Michael Jackson was 'terrified' of dating, according to Brooke Shields

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Brooke Shields opened up to People about her relationship with famous singer Michael Jackson while talking about her new memoir There Was a Little Girl.

Jackson and Shields met when she was 13, and were close friends. Shields said of their relationship, “Of course we loved each other, but nothing happened romantically.”

In the interview, Shields tells the magazine that going through stardom from a young age together was comforting for both of them, saying, “We felt really safe. Together, we felt impervious to the craziness that swirled around us. We joked about how silly people were and watched movies and ate candy.”

While Jackson and Shields did go as dates to Elizabeth Taylor’s wedding, Shields indicated that their friendship was platonic, with Jackson once giving her a ring as a symbol of it, telling her, “It sparkles and you sparkle.” The two were almost inseparable at times, with Shields saying, “He wanted us to never not be with each other. It wasn’t something that people were going to understand. It was so much easier to marginalize it and diminish it.”

The singer would also ask Shields about romance, to which the actress said, “I would be like ‘Oh please, knock it off.’ He was like this kid who would ask you [about dating and romance]. Nobody was telling him and nurturing this stuff and I think he was terrified. He was terrified and sort of juvenile. I think there was an arrested development.”

Shields also spoke about her mother, who was her manager. The two had a publicly rocky relationship at times, and Shields admitted that “Even though I understood her better than anybody else, I’m not sure I ever understood her fully.”

Her memoir, There Was a Little Girl, focuses on what the subtitle calls “The Real Story of My Mother and Me.” It will be released on November 18.