Jermaine Jackson’s new book, “You Are Not Alone: Michael, Through a Brother’s Eyes,” is a look at his late brother Michael’s rise to fame and tragic death.
In a new interview, Jermaine gave Access Hollywood’s Billy Bush a preview of the candid memoir where he revealed that his brother was supposed to be in The World Trade Center on September 11, 2001.
“My mother had stayed up with him all the way until four in the morning and he just slept; he missed his appointments, which was great,” Jermaine told Billy, saying Michael – a long time sufferer of sleep deprivation – had planned to attend meetings in the Twins Towers that day.
“My mother told us that he was fine,” Jermaine recalled.
The brother of the late pop star also opened up to Billy about Michael’s alleged drug use.
”[Michael] was not a drug addict,” Jermaine told Billy.
Following a harrowing accident while filming a commercial for Pepsi in 1984, where the singer suffered second-degree burns, Michael began a battle with chronic pain and a search for ways to treat it.
“He had a problem with pain,” Jermaine said of his brother, who died in 2009, leaving behind three children, Prince, 14, Paris, 13, and 9-year-old Blanket.
“[He] didn’t want them exposed all over the tabloids so he covered them,” he told Billy.
In the book, Jermaine writes that it was Michael’s ex-wife, Debbie Rowe, who first wanted the children to shield their faces while in public.
“Then we knew at some point in time they wanted to unveil and just be kids and so that’s what they’re going through now, they’re having a ball,” he explained.
“What about his children right now? Do you see Michael in any of them physically? Resemblance-wise?” Billy asked.
“I see Michael in Blanket, I see other family members in Paris and Prince,” Jermaine said.
The former Jackson 5 member also spoke about his brother’s 1993 sexual abuse allegations, claiming, “Michael paid them off because this is what they wanted… [it was his way of saying,] ‘Leave me alone because I didn’t do anything, and that [the pay-off] goes to show you.”
Tune in for Jermaine’s interview with Billy on September 14 on Access Hollywood and part two on September 15.
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