The bond between Michael Jackson and his father Joseph Jackson has been widely acknowledged as a contributing factor to the singer’s success. However, Michael was traumatized by the abuse he endured as a child at the hands of his dad. Jason Pfeiffer, a close friend told Radar Online in 2013 that the Thriller hitmaker never really forgave his father. “Michael and I had some very emotional moments talking about our families,” recalled Pfeiffer. “Michael wept as he spoke about how his father whipped him on the back and abused him…He made out he couldn’t forgive his dad, who he said had made his childhood unbearable.”

Pfeiffer also revealed that Michael remained loving towards his father nevertheless. “On one occasion, we were talking about his dad, and then Joe rang his mobile. Michael talked with him, calmly and politely, forgetting all he had said to me. It was so odd.” The Billie Jean singer alleged that Joe had physically and psychologically mistreated him from an early age, subjecting him to endless rehearsals, beatings, and name-calling. According to Today, in 2009, Michael told Rabbi Shmuley that he was ‘scared’ of his father to such an extent that he would faint at his presence.

“’I am trapped and I have to do this for the rest of my life. I am under contract,’” he remembered thinking during his childhood, as he looked at other kids. He continued, “I am scared of my father to this day. My father walked in the room — and God knows I am telling the truth — I have fainted in his presence many times. I have fainted once, to be honest. I have thrown up in his presence because when he comes in the room and this aura comes and my stomach starts hurting and I know I am in trouble. He is so different now. Time and age have changed him and he sees his grandchildren and he wants to be a better father. It is almost like the ship has sailed its course and it is so hard for me to accept this other guy…that is not the guy I was raised with. I just wished he had learned that earlier.”

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“I can’t see him as the new man. I am like an angel in front of him, like scared. One day he said to me, ‘Why are you scared of me?’ I couldn’t answer him. I felt like saying, ‘Do you know what you have done?'” However, in 2009, Joseph refuted his son’s claims. He told CNN’s Larry King, “Never. Never have. And I — and I raised him just like you would raise your kids, you know? But harm Michael, for what? I have no reason. That’s my son. I loved him and I still love him.”

He instead blamed the media for the rumors. “The media keep hollering about saying that I beat Michael. That’s not true. You know what this beat started — beat started in the slavery days. Where they used to beat the slaves and then they used to torture them. That’s where this beating started. These slave masters and that’s where that came from. But, hey, there’s a lot of people in America, Larry…a lot of people in America spank their kids, you know? They say they don’t, they’re lying. They’re lying. Now, Michael was never beaten by me. I’ve never beaten at all.”