Michael Jackson's Brother Reveals Failed Intervention Attempt
July 15 2009, Published 11:11 a.m. ET
In his first interview since his brother’s death, Tito Jackson reveals how he and his siblings staged an unsuccessful raid on Neverland to confront Michael Jackson about their growing suspicions that he was addicted to painkillers.
"I never saw him on drugs. Not once. He deliberately did it away from us. He didn't want his family to know anything about that part of him," Tito Jackson, 55, told the UK Mirror on Tuesday. "He did almost everything in his power to make sure we didn't know."
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Tito says his sisters Janet, Rebbie and La Toya joined him in the intervention as well as his brothers, Jackie and Randy.
Jackson -- who died June 25 at age 50 -- had ordered his bodyguards to stop his siblings from entering the ranch, but they forced their way passed the guards.
Tito told the Mirror that Michael emphatically denied being hooked on painkillers, and even had an on-site physician reassure the Jackson siblings their world-famous brother was in pristine heath.
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"We didn’t know what to believe," Tito said. "We didn’t take what Michael said as the truth."
Tito told the website that Neverland was locked down with Fort Knox-like security, including roadblocks, on subsequent trips.
“We talked about it again and again for hours but we just couldn’t get through to him," he said. "After that occasion we tried many times, but his team of people just shut us out, they would not let us close -- they literally shut us out."