance to spend a lot of time with him, especially when he would come
to the show almost every day and sit back and watch, Stephanie Mills recounted.
At that time I was, what, 15,
16 years old, and every girl in America wanted to be with Michael Jackson.
And I just knew that I was going to be Mrs.
Michael Jackson. Stephanie Mills has mentioned that she
would also visit him on the film set for The Wiz and how they became
increasingly comfortable and domesticated with each other.
I got a chance to go to the house.
I was washing his clothes.
I stayed with him on Sutton.
I made rice for him one day and he said
the rice was real ready because I can't cook.
I don't profess to cook, but he ate it.
Stephanie Mills remembers that at the time
she was blown away by how sweet, compassionate and loving of a person
Jackson was that he was very soft spoken and humble.
He was the most gentle and kind person.
He never said a bad word about anybody.
I've never seen him upset, never.
Although Stephanie Mills has revealed
that she spent the night in Michael Jackson's bed during their brief romance.
She also claims that they were never fully
intimate with each other, like most couples would be.
When asked why they broke up.
Mills revealed that his growing fame and the people he started surrounding
himself with just wasn't something she was into.
In other interviews, she mentioned how she was ready to get serious and commit.
But Michael Jackson wasn't interested in settling down just yet.
By 1980, Stephanie Mills had got engaged in married Shalamar founding member
Jeffrey Daniel, who wowed Michael Jackson with his dancing on Soul Train and would
later teach him what would become an MJ signature, the moonwalk
in the early 1980s.
Mills released chart topping songs and won
the Grammy Award for Best Female RnB vocal performance for the song.
'Never knew love like this before'.
And even though Mills and Daniels' marriage
would only last a couple of years, the two remained friendly.
When Michael Jackson employed Jeffrey
to help him choreograph his music video for Bad, Stephanie visited the set.
Filmed in a Brooklyn subway station.
Mills' remembers when she first saw Jackson after he had completely
transformed himself between the thriller and bad albums.
In recent years, Stephanie Mills has expressed strong views
when asked about the music industry's treatment of black artists.
We go wrong when they try to be so pop.
We have to stay true to who we are because
they don't respect you really when you're trying to be like them,
regardless of how popular you are and how much you think you're 'in',
you're not whether you've been around for 100 years or whether you've been
around for 10 years, they don't look at us like that.
They don't honor us like the honor, the white acts.
Stephanie Mills and Jackson's romance may have not lasted very long.
But Mills has continued to love and support Jackson and still considers
him the sweetest and most pure person she's ever known.
And although the singer's relationship
with Jackson wasn't fully consummated, she consistently stood by Jackson whenever
sexual assault allegations were made against him in 2019.
When asked about HBO's leaving Neverland
documentary, she replied, I'm familiar with it,
but I won't be watching it because he didn't do the things they said.
He was already cleared, Mills said. He went to court.
So why are they doing it?
It's purely to make money.
So I will not be watching it because I don't believe any of that's true.
I know for a fact that it's not true. During her interview
on The Breakfast Club, Mills touched upon the accusations yet
again by sharing what she believes is the reason behind all this slander.
Michael liked being around children because they were innocent.
She shared they didn't want anything from him.
They didn't have an agenda.
I think that's why he liked being around children.
They just liked to play and have fun.
Mills continued the conversation
by expressing that people have always wanted to make Jackson out to be the bad
guy and continue to do so today, quote, But most people around him had an agenda.
They wanted something.
She said, I don't think anything he did was strange.
I think the public and the people around him made it strange, but he's not that.
Thank you for watching the detail.
Check out our channel for more videos on Michael Jackson's intimate
relationships, including Michael Jackson's Untold Love Story with Diana Ross.
We'll see you next time.