4:49
- ABC News
- March 7, 2019
Michael Jackson's ex-nanny comes to his defense
In a rare public statement, Grace Rwaramba said she never witnessed sex abuse.
4:49
Robson told Winfrey that when he testified he had “no understanding that what Michael did to me sexually was abuse. I had no concept of it being that.”
“From night one of the abuse, of the sexual stuff that Michael did to me, he told me it was love,” Robson said. “He told me that he loved me and God brought us together. … Anything Michael would say to me was gospel.”
'Ambition and self-interest'
Rwaramba, who acknowledges she doesn’t know whether or not Jackson molested the two men, described Robeson and his mother as determined to use Jackson’s fame and celebrity to make him a star.
“I know Wade Robson and his family well,” Rwaramba said in the statement. “I first met Joy Robson back in the early 90s, when I was at MJJ Productions. In late 1994, I attended the release party of Wade’s first album in California. I distinctly recall Joy running that event as though her life depended on it. After that release party, I didn’t see the Robsons again until early 1997, when Wade joined several other families at Neverland after Prince was born.”
![\"PHOTO:](\"http://a.abcnews.com/images/GMA/michael-jackson-2006-gty-ps-190305_hpMain_4x3t_384.jpg\")
“Over the years, I got to know the Robsons well as they visited the ranch on many different occasions,” Rwaramba continued in the statement. “Neverland was an enchanting place where the butlers, cooks, maids, zookeepers, gardeners and other staff made every guest feel like royalty, and everyone person who was fortunate to visit loved it!”
“The one thing that was consistent about the Robsons over the years was Joy's steely resolve to turn Wade into a star,” Rwaramba said in the statement. “When all the other kids, often including Michael, were off having water balloon fights or watching a movie in the theater, Joy would be drilling Wade on a dance move and every so often wave Michael over for some tips.”
“On one such occasion, Michael sat next to me as I was watching Prince and we watched Wade practice under Joy’s focused inspection. He said to me, “she reminds me of Joseph,” referring to his father’s obsession with perfection. Unbeknownst to Joy, that was her nickname. Michael had a nickname for everyone. This was the only time I ever heard him compare anyone to his father. Also, despite his complicated past with Joseph, he meant this observation as a compliment.”
![\"PHOTO:](\"http://a.abcnews.com/images/US/wade-robson-gty-jpo-190307_hpEmbed_13x16_384.jpg\")
Several years after his 2009 death, both men sued the Jackson estate civilly for child sexual abuse, but the lawsuits were dismissed due to statutes of limitations. Both men are appealing the separate decisions, according to the documentary.
In the interview with Winfrey, Robson said he was forced to lie on the witness stand at Jackson's 2005 trial and elsewhere, and that the lawsuit was an effort to do \"something good with this bad.\"
“Michael trained me and forced me to tell the lie for so many years, and particularly on the stand,” he continued. “And those were really traumatizing experiences for me that had a huge impact on the rest of my life. So the feeling was, I want an opportunity to reprocess that experience. I want to get on the stand again, because now I’m able to tell the truth.”
'Neverland' wedding bid
Rwaramba also claimed that Robson sought permission to hold his wedding at Neverland -– in the middle of Jackson’s 2005 criminal trial, for which he was acquitted of all charges.
“The Robsons’ ambition and self-interest knew no bounds,” Rwaramba wrote in her statement. “Several months before Michael was acquitted on all charges on June 13, 2005, he came home from court and informed me that I should expect a call from Wade. When Wade called the ranch, security patched the call through to Paris’s room where Michael and I spent most of our time preparing for the next day.
\"I put him on speaker phone,\" Rwaramaba continued. \"He informed me that Michael had advised him to contact me about whether he and his finance, Amanda, could have their wedding at Neverland in the fall. I was utterly shocked by how insensitive the request was; Michael was sitting next to me.
\"’You know Grace, Neverland is so special to my family and me,’ Wade continued,” according to Rwaramba’s statement. “’Michael has been like a father to me, and it would mean the world to us if Amanda and I could get married at Neverland.’ I told Wade, this is not a good time, reminding him that Michael was in the middle of the fight for his life.”
“A few days later, I was in Santa Barbara running errands when Joy called with the same request. I had previously helped Wade gain permission to film a music video at Neverland, which was a big favor considering the strict no cameras policy. I remember responding with a stern ‘do you seriously expect me to ask Michael, right now -- during the trial -- if you can use the ranch for Wade’s wedding?’
\"After a moment of awkward tension, she conceded and dropped off the phone,\" Rwaramaba wrote in the statement. \"Why would someone who alleges to have been assaulted for over seven years want to have one of the most sacred events in his life on the same property where the attacks allegedly took place?’”
A woman who answered the phone at the home of Lynnette Joy Robson declined comment, referring interview requests to a public relations spokesperson in New York, who referred ABC News to Finaldi, Robson and Safechuck's attorney.
“What I can't understand is why Wade would continue to voluntarily and consistently return, and bring friends and loved ones, to a place that is the site of the alleged attacks well into his adult life?” Rwaramba said in the statement.
Rwaramba, a Rwandan national, began working as a personnel director and assistant to Jackson in 1992, and became a nanny to his children beginning in 1997, when Jackson’s first child, Prince, was born.
“For twelve years, from 1997 to 2009, I was part of Michael’s family … I spent more time with Michael in the last twelve years of his life than anyone except his children.”
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