When Michael Jackson was a child, he became a superstar. As the lead singer of the Jackson 5, he took the music industry by storm and experienced a level of fame unlike any other.

Since Jackson was so young, very few people could relate to what he was going through. Therefore, it would only make sense that Jackson would befriend other child stars.

One of those child stars was Tatum O’Neal, the daughter of actor Ryan O’Neal. O’Neal and Jackson had a relationship while the two were struggling to grow up in the world of show business. However, that connection would be permanently scarred after O’Neal made a decision that broke Jackson’s heart.

Tatum O’Neal Declined Michael’s Invite To ‘The Wiz’ Premiere And Later Regretted It
In 1977, Michael Jackson embarked on a trip to New York City to film the musical movie The Wiz. Jackson co-starred with his Motown mentor Diana Ross in the adaptation of The Wizard of Oz. Ross played Dorthy and Jackson played the Scarecrow. The film helped Jackson connect with the talented musician and producer Quincy Jones, who produced the film’s soundtrack.

For the film’s premiere, Jackson wanted to bring along Tatum O’Neal as his date. However, when Jackson asked O’Neal to the event, trouble began brewing behind the scenes.

O’Neal would later reflect on how the incident would cause her friendship with Jackson to come to an “abrupt ending,” as she wrote in her 2004 autobiography “A Paper Life.”

“He’d played the Scarecrow in The Wiz, the urban remake of The Wizard of Oz, which starred Diana Ross as Dorothy,” O’Neal wrote. “For the film’s premiere, Michael invited me to be his date. I asked my dad, who didn’t care one way or another if I went, but my talent agency was dead set against it. I was told, in exactly these words: ‘You can’t go to a premiere with a n*****.'”

When speaking to Andy Cohen on his Sirius XM show Radio Andy, O’Neal revealed the agent who said this was Sue Mengers.

“That upset me tremendously,” O’Neal wrote. “Had I been old enough–or had I the parental support–I could have stood my ground and insisted ‘Oh yes, I can.’ But my father was too disengaged to help me think it through. So, without telling Michael the reason, I turned him down.”

Michael Jackson Said Tatum Tried To Seduce Him, But She Later Denied It
In the now-infamous 2003 documentary Living with Michael Jackson, the superstar told Martin Bashir that O’Neal attempted to seduce him back in the day.

“I remember her telling me to come over to her house in Beverly Hills and what she’s going to do to me,” Jackson remembered. “All the sexual stuff. So, I’m scared to death. Scared because I’d never done anything like that.”

Jackson said that he went over to her house because he wanted to be “brave.”

“She told me to lie on the bed and I did,” Jackson continued. “She slowly walked over, and she touched the button of my shirt to open it. I took my hands and I wouldn’t let them down. And she just walked away. She knew I was too shy for it.”

Following the airing of Jackson’s recollection, O’Neal denied any of this took place. She claimed Jackson had a “very vivid imagination.”

Jackson also spoke with Rabbi Shmuley Boteach in 2001 about his relationship with O’Neal.

“She wanted to do everything and I didn’t want to have sex at all, because there were a lot of values associated with being a Jehovah’s Witness,” Jackson claimed. “When I held Tatum’s hand it was just magic, better than anything, kissing her, anything. There were fireworks going on. It was all I needed. But that means nothing to kids today. She grew up too fast.”

O’Neal shared her own account of their encounter in her autobiography, “A Paper Life.”

“He once came to my house and asked to come upstairs because he’d never been in a girl’s bedroom before,” O’Neal wrote. “He sat on the bed, and we kissed very briefly, but it was terribly awkward. For all my passionate crushes on people like Dustin Hoffman, I was just 12 and not at all ready for a real-life encounter. So I said, ‘I can’t.’ Michael, who was sweating profusely, seemed as intimidated as I was. He jumped up nervously & said, ‘Uh, gotta go.'”

She also mentioned Jackson’s previous claim to Bashir, once again denying the interaction took place.

“At the time of the supposed seduction, I was barely pubescent, and what I’d seen of sex so far was unappealling and gross,” she wrote. “It may have been Michael’s fantasy that I’d seduce him–and it’s a little sad that he cast himself as failing, even in his dream–but it just didn’t happen.”

Tatum And Michael Went To A Concert Years After She Rejected His Invitation To ‘The Wiz’
In her autobiography, O’Neal wrote that Jackson was “devastated” when she rejected his offer to join him at The Wiz premiere.

“After that Michael didn’t speak to me for years,” she wrote.

However, it wouldn’t be the last time the two saw each other. O’Neal revealed she “ran into him at the Helmsley Palace in New York.”

“For old times’ sake, we caught a concert together, Kool and the Gang at Madison Square Garden,” she wrote. “Michael dressed in full costume for the event–coming in blackface, with a pasted-on beard–the whole nine yards. But things were never the same between us.”

According to O’Neal, this was just like old times, because attending concerts together was something they used to do often.

“What we did do together was go to concerts,” O’Neal recalled. “I remember seeing Queen with Michael at the Forum in L.A., which is interesting, considering his androgyny now.”

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O’Neal also revealed the two spent time at the Playboy Mansion and remembered Jackson jamming with her musician brother.

“He came with me and my father to Hugh Hefner’s mansion, where I think Hefner’s menagerie–monkeys and peacocks and other exotic birds-gave him the idea for Neverland,” she wrote. “Michael would hang out and jam sometimes with my brother Griffin. Griffin was like a musical savant; he played the piano, guitar, and drums beautifully. Michael would play drums, and outside on the deck, my father would be boxing to the rhythm.”