T3's Taj Jackson defends his uncle Michael Jackson amid 'Leaving Neverland' abuse claims

Taj Jackson, Michael Jackson’s nephew and member of the band T3, has come to the defence of his uncle following the allegations of sexual abuse made against him in the new documentary Leaving Neverland.

In the film, made by British BAFTA-winning director Dan Reed, Wade Robson and James Safechuck, who were befriended by Jackson as children, claim the singer sexually abused them.

But speaking to Sky News, Taj Jackson has said that the turn of events has been particularly hard as the family has known Robson for many years, even dating his cousin Brandy for eight years.

Read more: Celebs react to ‘haunting’ Leaving Neverland doc

“We knew Wade very well. He was super close to us, super close to my uncle too,” he said. “But we don’t feel like our voice is being [heard]. It’s been hard, in that way.

“If you have four hours [to watch the documentary], please have like 10 minutes to do a search. My uncle is no longer here, so it does matter about credibility and character. Take 10 minutes on Google and look up credibility. They’ve both changed their story three or four different times.”

Taj, who has been a vocal defender of his uncle in recent weeks, also brings up that Robson has previously testified in court to say that Jackson did not molest him.

Presenter Kay Burley also grilled Jackson on why his uncle forged friendships with children rather than adults.

“He didn’t have a normal childhood,” he said. “And everyone that knew him from Elizabeth Taylor to Whoopi Goldberg to Macaulay Culkin, the ones that he let in, they recognised that. He would always ask us ‘what is it like to have birthday parties, what is it like to just hang out with your friends. Simple stuff like that, he did not have. So he’d live vicariously through us.

Read more: Michael Jackson’s kids ‘devastated’ by ‘Leaving Neverland’ furore

“It sounds corny, but for myself, you see the pureness of him. He doesn’t have that in his system. You don’t look at it like ‘this doesn’t look right, this looks creepy’, then all alarms would be going off.”

He questions Safechuck’s claims that Jackson ‘married’ him in a mock wedding ceremony, saying that we have to ‘go off his word’ that it happened at all.

“There’s nothing to say that he didn’t make up that whole thing,” he adds.

Jackson goes on to say that the sex abuse trial in 2004 and 2005, during which he was living with his uncle at the Neverland ranch, ‘destroyed him’.

“You could see him slowly wither away. It killed him, it really did,” he said. “You could literally watch his deterioration. He never recovered from that.”

Leaving Neverland airs tonight and tomorrow night on Channel 4, from 9pm.