Oprah Winfrey Still Defends ‘Leaving Neverland’ Docu After Timeline Discrepancy Revealed: I Have NOT Wavered

Oprah Winfrey, Michael Jackson

Oprah Winfrey Still Defends ‘Leaving Neverland’ Docu After Timeline Discrepancy Revealed: I Have NOT Wavered

Oprah Winfrey isn’t backing down from her HBO Leaving Neverland special. It featured a sit-down with two men, James Safechuck and Wade Robson,  who said the late Michael Jackson sexually abused them when they were young boys. Since then, a discrepancy in each of their stories has popped up. But Winfrey said she’s still standing behind the documentary.

During a recent interview Winfrey said,

“When I first saw that documentary, I realized that a lot of people would be triggered by watching it. And a lot of people will not understand what the pattern is. I had done 217 shows trying to get people to understand that it’s not about one person. It’s about the pattern, it’s about the seduction. People call it molestation, but there is a big seducing that goes on… and that was important enough for me to take the hateration.”

She also said she still believes the accusers despite the timeline discrepancy.

“I have not wavered. You know why I have not wavered? Because I’ve had girls at my school who were sexually assaulted and abused. And I have never won a case. The reason I have never won a case is because when you put a girl on the witness stand, and she can’t remember was it Thursday or Wednesday, it’s automatically discredited. When you’re in the midst of trauma, and terrible things happening to you, you might not remember the time. If you can’t remember the day and the time, everybody’s like, ‘Well okay, I guess it never happened.'”

Winfrey, who has experienced lots of backlash since the documentary aired, said she hasn’t gotten that much “hateration” since “The Puppy Episode,” referring to the name of an episode of Ellen DeGeneres’ sitcom. That episode marked the day DeGeneres’ confirmed she is a lesbian. On the day it aired in 1997, DeGeneres and her then girlfriend were guests on The Oprah Winfrey Show. 

As for the discrepancies in the Leaving Neverland documentary, Jackson accuser Safechuck said Jackson abused him at the Neverland station from 1988-1992. But the station wasn’t actually built until 1994.

Mike Smallcombe, who wrote a biography on Jackson, revealed the news on Twitter and proved that permits for the construction train station were approved in fall of 1993.

The director of the documentary, Dan Reed, confirmed the inconsistency.

“Yeah there seems to be no doubt about the station date. The date they have wrong is end of the abuse.”

According to Smallcombe, there were also mix-ups with Robson’s story as it relates to another accuser, Jordan Chandler. 

“His mother, Joy Robson, testified under oath in a deposition in 1993/1994 in relation to the Jordie Chandler case that Wade had actually gone with them on that trip to the Grand Canyon, before the entire family returned to Neverland for the second time following the weekend. Joy Robson had no reason to lie about this; she openly admitted that Wade stayed with Jackson alone on other occasions. Her words in that deposition were, ‘We went to the ranch for the first weekend, and then we left and went to the Grand Canyon, and we toured. We came back to the ranch for the following weekend.’ She was asked to elaorate on who had gone to the Grand Canyon, and she said ‘my family.’ There was no mention of Wade staying behind.”

Smallcombe added that Joy once said Robson didn’t stay with Jackson alon until 1993.

What are your thoughts about Oprah’s remarks? Let us know in the comments.