Michael Jackson’s family considered “kidnapping” the late pop star to combat his drug habit, his former bodyguard told the Brisbane Times on Friday.
Matt Fiddes, who became friends with Jackson in the late 1990s and is now a martial arts trainer in the U.K., said he discussed the plan with Jackson’s brother Jermaine.
“We talked literally about kidnapping Michael and getting him away from the doctors and the people who were around him who were supplying this stuff [prescription drugs],” he said. “We met in secret, and we were planning it because we were both concerned. We would look at Sky News sometimes and thought one day we’re going to see a newsflash saying, ‘Michael Jackson’s dead.’”
That fear came true when Jackson died last year following an overdose of prescription drugs.
Fiddes said doctors and “enablers” gave Jackson drugs whenever he wanted them, but responsibility for taking them sat with Jackson himself.
“Michael put his arm out, that’s the thing, and it baffles me to this day why he didn’t scream out for help,” he said.
Fiddes was in the Australian city of Brisbane, Queensland, to promote his martial arts academies.
He has hit headlines before, after claiming he donated his sperm to Jackson before the birth of the star’s youngest child, Prince Michael “Blanket” Jackson II.
Fiddes could not say if he is the child’s father, claiming he had not sought tests in relation to the matter.
“I donated [sperm] to Michael, and people do that for people around the world every day, but because it was Michael Jackson it was blown out of proportion,” he told the newspaper.