27 June 2009
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It seemed as if Jackson, having started his career so young, had been forced to stretch his childhood well into adult life. "I believe I'm one of the loneliest people in the world," he wrote, in what was to become the most frequently quoted remark from his Moonwalk book.
But as he approached middle-age, it was Jackson's abiding interest in children which was his undoing. In August 1993, the Los Angeles Police Department announced that the superstar was under criminal investigation following allegations by a Beverley Hills dentist that Jackson had molested his 13-year-old son, Jordan Chandler.
The story provoked a prolonged "feeding frenzy" among the world's media and Jackson eventually settled out of court, paying the Chandlers a sum believed to be in the region of $26 million to drop the case, while continuing vigorously to protest his innocence.
The announcement, some months after the event, that on May 26, 1994 Jackson had married Lisa Marie Presley, the daughter of the late Elvis Presley, was initially greeted with disbelief and subsequently derided as a cynical PR ploy, designed to repair Jackson's tattered image.
But at least neither partner could be accused of marrying for a stake in the other's fortune. Their combined worth was said to be close to half a billion dollars.
The marriage lasted just 17 months. In 1997, Jackson married Debbie Rowe, a 37-year-old nurse, who bore him two children, Prince Michael 1 and Paris Michael Katherine before leaving him (and the children), and filing for divorce in 1999.
It was ironic that a near-fanatical interest in fitness was in itself the cause of concern about Jackson's health. Rail-thin all his life, he was a strict vegetarian who put himself through various punishing regimes involving days of fasting and long spells of obsessive dance practice.
In 1979, while working on The Wiz, he burst a blood vessel in his lung. In 1988 he collapsed onstage during one of the Bad shows in Europe, and in 1990 much was made of a suspected heart attack which turned out to be an inflamed rib cartilage, damaged through excessive exercise.
He cancelled the last six dates of the European leg of the Dangerous tour in 1992, because of "throat problems" and, in 1993, as the publicity surrounding the child abuse allegations reached a crescendo, the South East Asian leg of the same tour collapsed in disarray and Jackson retired to undergo treatment for addiction to painkillers.
It was not until December 1995 that he attempted a return to live performance, but disaster struck again when he collapsed during rehearsals for a show that was to have been televised worldwide from a New York theatre.
He was rushed to intensive care suffering from low blood pressure, dehydration and a suspected virus affecting his heart.
Jackson's next full-length album, Invincible (2001), was a creditable collection of R&B songs which sold six million copies, a huge success if judged by any standards other than those of Jackson's earlier work.
A greatest hits compilation, Number Ones, released in 2003, shifted well over a million copies in Britain alone, despite the almost continual controversy that by now surrounded him.
Almost a year earlier, after parenting another son, Prince Michael II with an unidentified surrogate mother, he dangled the baby dangerously over the railing of a balcony at a hotel in Berlin.
The pictures were circulated around the world and raised questions about his suitability as a parent. There was further cause for concern when an infamous TV interview with the documentary film maker Martin Bashir, first screened in Britain in 2003 revealed a middle aged man trapped in a child's mindset.
More disturbingly, Jackson's admission in the same interview that he routinely slept with children in his room created further lurid speculation and led to his arrest by the Santa Barbara police which charged him with molesting a 13 year-old boy. Jackson's lawyers promised that there would be "no quarter" given in their efforts to defend him and fans were vocal in protest.
"His life has been about peace," insisted Jackson's elder brother Jermaine.
The case opened on January 31 2005 and the huge media circus outside the Santa Maria courtroom was not disappointed as Jackson provided them with an almost daily supply of dramatic stories.
Even before the jury had been sworn in, he announced a list of star witnesses that included Diana Ross, Elizabeth Taylor and Stevie Wonder, although in the event none of them were actually called to the stand and nor was Jackson required to testify himself. Even so, the strain on Jackson took its toll, visibly so.
He twice sought medical attention at a hospital, once for flu-like symptoms and once for back pain. At one point, Judge Melville threatened to revoke the singer's $3 million bail and lock him up for the rest of the trial after Jackson shuffled in weakly, more than an hour late, wearing his pyjamas.
On June 14, almost five months after the trial began Jackson was sensationally acquitted of all ten charges of child abuse, charges which carried a maximum possible sentence of more than 18 years in prison.
Hundreds of fans who had kept a vigil outside the courthouse, celebrated with abandon. But for Jackson, grim-faced and by now extremely fragile, there was only relief that the ordeal was over and that he still had his freedom.
In the aftermath of the trial he sought refuge from the public eye in Bahrain, where it was reported that he had purchased a property close to the palace of his friend Sheik Abdullah bin Hamad al Khalifa.
Yet another greatest hits compilation - The Essential Michael Jackson - sailed to No.2 in the UK chart, but could only limp into the American chart at No.128, a disastrous showing for the man who once reigned supreme.
Jackson's last years were marked chiefly by stories of financial difficulties brought on by years of extravagant spending. His fans remained loyal, however.
The singer's death came only weeks before he was due to begin an unprecedented series of fifty concerts in London. When the performances were announced there was a strong suggestion that they might be Jackson's last and that he would retire when they were over. The dates sold out at once.
Michael Jackson, pop singer, was born in Gary, Indiana, on August 29, 1958. He collapsed and died on June 25, 2009, aged 50.
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