Final months of man in the mirror - Michael Jackson -

Two of the late King of Pop's former bodyguards have written a tell-all book that lays bare his turbulent life in the period leading to his untimely death four years ago this month.

Bill Whitfield and Javon Beard claim their memoir, Remember the Time: Protecting Michael Jackson in his Final Days, is not a breach of his trust, but it's difficult to think otherwise as they regale the reader with stories of his dalliances with unnamed Eastern European women and his continuous failure to pay them their monthly salary.

The pair had unfettered access to Jackson in his final years as he moved from city to city with his three children – Prince, Paris and Blanket – in a desperate attempt to avoid the increasingly large paparazzi contingent following them. The allegations of child abuse that dogged him to his death ensured that the controversial singer remained prime tabloid fodder.

Jackson was one of the most iconic figures in popular music, but also one of its most eccentric – and this book goes behind the wacky image to offer an illustration of Michael Jackson the man, not just the superstar.

Those with a penchant for the sex lives of celebrities are likely to lap up Whitfield and Beard's revelations that Jackson had two secret girlfriends whom he would see when his children were in bed.

One of them, who Jackson simply referred to as "Friend" would be put up in a hotel close to his home, and his bodyguards would have to work hard to ensure that everything was just so for her arrival. Another, known to Jackson as "Flower", would come to visit just days after he had partied with "Friend", although she didn't appear to have quite the same hold on the singer as the other lady did.

A constant theme in the book is Jackson's self-enforced seclusion. He hated the notion of being spotted in public. "Everybody thought Michael Jackson led this high-flying, glamorous life," they write. "But never once did we go in through the front lobby (of a hotel), where everything is beautiful and pretty and clean." Instead, Jackson favoured service lifts and back doors.

Even at home, the outside world rarely crept into his consciousness. He almost never watched television, and when he did it was not for the news. Although he read the Wall Street Journal, he preferred to eschew real life for the realm of make-believe, opting for DVDs. He had a special affinity for The Simpsons, which he would watch over and over.

When Jackson did go out, it was often to conduct the sort of extravagant shopping sprees that helped fuel the legend of his eccentricity. "He'd read anything and everything he could get his hands on," the pair writes. "History, science, art. He'd drop $5,000 (€3,700) like he was buying a pack of gums. At one point, he actually bought a bookstore."

Among the items he bought were a pair of Oscars won in 1939 for Gone With The Wind that set him back $1.5m (€1.10m). Such was his propensity to spend that he found himself in the embarrassing scenario of having bank cards declined due to lack of funds.

Jackson's inability to look after his finances ensured there were several occasions when Whitfield and Beard were not paid, but they cast no aspersions on his generosity. He was drawn to the plight of homeless people. The pair recall driving Jackson to an area that was rife with poverty. He rolled down the window and called out to the homeless, distributing $100 bills to them. "People started lining up outside his window like it was an ATM."

He also had an affinity with his legions of obsessive supporters. "His main contact with the outside world was through the fans," they write. "People would send fanmail and gifts too. He would mostly keep the gifts that were hand-made – a collage or a card with a special message on." So much stuff was sent to him that Jackson had one bedroom designated as the 'fan-mail room'. "The walls were plastered with hand-made cards and letters, and the floor was covered with big stacks."

Although the pair are respectful about Jackson's parenting skills, there are insights into the strange universe his three children grew up in, not least when it came to birthday parties. Jackson would have specific ideas about what he felt they would want, be it a magician or popcorn machine. He would have specific requirements too: "Make sure you find a clown that can make balloons into different animals," they quote him as saying.

Jackson would take the children out when his staff was working for the surprise party. "Then, they'd come back and we'd yell, 'SURPRISE!' We'd have the magician, the clown with the balloons, the cotton candy – the whole place would be decked out for a party. But there'd be nobody there."

There were no other guests, no other children. "It was just the clowns, Mr Jackson, me and Jovon, sometimes the teacher or the nanny. The kids didn't have any friends. It was hard to witness, hard to accept that there was nobody coming around, ringing the bell and bringing gifts."

Indo Review