Over the years there has been much controversy over who’s to blame for the pills that killed Michael Jackson in 2009. Is it the doctor who prescribed him the medication, or is it the star himself, who suffered from a grave addiction and never sought help?
The King of Pop claimed his toxic habit began in 1984 after he suffered serious burns filming a Pepsi commercial. Afterwards, he continued to self-medicate while fighting off charges of child molestation.
Dr. Conrad Murray was Michael’s personal physician at the end of the pop star’s life and was eventually found responsible for giving him the drugs that caused his death. But when speaking of the incident, Murray says Jackson was already addicted to the pain meds when he hired him.
In REELZ’s new docuseries, Fatal Addiction with Nancy O’Dell, Murray says that Jackson was “treating a habit” with his heavy prescription rather than any physical pain or illness.
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Dr. Robert Huizenga, also known as “Dr. Hollywood,” says in the show that he too was offered the role of Jackson’s personal physician, but he turned it down due to the sneakiness of it all.
“I had an offer to be Michel Jackson’s doctor and to go on tour, travel, an amazing lifestyle, and when I inquired about the job and what was need it became very obvious that writing prescriptions that were not — in my opinion — in his best interest, was going to be part of the job. So I couldn’t take the job,” says Huizenga.
“He was asking for certain substances and he probably was going to keep asking, keep offering money until he found someone that would do what he wanted,” he says of Jackson. “Who’s to blame? Is the person to blame because he was begging, asking, demanding, paying for drugs? Or is it the doctor’s fault because they did something that long-term was not in his best interest? It’s a difficult question.”
Fatal Addiction with Nancy O’Dell airs Wednesday, June 5 at 9 ET / PT on REELZ.
