Brooke Shields and Michael Jackson: The Unlikely Pair

Brooke Shields couldn’t have said it any better; her and Michael Jackson were an “unlikely pair.” At first glance, Shields seemed to stand out like a sore thumb among the other speakers at the memorial, but as it turns out the mega-star musical legend and the actress/author/model were an odd and yet extremely close couple. They both shared something in common, they grew up in the public eye and didn’t have a real childhood. Shields recalls when they were together, “We always seemed to revert to being little kids.” The two met when Shields was just 13 years old and never left him.

Years ago she told Rolling Stones Magazine:

“We instantly became friends. Nothing was jaded about him. I just was so impressed by his sweetness. He was thoughtful, sensitive, sweet, and had a funny sense of humor. If you got to talk to him about music or about the future of technology, his voice would get deeper, he would start talking, and it was as if he was this genius.”

Shields said the two became close since sexuality wasn’t a part of their friendship even though Jackson did propose to her at one point:

“There were times when he would ask me to marry him, and I would say, ‘You have me for the rest of your life, you don’t need to marry me, I’m going to go on and do my own life and have my own marriage and my own kids, and you’ll always have me.’ I think it made him relax. He didn’t want to lose things that meant something to him.”

Their friendship was something special, which was evident in the touching speech Shields gave at Jackson’s memorial this morning. She told stories of how Jackson failed to teach her how to moonwalk and the time they tried to catch the first glimpse of Elizabeth Taylor in her wedding dress, but instead found the actress asleep on a bed.

Shields was someone who truly knew and understood the man who was a mystery to the rest of the world. The bond between the two stars was genuine which is why it lasted all these years. Shields continued on their friendship:

“We just found each other, and we didn’t have to deal with our sexuality. As I grew up and started having boyfriends, I would share with him, and he was like a little kid who talked about the bases- what first base was, what second base was, and it sounded very odd to the outside, I can imagine, but to the inside, to someone who’s never really left his bubble, you can understand how he would be curious.”