Warning: This article contains mentions of child abuse which some readers may find distressing
Riley Keough, Lisa Marie Presley's daughter, has spoken out regarding the alleged Michael Jackson sexual abuse allegations.
Since the 'Thriller' hitmaker's death in 2009, stories came to light in the explosive documentary, Leaving Neverland, that accused Jackson of allegedly having abused youngsters.
The doc featured interviews with Wade Robson and James Safechuck, who said that Jackson abused them as a child.
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Jackson became family with Keough at one point after the singer married her mother, Lisa Marie.
The singer-actor - who died aged 54 in 2023 - married Jackson in 1994 before the pair called it quits just two years later in 1996.
Speaking about her mother's marriage to Jackson on the Call her Daddy podcast, Keough said: "I think when she saw Michael's life, there were things that he had that she didn't have.
"The one thing I know is that they were in love and that their love for one another was genuine because I was there and I remember. Everything else, I don’t know because I wasn’t there."
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While the claims about Jackson were very much in the public eye, Keough went on to say she never discussed those with Lisa Marie prior to her passing away.
The 35-year-old added: "I was never told anything. It’s actually not something I ever asked as an adult. I think it just was what it was. I don’t know, it just never came to mind, I guess."
Keough is the daughter of Danny Keough, with the actor predicting what her late father would have thought of the Jackson allegations.
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She continued on the podcast: "I would imagine he said all kind of things to my mom that we didn't know about. But the way my parents parented was very much like 'we don't fight around the kids'.
"We didn't know about any allegations, we didn't know, we had no awareness of that."
After Leaving Neverland released in 2019, the Michael Jackson estate dismissed the film as 'yet another lurid production in an outrageous and pathetic attempt to exploit and cash in on' the singer.
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Home Alone actor Macaulay Culkin was good friends with Jackson and previously said that he never saw Jackson abuse anyone, and also denied that the singer had ever behaved inappropriately with him.
Culkin actually gave evidence in Jackson's defense in a 2005 trial, where the singer was found not guilty of molesting a boy.
Speaking to Esquire magazine in 2020, the actor shut down all rumors: "I'm gonna begin with the line - it's not a line, it's the truth: He never did anything to me. I never saw him do anything. And especially at this flashpoint in time, I'd have no reason to hold anything back."
If you’ve been affected by any of these issues or want to speak to someone in confidence regarding the welfare of a child, the Childhelp USA National Child Abuse Hotline (1-800-4-A-CHILD (1-800-422-4453) operates 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and receives calls from throughout the United States, Canada, US Virgin Islands, Guam and Puerto Rico.
Topics: Michael Jackson, Lisa Marie Presley, Celebrity
Callum Jones