The Chef, Kai Chase's Blog about the day Michael Died
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Celebrity chef Kai Chase was Michael Jackson’s personal chef at the time of his death. She was working in his home the day he died. Below are her chilling memories of the events that day. Kai will be Larry’s guest Thursday night.
The Jackson home was a very loving environment. I worked there on and off since March as Mr. Jackson’s personal chef. In that time, I got to know the kids well. We bonded immediately. They are wonderful children — loving, giving, caring and very close as siblings go. You would never know their dad was one of the most famous people on Earth.
Mr. Jackson was a great father. He was lenient in the evenings. He loved to let them stay up late, watch movies, and eat popcorn at night; but the days were fairly regimented. There was time set aside for study, theater and dance. The house was always filled with games, laughter and music. This makes what happened on June 25th all the more difficult.
The day of Mr. Jackson’s death, I didn’t see him. But his room was upstairs, so that wasn’t unusual. Dr. Conrad Murray had been coming over daily since I returned to the Jackson house in the beginning of June. He would normally arrive around 9 a.m. and leave shortly after lunch. I didn’t really know him well, but everyone in the house was friendly with each other, and he was no exception.
Dr. Murray usually came down to the kitchen around 10 a.m. to get Mr. Jackson something to eat or drink, but on June 25th he didn’t
come downstairs. Again, this didn’t strike me as that unusual — I thought maybe Mr. Jackson’s rehearsal time had been pushed back and he was sleeping late.
I went on with my daily routine, and started preparing lunch. Mr. Jackson and the kids would usually have lunch around 12:30, but that was flexible depending on what was going on that day. Much has been made of Mr. Jackson’s eating habits and weight prior to his death. He seemed to have normal eating habits to me.
At noon on June 25th, I remember looking at my cell phone to check the time. About 5 or 10 minutes after I did that, Dr. Murray came running halfway down the stairs that led to the kitchen, screaming “Hurry, get Prince, get security.” Clearly, something was very wrong.
I instantly felt the energy in the house change. It was normally a warm, happy home. In an instant that feeling was gone. The mood became very unsettling. I tried to continue with my lunch preparations, but the house became chaotic. Security guards were rushing by, the housekeepers were crying, Paris was screaming “Daddy, Daddy.” The children knew something was very wrong. This was their father — the only person they have in the world. We weren’t told what was going on, but you could feel things were very bad. We eventually gathered everyone together in a circle — the three kids, all the staff — and we prayed. “God, please let everything be O.K. with Mr. Jackson.”
Around 1:15 or 1:30p.m security told all the employees to leave the house. We asked if Mr. Jackson was all right, and were just told he had been taken to the hospital. We still didn’t know what was happening, but the sight of a stretcher in the foyer of the house earlier told me things were not good. Still, I didn’t learn of Mr. Jackson’s death until later that day on the radio.
It was a devastating day, and one I will never forget.
To learn more about Kai Chase, go to kaichase.com
