Why I sleep with little boys, by Michael Jackson

Michael Jackson has proudly admitted sharing his bed with children. He says he sees nothing wrong with a 44-year-old man having such relationships.

And insisting there is 'nothing sexual' going on, he declares: 'I give them hot milk, you know, we have cookies. It's very charming, it's very sweet, it's what the whole world should do.'

The extraordinary revelations come in Living With Michael Jackson, a documentary by Martin Bashir, for which the reclusive superstar allowed his movements to be filmed for eight months.

It was shown on ITV last night. Jackson's career was blighted when he was accused of child abuse a decade ago by dentist's son Jordy Chandler, 13, and paid a reported £18.5million in an outof-court settlement.

Yet during the programme the singer openly admits sleeping with Home Alone star Macaulay Culkin and his brother Kieran, at the time aged 12 and

ten. He adds that his third child was produced with a surrogate mother he had never met, says that his other two children were a 'present' from his ex-wife Deborah Rowe, and also describes sharing a bed with a 12-yearold cancer victim named Gavin.

During the programme Bashir is seen chatting with Gavin at Neverland, Jackson's ranch.

The pair apparently met two years ago when the boy was diagnosed with terminal cancer. Since then the disease has gone into remission but Gavin and Jackson have maintained their friendship, apparently with the blessing of the boy's mother.

Gavin says he regularly stays at Neverland and adds: 'There was one night, I asked him if I could stay in his bedroom.'

They had an argument about who should sleep where and Jackson said, 'Look, if you love me you'll sleep in the bed'.

Gavin adds: 'I was like, "Oh man!" So I finally slept on the

bed. But it was fun that night.'

An apparently-unconcerned Jackson interjects: 'I slept on the floor. Was it a sleeping bag?'

Asked what he gets out of a relationship with a young boy, he explains: 'I love, I feel, I think what they get from me I get from them. I've said it many times, my greatest inspiration comes from kids. Every song I write, every dance I do, all the poetry I write, is all inspired from the level of innocence.

'Whenever kids come here they never want to stay in the guest rooms. They say, "Can I stay with you tonight?", so I go, "If it's OK with your parents then yes you can".'

Asked if he can understand others' concerns, Jackson, looking increasingly nervous, says: 'Why should that be worrying? What's the criminal? Who's Jack the Ripper in the room?'

He denies sleeping in the same bed as Gavin but adds: 'I have slept in a bed with many children.

'When Macaulay Culkin was little, Kieran Culkin would sleep on this side, Macaulay Culkin was on this side his sisters in there.

'We all would just jam in the bed, you know, we would wake up like dawn and go in the hot-air balloon.'

Asked how his third child, Prince Michael II, was conceived he says: 'I used a surrogate mother and my own sperm cells.

'I had my own sperm cells in my other two children - they are all my children.'

Bashir speaks to Jackson minutes after the infamous moment when he dangled the baby over a balcony in Berlin, and the star cannot see what he has done wrong.

'Why would I throw a baby off the balcony?' he asks. 'That's the dumbest stupidest story I ever heard.'

He says his fans 'were chanting they wanted to see the baby and I was kind enough to show them'.

When Bashir asks him about the Jordy Chandler case, Jackson

claims he cannot talk about it for legal reasons.

However he says: 'I was shocked because God knows in my heart how much I adore children.'

Asked what he does with children in his bed he says: 'When you say bed, you are thinking sexual, they make that sexual. It's not sexual. We're going to sleep, I tuck them in and I put a little music on and when it's story time I read a book.'

Explaining why he paid off Jordy, he says: 'I didn't want to do a long- drawn- out thing on TV like OJ. I said, "Look, get this over with. I want to go on with my life".'

Then he loses his temper and says to Bashir: 'This is ridiculous. I've had enough. Go.'