It didn’t kill them: Barbra Streisand on Michael Jackson’s accusers

Veteran singer-actor Barbra Streisand has said that even though she believes the two men who accused Michael Jackson of sexual abuse in the HBO documentary “Leaving Neverland”, she has sympathy for the pop icon.

In an interview with the Times in the UK, Streisand said she empathises with victims– Wade Robson and James Safechuck– but the incident “didn’t kill them”.

“His (Jackson) sexual needs were his sexual needs, coming from whatever childhood he has or whatever DNA he has. You can say ‘molested,’ but those children, as you heard them say (the grown-up Robson and Safechuk), they were thrilled to be there. They both married and they both have children, so it didn’t kill them,” she added.

The response comes over a month after the premiere of the documentary, which focuses on longtime accusations of child sex abuse against Jackson.

Streisand also said that she has “combination of feelings” about the accusations.

“I feel bad for the children. I feel bad for him. I blame, I guess, the parents, who would allow their children to sleep with him? Why would Michael need these little children dressed like him and in the shoes and the dancing and the hats?”

In the documentary, Robson and Safechuck said Jackson spent years grooming both them and their families, gaining their trust so he could betray it.

Jackson’s estate has denied the accusations. Jackson also denied child molestation accusations for years, and was acquitted in a child molestation case in 2005.

PTI