Michael Jackson Accuser Wade Robson Recalls the ‘Fricking Terrifying’ Backlash from Fans over Sexual Abuse Allegations

Dancer and choreographer Wade Robson and James Safechuck have been thrust back into the public spotlight. They’ve not only had to contend with a combative Michael Jackson estate and angry fans over abuse allegations for over a decade — they were fearful of threats, protesters and the public’s reactions to their damning claims against Jackson.

In the Emmy-winning bombshell documentary Leaving Neverland, which aired on HBO in 2019, the two men alleged the King of Pop sexually abused them as minors. Six years later, Robson, now 42, and Safechuck, now 47, reflect on their ongoing legal battle with Jackson’s estate over molestation allegations in filmmaker Dan Reed’s hour-long sequel, Leaving Neverland 2: Surviving Michael Jackson, which will be released on YouTube in the U.S. on Tuesday, March 18 at 8 p.m. ET.

The new documentary also delves into the personal toll and backlash Robson and Safechuck faced from the media and Jackson’s global fanbase after coming out. “It’s fricking terrifying,” Robson said in Leaving Neverland 2. “The reaction of the whole world, angry Michael fans and media, a certain amount of them can be extremely vicious.”

Safechuck adds that he was also fearful before Leaving Neverland was released. “The scope of what happened was like the thing I was most afraid of,” he admits in the new documentary. He claims that Jackson always said, “Your life would be over if people knew he would want me to suck on his nipples and then he would finish himself,” adding, “I was sleeping and I woke up and Michael said that he had performed oral sex on me while I was sleeping, and I was like, ‘Oh, okay.’ “

Jackson’s estate has vehemently denied the allegations. “We remain fully confident that Michael is innocent of these allegations, which are contrary to all credible evidence and independent corroboration, and which were only first made years after Michael’s death,” Jonathan Steinsapir, attorney for the Estate of Michael Jackson said to PEOPLE in April 2023. “We trust that the truth will ultimately prevail with Michael’s vindication yet again. Michael Jackson himself said, ‘Lies run sprints, but the truth runs marathons.’ “

In the new documentary, Robson also reflects on the March 2019 interview he and Safechuck did with Oprah Winfrey while watching it on camera. “She [Winfrey] got what I and James had been through, you know, getting to the point in life where it was no longer an option to keep it a secret.”

Back then, Winfrey’s questions did not mention her 1993 special with Jackson in which he spoke candidly about his troubled childhood and skin condition just a few months before Jordie Chandler accused Jackson of abuse — but did, in numerous ways, convey her acceptance of both Robson and Safechuck’s stories. At several points during the segment, she interjected to explain to the audience why a child might react to Jackson’s alleged behavior or how certain beliefs are lodged in the brains of child abuse survivors.

(left to right) Wade Robson, Dan Reed and James Safechuck in 2019.

“Watching this documentary was an intense and very emotional experience for many people here. It’s an audience of over 100 men and women here who say that they were sexually abused as children,” Winfrey said on her show in 2019. Robson responds in the segment by admitting that he was going to take “what truly happened to his grave. No question. That was the way it was.”

But Winfrey argued the issue of sexual abuse was too important to remain silent no matter how much her program angered his fans. “I felt like she [Winfrey] really personally understood and has had some version of that experience herself,” Robson said. (Winfrey is, herself, a survivor.) “She said, ‘We’re all going to get it.’ I respected her knowingness of what kind of backlash she was going to come up against.”

Winfrey made it clear that she found the men’s allegations credible, but the Jackson estate pushed back aggressively against Robson and Safechuck back then, dismissing them as “opportunists” and “perjurers.” Before going public with his abuse claims in 2013, Robson was one of Jackson’s most vociferous defenders, denying the pop star had ever behaved inappropriately and serving as a key defense witness in Jackson’s 2005 child molestation trial.

Safechuck also testified that he was never abused as part of the singer’s 1993 molestation trial, but declined to testify on his behalf in the follow-up trial. Both men claim they were groomed by Jackson to stay quiet — and Jackson allegedly told them that their lives would be ruined if they broke their silence.

“[Jackson] said, ‘We can’t let them do this to us.” We can’t let them take us down—us, us, us.’ I definitely had a real fear of what he said about if anyone ever found out that he and I would go to jail,” Robson said. “So at some point, I worked up the courage to tell Michael that I don’t want to testify. After that, I received a subpoena to testify, and so there it is. I got no choice. That’s what I’m doing. I wasn’t able to tell the truth, absolutely not.”

Attorney Ron Zonen, the prosecutor in Jackson’s criminal trial, said in Finding Neverland 2 that he will not prosecute Robson for perjury. “This is one of those things where very few people have any control over what happens, least of whom, believe it or not, but the person who’s experiencing yet, this is just not something within his emotional control.”

In the documentary, Vince Finaldi, the former lawyer for Robson and Safechuck, defended his client for lying on the stand in 2005. He said that a child’s sexual abuse victim is not going to come forward and say what happened until they’re ready.

“So you fast forward after the Santa Barbara investigation, Wade gets married, he has a child and it’s a boy,” Finaldi said. “And as we’ve seen many times with child sexual abuse litigation, oftentimes if someone will have a triggering event that will cause the light to go off and for them to start understanding that what happened to them as a child was not right and it wasn’t loving and it wasn’t normal. It was abuse and it was wrong.”

Jackson’s supporters say Robson and Safechuck are just trying to get rich. They note that the accusers continue to seek damages from the estate even though their cases were originally dismissed because of statutes of limitations issues.

“This is all about greed and money. It was always about the money. It was always about the money, money, money. Go down the rabbit hole and do some actual homework on this case,” one fan claims in Leaving Neverland 2.

The documentary also showcases an interview with Gayle King from February 2019, in which Jackson’s brothers Jackie, Marlon and Tito and nephew Taj all defend Michael and claim Robson and Safechuck are seeking financial gain.

Both men said it took them years to come to grips with what happened to them as children. Robson suffered two nervous breakdowns and Safechuck had insomnia and depression. And yet their feelings toward Jackson were complicated. Now, they will have their case tried against the late King of Pop’s companies in front of a jury in the lower courts in November 2026.

“Pursuing this was the act of fighting back. I wanted to fight for little James. I wanted to fight for him and fight for myself,” Safechuck said. Later in the film, he added, “Part of me is kind of building up this strength and this shield to go through it. Imagining myself in trial, in the seat, finding the strength and fighting for little Jimmy. When it comes, I’ll be ready.”

Robson agreed. “Whatever’s the final outcome, I don’t really see how I lose,” he admits at the end of Leaving Neverland 2. “If I get the opportunity to get back in there and get on the stand and tell the truth like I wasn’t able to for decades. That’s a win for me.”