The actress and the singer were close friends for over 20 years, bonding over their difficult pasts, according to upcoming book
Michael brought his chimp Bubbles to tea with the Hollywood celebrity and the two formed a devoted partnership
The 'Thriller' singer ordered decorators to paint a suite at his ranch the color of her violet eyes; she gave him an elephant called Gypsy
It was Liz's influence that drew Michael to move out of his family home in 1987 and buy the property that would become Neverland
They were ‘like two kids playing hooky, having food fights, gossiping, horsing around, being children all over again,' writes the author
Michael showered her with gifts including a 17 carat diamond ring, a diamond bracelet, diamond necklaces and ruby encrusted watches
The pair are even buried at the same cemetery in California
By Daniel Bates For Dailymail.com
Published: 18:07 GMT, 9 August 2016 | Updated: 19:48 GMT, 9 August 2016
From sharing tea with a chimpanzee to afternoons spent watching Disney movies, Michael Jackson and Elizabeth Taylor’s friendship was the oddest in Hollywood.
Drawn together by their megawatt star-power, difficult childhoods and drug problems, the pair’s relationship was as intense as it was bizarre, according to a new book out later this month.
Michael wooed Liz with grand gestures like ordering decorators to paint a suite at his Neverland ranch the same shade of violet as her eyes.
She responded by buying him an elephant which she shipped in from Asia.
Such gestures ensured they stayed together for almost 30 years.
The unlikely friendship was built on a chance to regress and ‘be children all over again' says author Donald Bogle in Elizabeth and Michael: The Queen of Hollywood and the King of Pop - A Love Story, to be published by Simon and Schuster on August 30.
When they first met in 1984, they both had so much in common and felt that they had somebody who understood their troubled lives.
Michael became a star at 8 years old with his brothers in The Jackson 5. But his father Joe used to beat him so badly he left him mentally scarred for life.
Liz became a star at 12 with the film 'National Velvet' despite her father being a drunk who used to 'bat her around', something she rarely talked about.
Michael brought out the mothering side in Liz, who thought she could 'save' him.
Bogle writes that when they were together 'Elizabeth and Michael were clearly in their own world, one that few could understand. Or enter'.
Asked to describe Liz, Michael once called her a ‘warm cuddly blanket that I love to snuggle up to and cover myself with'.
By 1983, the year before they met, Liz's career was on the decline just and Michael's was on the rise.
She had entered the Betty Ford Clinic for addiction to prescription drugs but it did nothing to diminish her in Michael's eyes.
Bogle writes that Michael was ‘obsessed’ with her and ‘set out not only to meet her but also to win over’.
Michael was the one who did the courting and was 'like a young lover in pursuit'.
Bogle writes: 'There would be moments of romantic agonizing about her yet he would come to treasure every minute of it.
'Jackson wanted to really meet her, to make a connection, then to see her again and again and to get to know her and for her to get to know him, This was what he wanted. Something deep inside Michael Jackson needed Elizabeth Taylor...though he probably couldn’t articulate what he wanted from her. She was both a star goddess and a mother goddess.'
For Michael, Liz was 'part of his dreams' and the 'embodiment of Hollywood history'.
They met six months after the death of Richard Burton, the love of her life who showered her with jewels – and provided a replacement of sorts.
Burton died in August 1984 and that December Michael invited Liz to see one of the final dates on his Victory tour in Los Angeles.
But when the box he arranged for her and her entourage had poor sight lines she left. Michael then called her to beg her forgiveness.
Bogle writes that after that they talked on the phone every day then ‘something magical happened during those phone conversations...Michael and Elizabeth became hooked on each other.'
On one of their first dates Liz invited Michael over for tea. He asked if he could bring Bubbles with him, his chimpanzee – and she agreed as she loved animals.
She later recalled: ‘We spent more and more time with each other. Just became really good friends. Told each other everything.'
Liz provided Michael with a direct, living link to Hollywood history.
Michael later recalled: ‘I got to learn so much from her. She’ll tell me about James Dean and Clark Gable and Spencer Tracy and Montgomery Clift. She tells me what they were really like’.
They also bonded over children, loved toys and games and cartoons. Michael described her as ‘playful and youthful and happy and finds a way to laugh and giggle even when she’s in pain’.
Michael told Liz about how he coped with racism. She told him how to deal with fame.
The other thing that bonded them were their medical problems. Michael had burns from a 1986 commercial for Pepsi that still caused him agony. He also had Vitiligo which caused his skin to whiten.
She had suffered back and hip pain for years.
Bogle writes that for Liz, Michael was everything she wanted.
Michael and Liz caused a media storm when they arrived as a 'couple' at the American Music Awards
‘With his lost boy quality, with his heightened sensitivity, with his Pepsi accident, even with his use of drugs to dull his physical pain, he was reminiscent of Monty Clift, with whom she shared so much, and perhaps of James Dean and Rock Hudson, all troubled, all conflicted, all trying to come to terms with their childhoods and their fame.
'With each of them she had felt there were no secrets...while Elizabeth never thought of Michael or the others as weak, she clearly believed she could save people, and perhaps she believed she could help Michael to save himself.'
Michael was ‘under her spell' and they were seen together at Liza Minnelli concerts, Bruce Springsteen gigs and the opening night of the Los Angeles Ballet.
They spent their afternoons watching Walt Disney films, going to theme parks and playing with animals at Neverland.
On the set of a 3D science fiction film called Captain EO, which was only shown in Disney theme parks in the 1980s and 90s, Elizabeth spent days in Michael's trailer.
The book says they were ‘like two kids playing hooky, having food fights, gossiping, horsing around, being children all over again during those off hours on the movie set’.
Their official coming out party as a ‘couple’ was at the 1986 American Music Awards.
The two often looked intimate together, as seen here at the Elizabeth Taylor Tribute Concert at the Royal Albert Hall in 2000
Liz appearing with Michael was the ‘showstopper’ and her appearance backstage wearing a blue chiffon dress caused a stampede among the media as photographers scrambled to get her picture with the King of Pop.
Michael became used to Liz's expletive-laden rants which embarrassed him due to his upbringing as a Jehovah’s Witness.
During the early years of their friendship, Michael ‘loved playing the part of gentleman escort, at her beck and call, making sure she was comfortable, making sure any request to a waiter or whomever was taken care of,' writes the author.
She was high maintenance - but so was he.
In fact the book says that he ‘enjoyed keeping her high maintenance high’.
Michael showered her with gifts including a 17 carat diamond ring, a diamond bracelet, diamond necklaces and ruby encrusted watches.
For him it was money well spent so he could be ‘part of a classic old Hollywood with its greatest star’.
Together they enjoyed the company of many other celebrities, including dinner with Lionel Richie in 1993
Such was Liz's hold on Michael that it angered his family; his father because he was so controlling and his mother Katherine because she was wary of outsiders - she once supposedly said that Elizabeth ‘stole my son’.
It was also under her influence that he moved out of his family home in 1987 and bought the $17 million, 26 acre ranch in Los Olivos which became Neverland.
The sprawling property had a number of guest rooms including the Elizabeth Taylor suite which had an enormous king sized bed. Michael supposedly wanted to paint it violet like Taylor’s eyes but the painters could not get the color right.
Michael's busy touring schedule meant that they met for 'intense reunions' every few months.
One of their meetings was at Saint John’s Health Center in Santa Monica in June 1990 when Jackson was being treated for chest pains having collapsed under the pressure of trying to finish the album Dangerous.
Liz was going through another relapse in her battle with prescription drugs and her weight had ballooned again.
Michael turned away his own family from his hospital bed because Elizabeth had arranged to come down and see him.
‘Elizabeth’s visits lifted his spirits although some family members felt once again that Michael was becoming too close to her, especially when Michael preferred to spend time with her alone.'
Michael hosted her wedding to construction worker Larry Fortensky in 1991, her seventh husband, at Neverland and insisted on paying the $1.5 million bill.
She thanked him by sending him an elephant called Gypsy she had shipped in from Asia. He responded with a gift of his own - a huge wall-sized tapestry of her face.
The exchanges went on for years and they slipped into a routine where they would go and see a film together on Thursdays - sometimes they stayed at Neverland but other times they went out in disguise.
The book says that they would ‘sit at the back and hold hands’. Elizabeth loved ‘A Bug’s Life’ and ‘playfully hounded him time and again to see it with her’.
They were nearly neighbors and both had homes in the Bel Air and Beverly Hills neighborhoods of Los Angeles and Michael would invited her over for egg sandwiches in the afternoons.
In 1997, Michael presented Elizabeth with the song he wrote for her called ‘Elizabeth, I Love You, which he performed at her 65th birthday party.
Michael sang to Liz in her honor for her 65th birthday. Liz called their relationship 'the purest most giving love I've ever known'
In interviews she called her relationship with him ‘the purest most giving love I’ve ever known’.
She said: ‘I don’t think anyone knew how much we loved each other’.
Such was their closeness that Liz was one of the loudest voices who came to Michael's defense when he was accused of child abuse in 1993 and 2005.
She flew to Singapore to help him the first time and in 2003 when he was arrested she went on the attack on his behalf.
She said at the time: ‘I believe Michael is absolutely innocent and that he will be vindicated.'
She also said that she had spent nights at Neverland with nothing untoward happening.
She said: ‘There was nothing abnormal about it. There was no touchy-feely going on. We laughed like children, and we watched a lot of Walt Disney. There was nothing odd about it’.
Michael's death in 2009 nearly destroyed Liz who was dealing with her own health issues yet again.
She wrote on Twitter: ‘My heart, my mind, are broken.
‘I’m home from the hospital sore, but intact. Of course I’m still grieving for Michael...I always will.
“My heart...my mind...are broken. I loved Michael with all my soul and I can’t imagine life without him. We had so much in common and we had such loving fun together’.
The two were even united in death and two years later she was buried in the Forest Lawn Cemetery in Glendale, California - the same cemetery as Michael was laid to rest.
While Liz was reticent about talking about Michael, he was fulsome in his praise of her.
He once said: ‘I can confide in her and trust her. In my business you can’t trust anyone...because you don’t know who’s your friend.
'Because you’re so popular, and there’s so many people around you, you’re isolated too. Becoming successful means that you become a prison.
‘Elizabeth is also like a mother - and more than that. She’s a friend. She’s Mother Teresa, Princess Diana, the Queen of England and Wendy - Peter Pan’s soul mate’.
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