I want to bring somebody now who knew Michael Jackson better than most people. His longtime friend Kathy Hilton.
Kathy, a very, very difficult day, I would imagine, for you as his friend and for the family to see these pictures of Michael lying dead. I found quite shocking. And the audio tape of him in an almost zombie-like condition, perhaps even more so.
What was your reaction to those two things?
KATHY HILTON, FRIEND OF MICHAEL JACKSON: I saw that this morning, and when I heard the tape, I could not believe what I was hearing. I was -- I had never heard anything like that before with anyone. I mean, if that doesn't show you, don't you think that was enough? MORGAN: Yes, I mean, what does it show you, though, given that it was taken -- the recording was made in May before he died, two months or so before he died. What does that tell you?
HILTON: That's what I was wondering, A, why, Michael would never let anyone tape him. And he obviously was very sedated. Or he would not let anybody hold anything up like that. Not his mother, no one. So I'm sure that -- I don't know how long the doctor was there before.
MORGAN: Did you find it suspicious?
HILTON: I thought it was very suspicious. And I thought it was very strange. I mean, not normal.
MORGAN: I mean, none of this seems overtly normal, I must say. Clearly --
HILTON: Wouldn't he have called somebody right away? You know, a manager or a family member, and said, you need to get over here and see this? I'm not a legal person.
HILTON: Yes, I mean I suppose -- I suppose, Kathy, the real issue, I guess, and you can give us an insight into this, is how much of a drug addict was Michael, do you think, before Conrad Murray ever came on the scene?
The clear suspicion from his defense counsel is that for years he had become dependent on a number of drugs. I guess that, although this tape has come out and possibly helps the prosecution, you could argue it helps the defense. It shows that Michael was a habitual user of these drugs.
HILTON: Well, I could just say that I have spent time with him up until four or five months leading up to all of this on June 25th, and let me just say one thing.
I want to make it very clear that I was very apprehensive, as you know, Piers, about doing this interview.
MORGAN: Yes.
HILTON: And I did speak to Mrs. Jackson. And I got her blessing.
Michael was a very, very private person. And -- but I do want to share with the public the Michael that I know and that I love. And I can tell you that when he was living at the Bel-Air Hotel for, I'd say, a good three months, and he had visited before and then he went back to Las Vegas, then he came in to L.A., never ever exhibited any of that kind of behavior.
The most attentive, wonderful father. There was no nanny there. I mean he was in charge and taking care of three children. Blow- drying their hair and making sure that they had their coat. That they're -- those children loved him. They were his life. And he was their life. The most well behaved, beautiful, lovely little angels. And I think that everybody could see that at the memorial.
MORGAN: Do you worry, Kathy -- did you worry, if I can jump in there, that we're going to see a systematic character assassination of Michael Jackson after his death?
HILTON: Oh, are you kidding? I mean people have been doing this to him for many years. And it pained him so much and his entire family. This is a family that I've known since I'm 13 years old. And this is the most lovely, beautiful, kind, humble, thoughtful.
When those parents would say, we need you home for a meeting or we're having a lunch or a dinner, I don't care what else was going on. And all of them were very respectful. When you think of all those children that Mr. And Mrs. Jackson have, we've never had any issues with any problems with any drugs with anything.
So all I can say is as far as I'm concerned and when I've been around him, when I saw this today, this was criminal.
MORGAN: In what way do you think it was criminal?
HILTON: Well, hello? Seeing anybody and to see my friend and to have his parents and his brothers and his sisters and his children, to see something like this, and this started back two months before? Where -- why didn't anybody get in touch with somebody? I'm sorry.
MORGAN: No, I can completely understand, Kathy. I mean you went to high school with Michael. You knew him from when you were 13, he was 14. I think you went to the hospital the night that he died. This is an incredibly --
HILTON: No, I went to the hospital that afternoon.
MORGAN: Yes, and --
HILTON: And I didn't believe it. Until I saw.
MORGAN: Did you see Conrad Murray at all that day?
HILTON: I saw him standing outside of the room where Mrs. Jackson and the family and the cousins were, and the children, just crying and not understanding what was going on.
MORGAN: Jermaine said to me that when he saw Conrad Murray that night, he found his behavior suspicious. We're hearing today from the prosecution that he didn't tell anybody that he had administered Propofol at all to Michael. So he was hiding the fact that he had been giving these drugs to him that night, which again if that is true would lend itself to a suspicious sequence of events here.
What do you think the family believe really happened?
HILTON: To tell you the truth, I think that they have all been in such pain. We don't really sit there and discuss what we think or who -- I mean, I think there are a lot of people in the past that have taken advantage, certainly not like that, but people that have taken advantage.
Michael, in a lot of ways, was very trusting. And I believe that he really trusted that this doctor would be there to be helpful and on call and -- I say that again?
MORGAN: No, listen, Kathy, I know this is a very difficult thing to discuss and I do appreciate you coming on today. I think that clearly there will be lots of twists and turns in this court case. I hope that we can talk to you again as it unravels because you have such a unique perspective as somebody who has known him so long and is close to the family.
I'm just sorry that you've had to experience what the family has, too, as well, today. It must be incredibly difficult for all of you.
HILTON: Well, I just don't understand. I mean here's somebody that is doing so -- upbeat, happy, you know, just feeling great, I mean every single night I never talked to him ever after 10:30 at night. He was up. Rick, my husband, would see him at the hotel on his way to the gym. He'd see Michael and the children playing at the garden at the Bel-Air Hotel.
How -- why -- why wasn't he in that state months before? Was my question in my head.
MORGAN: Yes.
HILTON: How do you get up at 7:30 and be out playing ball or playing and running around with kids and taking them trick-or- treating. In fact, I heard somebody today saying something about that he was very depressed or upset on Halloween.
On Halloween 2009, I got a basket the size of this table, a big treasured chest filled with candy and Halloween things and everything. And I talked to him a couple of times that day. And he was all excited. Oh, did you like that or, you know, whatever.
And Rick bumped into them. He was coming in from golf and Mike was out with a guard to take the kids trick-or-treating, and the guards saw Rick coming up and like almost pounced on Rick.
So Michael called me from the car laughing. He said, oh, you should see what just happened. You know I guess Rick had his golf hat on or something. He seemed to be in very good spirits.
MORGAN: Well, it's --
HILTON: And as I said I would see when the lights would go out, I never -- this did not seem like somebody -- because I could see right into the apartment where his room was, where the living room, I was there, you know, we'd go in and order room service and the children would like take the little pad and take our orders. Oh, I want a hamburger, I want this, I want that, they'd write it all down. He was such a responsible and so like very, very hands on, a very hands-on father.
MORGAN: Kathy, I'm going to -- I'm going to have to leave it there. Let's go to a break. I mean I want to thank you very much again for coming on. It's a fascinating reaction you've given us. I suspect this one shared by the family. There must have been a totally different side to all this, just the family were totally unaware of because Jermaine knew nothing about this kind of stuff either.
HILTON: Well, I think it was hard at sometimes as we all have heard to have gotten in touch at certain points.
MORGAN: Yes.
HILTON: You know, the numbers are changed and people controlling and that's all I'll say.
MORGAN: I understand.
HILTON: And --
MORGAN: Kathy, I'm going to --
HILTON: My love to the family.
MORGAN: I'm going to have to leave it there. Thank you so much for coming on. I appreciate it.
HILTON: Thank you, thank you. |
