Lucy Lester, daughter of Mark Lester and friend of Michael Jackson has done an exclusive interview for the Gloucestershire papers where she recalls her times with the King of Pop and her thoughts on “Leaving Neverland” so called documentary.
Lucy is the goddaughter of Michael Jackson and has spent many times with Michael Jackson family and even called Michael’s 3 kids “cousins”.
In the exclusive interview she remembers Michael Jackson as being a lovely family man.
“Dad met Michael when he was 18, long before I was even born so for me it’s always been pretty normal, It’s only now looking back that it sounds pretty surreal, as if you are describing someone else’s life not your own. But it was just normal at the time.”
Lucy only met Michael face to face for the first time at the age of 12 in Las Vegas for naming ceremony between the 2 families by Michael becoming their godfather and making Mark godfather of Prince, Paris and Blanket.
“We flew over for the naming ceremony but the thing I remember most was that it was Halloween, which is really big in America, and we went trick or treating with Michael and the kids, I remember children walking past with their parents and saying ‘Look it’s Michael Jackson’ and then somebody else would say ‘Don’t be ridiculous, it’s someone dressed up as him for Halloween. It was so funny because nobody believed it was him.”
In 2005, the 2 families spent Christmas together in Bahrain and she recalled:
“I remember the car picking us up and taking us there, It was only about 10 minutes away but the drive to the house must have been about a mile long and there were all these rose gardens and water features. It was amazing. When we went inside, it was massive. The ceilings must have been 50 foot tall and the Christmas tree reached the top. It was huge. I’ve never seen a tree that big and on Christmas Eve a Toys ‘R Us truck full of presents pulled up. It was like a film and it seemed so magical at the time. When we went back at the end of the holiday there was so much stuff that me and my dad had to go to the lobby to buy duffel bags to put it all in, It was crazy. There was so much we could not take it all back and had to to have half the presents shipped back to Cheltenham. I remember my dad looking at a big inflatable bouncy castle and saying ‘that’ll never fit into our back garden in Cheltenham’
Michael visited often the UK later and always asked to be visited by the Lesters.
“Obviously if we went out there would be security and hordes of people taking pictures but as soon as we were back inside it was just two normal families together, My dad and Michael would be chatting and we would hang out with the kids. We would order pizza, chips and ice-cream on room service and sit around talking and watching TV and films. We grew up together and spent so much time together we referred to each other as cousins. There was one time when we were really, really bored and Michael cleared it his with security to take me, Prince and Paris to the cinema. Nobody knew what the kids looked like because they usually wore masks when they went out, but this the one time Michael said they didn’t have to and we went to see Bolt in 3D.”
Asked about Michael’s children, Lucy said:
“They were the kind of children you would choose as your friends. Blanket was a baby when we met. Paris was quite quiet and really, really sweet. I remember we bought her this pendant necklace with a blue sandal on it for her birthday, or maybe a late Christmas present. She adored it and wanted us to put it on her. She said it was the best present she had ever had, which was really endearing because she could probably have had anything she wanted.”
In 2007, the family went to Prince’s birthday party and as usual, Mark told Michael “you must come to see us in Cheltenham” and Michael did just that!
“They rocked up in a security car and sneaked into the house, We shut the blinds but people started to gather outside almost straight away. People knew who my dad was so when a car with blacked out security windows parked in the street they wanted to to know if it was him. Dad asked what everybody wanted to eat and Michael said he’d like to try fish and chips. Someone went to the chippie and we all sat around the table together eating fish chips and mushy peas. Michael said he loved it.”
She also recalled the time of the trial and said she is hurt when people attacked the star and she remembers Michael as a lovely dad who do ordinary things like eat popcorn in front of a movie or offer her a piece of Hubba Bubba chewing gumas they traveled in his car.
“He’s made out to be this big character but maybe that’s a stage persona and people are different backstage, As soon as he saw us he would give us a big hug and just start talking about normal stuff like how we were getting along in school? He was very down to earth and he’d just talk about the family and everyday things. It’s weird because the media make him out to be wacky and eccentric, but for me he was just a family friend. A friend of my dads.”
Regarding the fans surrounding the King of Pop, she recalls:
“He used to say his fans knew where he would be before he did,” she said. “Once we went to see Billy Elliott and we had to drive through what seemed like thousands of screaming fans. It was quite scary but Michael was just laughing. He wound the window down and shouted to somebody ‘I love your banner, I want your banner’. The fans thought it was brilliant and we had to help him pull the banners into the car. It was so funny to see. I suppose he was quite childlike because he was so excitable.”
Lucy spoke to Michael the last time when he was in rehearsals for “THIS IS IT” concerts at the O2 in London.
The last time I spoke to him was three days before he passed away, He was in rehearsals in America and on the phone to my dad a lot. I happened to be around my dad’s once and as usual he asked to be put on to me so he could say ‘hi’. He was asking how things were going and what I was up to. I was telling him I wasn’t sure what to do for my 18th birthday and he said he would reserve front row seats for me and a couple of friends at one of the concerts and we could go backstage afterwards. The plan was that he was going to rent somewhere half hour from the stadium that had a guest house in the grounds so that our family could stay there.”
Unfortunately Michael passed away before Lucy’s birthday:
“He passed away on 25 June and it was my 18th birthday on July 15, I went out with some friends and obviously a lot of the clubs were playing his music as a tribute. One of his songs came on, I think it was You are Not Alone, and I had a complete and utter breakdown in the club. I hadn’t cried until then but I went out in a ball of tears. I don’t know if it was because it had finally hit home and hearing music made me think how I would never see him again, but I had a meltdown.”
Lucy also talked about the new allegations from the movie “Leaving Neverland” and she disputes some of the evidence put forward saying it’s unfair because Michael is not there to defend himself.
“One hundred percent I never saw anything to suggest anything like that, I never had the slightest inkling, saw or heard anything that made me feel uncomfortable. I do not believe he did it and there are other factors to consider such as monetary gain from the people who accused him. Having to hear people say things about him when they don’t know him is probably the most difficult thing of all. I can speak from personal experience and all I can say is that I never thought there was anything untoward. Michael was a lovely family man. I don’t get into arguments about it. There’s no point. But there is nothing that has made me feel like it could possibly be true. The person described in the newspapers who allegedly did these things was so far from the Michael I knew. All I can say is that I racked up a lot of hours with him and I never ever saw anything to suggest anything like that.”
SOURCE & Full interview: GloucestershireLive
Thank you and God bless you, Lucy Lester! For these precious memories of Michael, disputing the allegations and standing up for him! Means more than you may know .
Best wishes 🙂
I’m glad you spoke out .I just believe he helped so many children and people to me he never judged that’s the type of person in this world we need . You can see in his videos and picture he just cared and wanted to help children .And his music and dancing was the best. MJ you are the best .Rest in peace .