that claimed to give an honest, candid, and revealing look

into the private life of one of the world's most successful and controversial celebrities,

Michael Jackson

The revelations were explosive, the ratings were enormous,

but Michael has claimed that what, TV journalist, Martin Bashir presented

was a twisted and edited construction of scandal and innuendo

Not a true representation of the interviews that actually took place.

In the next two hours, we're gonna give you an opportunity unprecedented in the history of television.

We're gonna show you footage that was never intended to be broadcast.

Tonight, the private video from Michael's own cameras.

Cameras that shot 'The Michael Jackson Interview: The Footage You Were Never Meant to See'

As much as I do not speak about my family, I will

right now.

For the first time, Michael's ex-wife speaks out in public.

My kids don't call me mom, because I don't want them to.

You'll find out what really happened during the astonishing incidents with his children in Germany.

And I've seen people that flip their kids up in the air, do somersaults, and catch them.

To be honest with you, I think, wait another four or five years

the kids will come in front of the camera and they will defend their daddy.

You'll hear about Michael's childhood.

One of the things that I can see this man tried to do,

he tried to pin something on me where I was real brutal.

You'll find out how Michael really feels about his father.

He doesn't know this, but I walk in the room and his presence would be there and I'd faint.

You'll hear about Michael's surgery that the other special didn't mention.

The whole top of his caught fire, right in front of my eyes.

You'll hear the truth behind Michael's children and their disguises.

Michael is very proud of his children; I'm the one who's terrified.

You'll go behind the rumors of the Neverland Ranch.

I never did - I would slit my wrists before I would hurt a child.

And find out how those rumors have driven a family from their home.

Gavin call me, he was crying on the phone.

He went in gas station, the kid in gas station, they start kidding

"Oh you are the kid who doing this with Michael. You slept with Michael."

They ruined this kid's life!

You'll hear from the people closest to Michael.

I've heard someone say on the television that

no-one should be allowed behind those gates at Neverland, especially the children.

They don't even know what they're talking about.

Plus, a surprise revelation from the man behind the Michael Jackson interviews.

There will be a lot of controversy about this.

Stupid tabloids. You're beyond this, you're a respected journalist.

All tonight, on 'The Michael Jackson Interview: The Footage You Were Never Meant to See,'

With Mr. Bashir's full knowledge, Michael had his own behind the scenes camera document the major interviews.

The quality of the audio and video may be a bit raw at times,

but it will enable you to see and hear the interviews as they actually happened,

and will allow you, the viewing audience, to draw your own conclusions.

While Michael Jackson has provided this footage to us,

he has absolutely no control over the editorial content of this program.

But who is Martin Bashir and how did he get an exclusive interview

with one of the most reclusive pop stars the world has ever known?

In 1995, this little known British journalist caused an uproar

when his sensational interview with Princess Diana

revealed details of her extra marital affair.

Since then, he has scored interviews with England's most notorious newsmakers,

becoming somewhat of a celebrity himself.

His interview was, as he put it, "a request to show me the real man,

but show me everything, make nothing off limits."

Michael agreed, and the first interview was scheduled for the summer of 2002.

In these photos of one of Bashir's interviews with Jackson,

you can see the camera that captured the footage you were never meant to see.

It's mounted right there, on the light stand.

This is the view it was capturing at the last interview,

and this is the shot from the very first interview at Neverland.

The man adjusting the lens

?And now this is on.

- Okay, see, can we have silence in the house? - Yeah

Is Jackson's own documentary cameraman.

Oh, I just wanted to clarify that it was not a 'secret video.'

Right now they are saying that we were secretly video taping it, but that's not the truth.

Mr. Bashir saw me hooking up the camera,

and everybody saw the camera up there and we were just rolling it.

We usually do documentary of every thing that Mr. Jackson does.

The bigger the star, the bigger the target.

The more popular I became, the more rumors that were created

None of which were true.

I mean the moment I started breaking the all time records of the biggest selling albums of all time,

they calling me weird overnight, strange, whacko.

They said that I'm a girl, homosexual,

"He wants to buy the elephant man bones,"

"He sleeps in a hyperbaric chamber." None of that stuff is true,

all completely made up. It's all lies.

I sleep in a bed. I mean, people would be so surprised how normal or simple

Most people would have a hard time thinking Michael Jackson's life is normal or simple.

Maybe it's that ranch, north of Santa Barbara, California; The 3,000 acres he calls Neverland.

Neverland is an extraordinary,

What inspired me, it was so easy because it was me being myself

creating things that I love, and what I love, kids happen to love,

or what the child that lives inside the adult happens to love.

It is so easy because I'm putting behind the gates everything I never got to do when I was a kid.

- Somewhat? - What do you regret?

When I was really little, around 11 or 12, I was under contract with Motown

and I would have to go to the recording studio. I had to go and make these albums,

because the summer tour was right around the corner.

Right across the street from the recording studio was a ball park,

and I could hear the kids, the roar of the crowd, them playing and catching ball,

having fun, playing tennis. Some of those times I so passionately wanted to just go over there,

just play a little bit, and not go to the recording studio and sing;

just have some fun with the kids, and I couldn't.

People say, "Why is he always with children?!" Well, I was raised in a world with adults.

The kids were playing and in bed at sleep at night. I was up doing clubs,

I was doing club dates, three in the morning. The strip tease would come up after us.

We were performing.

We didn't have friends;

My brothers were my friends. We worked, we worked, we worked.

There was no Christmas, there were no birthdays; we were very strict Jehovah's Witnesses.

So, I'm compensating. Major make me sure that I'm compensated for the lost.

So you come behind my gates, and you'll see an amusement park, you'll see animals,

you'll see everything I never got to do.

There's candy everywhere.

It's fun.

While Bashir and his crew were here at Neverland, they got to witness what is almost the weekly experience.

Busloads of children, some from the inner city, some orphans, some terminally ill,

but all of them escaping their realities to spend the day at Michael Jackson's creation.

Who's gonna try to help me?

You want to come over here and see the elephants?

I feel totally at home with them. I can talk to them one on one, because they don't judge you.

They're not looking for anything from you, they just want to have some fun,

and that's the same with myself. I can connect to that, I can understand that.

The fact that I missed that on so much, as I was a child

as soon as they come in the room for me, the whole room lights up.

I like the sound they make.

They're really funny. Oh God, they're really funny.

Yeah, one of the little boys said to me, he saw all the rides, and all the amusements and he said,

"Michael Jackson, you own all of this?" I go, "Yeah."

He said, "You paid for all of this?" I went, "Yeah, I did."

"And you still have money left over?" That's exactly what he said to me.

I said, "Yeah." He said, "I can't believe it! I can't believe it!"

That's exactly what he said

He was amazed that I still had money afterwards.

We're the Make-A-Wish staff members, and we're escorting all the Make-A-Wish families who came to meet Michael.

It's just a great thing to be a part of it and to see how happy they are.

Everything's free, theatre, amusement parks, whatever they want to do, we can do it.

Millions a year, but you know, I get it all back when I see them smile.

Peter Pan

Peter Pan represents, to me, represents something that's very special to my heart.

He represents youth, childhood, never growing up, magic, flying,

everything that I think that children and wonderment and magic,

what it's all about.

To me I just have never ever grown out of loving that or thinking that it's very special.

No, I am Peter Pan.

I'm Peter Pan, in my heart.

Yes, that's absolutly true.

I've never been betrayed or deceived by children.

Adults have let me down; adults have let the world down.

What you're seeing all took place on the day that Martin Bashir and his crew were filming at Neverland.

You actually see him in several of the shots being taken by Jackson's camera crew.

This was supposed to be a documentary to tell the truth, everything,

I mean who would bring somebody to his life, and open up all the way, and wanted to lie about it?

If want to lie about it, don't even do it.

He didn't have to do this documentary; nobody forced him to do this documentary.

After a full day spent with children from the Make-A-Wish foundation at Michael Jackson's Neverland Ranch,

what was Mr. Bashir's comment?

We'll quote directly from his appearance on ABC's Primetime Thursday.

As we said, that was Bashir's comment heard on TV by millions of people,

but what did Bashir say to Michael Jackson about this day at Neverland?

Let's take a look at the footage that was captured by Michael's camera documenting the interviews.

You know what? He does it all the time and a lot of people see it.

A lot of people see it

The woman you see has been Michael's makeup artist for over 20 years,

after listening to the glowing praise Bashir had for Michael in this interview,

she had a very hard believing he could call Neverland a "dangerous place for children."

It's so hard for me to imagine that Michael

opened up the gates not only to Neverland but to his heart, to Bashir.