Brooke Shields‘ riveting documentary Pretty Baby: Brooke Shields highlights the pivotal moments in the actress’ professional and personal life, including her friendship with Michael Jackson.
In the two-part special, which premiered this week on Hulu, the 57-year-old shared that despite all the dating rumors in the 1980s regarding her relationship with the late singer and a false admission on the infamous 1993 Oprah Winfrey interview on Jackson’s part, the pair were solely friends. During the second episode of Pretty Baby: Brooke Shields, Shields disclosed that her friendship with Jackson began immediately after they met when she was 13. The star would describe their bond as “very childlike.” She said,
“We met when I was 13 and we like hung out. It was very childlike…We just were quite juvenile in some ways and quite mature and experienced in others. So we were just really friends.”
Further in the conversation, as she recounted fond memories of Jackson, Shields revealed that one of the things she noticed about him was that the “Billie Jean” vocalist always wanted the paparazzi to take photos of the two of them together. Although she never clarified Jackson’s reasons surrounding it, Shields says as she mentioned the one time he suggested they “adopt and raise a child,”
“But he always wanted to be sort of seen with me. Like if we would pick a restaurant, I was like ‘how would they know we were here?’ Then at one point he said, ‘we should adopt a child. We should adopt a child and raise a child together.'”
The mother of two claimed that their friendship took a toll when Jackson falsely admitted to Winfrey in 1993 that he and the actress were dating. Shields, who was dating Dean Cain then, expressed that following Jackson’s interview, she would call him and ask, “what are you doing?” While revealing that their friendship would eventually end, she said,
“I called him and I said ‘what are you doing? I am actually currently with a boyfriend in New York City. What are you doing?’ I eventually sort of lost touch with him.”
USA Today reports that Shields and Jackson would take about a decade to reconcile their friendship. In 2003, Shields shared that the “Beat It” singer reached out to her following her father’s passing and the birth of her oldest daughter Rowan Henchy, which occurred that same year. Sadly, the pair’s bond would meet a tragic end six years later when Jackson passed away from a cardiac arrest due to an overdose on June 25, 2009, at the age of 50. Shields would speak at his memorial service that was held a month later.
Pretty Baby: Brooke Shields is now streaming on Hulu.