Goodbye Elizabeth - you are a true friend...

Even though I’ve already done one posting about Dame Elizabeth’s passing in my other blog, I had not covered all I wanted to. Or perhaps it would be more accurate to say that I wanted to focus on the devoted friendship she gave to Michael in a separate entry.

Plus, there are even more photos of these two beautiful souls that I wanted to present!

Like many people of my generation, I’ve grown up knowing of this spectacular and legendary actress. I’d seen some of her movies and admired her greatly for her acting and her famed beauty. But it was because of her friendship with Michael Jackson that I came to know more about her personally, rather than merely knowing how many times she had been married.

She was a truly exceptional friend, not only to Michael Jackson, but to many, many others as well. She said to Barbara Walters in a TV interview that she wanted to be remembered as someone ‘who lived’ and boy, did she! She lived and loved passionately and it is that quality which makes her so remarkable.

Like most MJ fans I am extremely grateful that Michael had this wonderful woman in his life, and on his side. The quotes taken from Dame Elizabeth’s acceptance speech at the 1994 Jackson Family Honors surmise perfectly why her friendship means so much to us – her words epitomize unconditional love.


 “Michael, we who know you more intimately than others acknowledge the suffering you have endured because we have suffered with you. But in the midst of our deepest anguish, we have known that you would prevail through this dark hour, that you would emerge stronger but still innocent, childlike, trusting bruised but still magically untouched by the tongues and opinions of the world. Hurt, but still gloriously loving and benevolent despite the slings and arrows of those who know better. 

Enough of tabloid media! Enough of tabloid television! You know only you, the public, can accomplish this simply by not buying their garbage. Only you can put them out of business. Only you, and wouldn’t that be great?

Michael, we know your recent torture isn’t going to alter or change your compassion and love for children. There is beauty and truth in your being. You are the brightest star in the universe. Don’t let anything dim your leading light. Neither crisis nor circumstances can ever take it away from you.”

The ‘conventional wisdom’ of that particular time after the first false allegations surfaced was for Michael to distance himself from his love for children. A prime example of this is when Diane Sawyer questioned whether Michael intended to allow any more kids to sleepover during the June 1995 interview she did with him and Lisa Marie Presley.

“I just want to… Is it over? Are you going to make sure it doesn’t happen again? I think this is really the key thing people want to know.”

Whilst Diane Sawyer’s approach may have reflected the popular consensus at the time it is Elizabeth Taylor’s plea to Michael to refuse to allow the preceding nightmare to change him that resonates with us fans. It shows us that she truly ‘gets’ him; that she knows who Michael really is and doesn’t want him to change a thing about himself. That is what a true friend does.