Is Billie Jean really not his lover?

Question

Every time I hear the song, I don't get it. Is Billie Jean really not his lover? Is she just a girl who claims he was the one? If so, why does the baby has eyes similar to his?

Answer 1

The song Billie Jean is linked to Michael’s relationship with Theresa Gonsalves who had been a big fan of him for years. She was such a big fan that she started writing him letters, hundreds of letters in which she described her everyday life. At school, she would write on the chalkboard "I love Michael Jackson". Born in Boston on November 1958, she became fascinated by the Jackson 5 at the beginning of the seventies. Her favorite member of the band was Michael. During a show on October 1970, he looked down into her "eyes from the stage at the Boston Gardens and said, 'Will you please sit down so I can get on with the show?'"⁷ They were both 12 years old in those days. An epistolary relationship began, a one-sided communication because Michael never answered. But he definitely read her letters which gave him a glimpse of how the real world looked like.

For her sixteenth birthday she decided to fly from Boston to Las Vegas in order to attend one of the Jackson Five performances. She worked very hard after school to save money. On October 1974 she called the Sahara Tahoe Hotel in Lake Tahoe where the band was performing to check their tour schedule. Though she had not met him yet, she asked for Michael's bedroom and was surprised to speak to him on the phone.

When she told him who she was, he remembered every letter she had sent to him. He decided that she would be his guest from the 20th to the 28th of November in Las Vegas. From that time on, their relationship developed into a friendship. "I continued to write him and he continued reading my letters. I flew other places to hang out with him. I was invited to his home and when he was filming The Wiz, I spent two separate weeks in New York visiting him."⁸

Michael invited her a this apartment and offered her to stay with him instead of staying alone in her hotel room. Michael's bedroom was really small with a twin size bed contrary to LaToya's who had chosen the most luxurious room with a big bed and a mirror just above it.

She shared his bedroom: he slept on the couch and she slept in his bed. But one night Michael was really excited about a set of the Wiz which was scheduled for the next morning. He was so excited that the rehearsal ended in a kiss: "You were so nervous. Well I was too, but you seemed more than I. Funny thing is we were both sure we wanted it to happen, but so unsure of ourselves. Our kissing was slow. We were learning. You said I had soft lips. I was rubbing your arm thinking, for as skinny as you were, you sure had some muscles. Our body language was awkward as we responded to one another and we became aroused. You unbuttoned my pajamas and yes it was a flannel pajama set I had on that I was embarrassed about when I went to pull down the pants. Your hands on my breasts were hot, but soft. I was afraid to touch your penis. But you took my hand, directing me there as I wrapped my fingers around it and gently rubbed. When it seemed we were ready, I guided you inside of me as I stared into your eyes. I remember I wasn't nervous anymore. We didn't use any protection. We didn't exactly plan this."⁹

Nearly one year later, Michael asked her to move to Encino, California. Though she was afraid she complied, not knowing that things would turn for the worse. Indeed, she was not able to see Michael and was rejected by Joe who pushed her out of the gate. Michael witnessed the altercation through the security cameras but did not move a finger. He would later explain that the heart of the problem was his father:

"Did you not ask me to move to California? Yeah, well why didn't you just come out?" I asked.

"Because Joseph was there!" you emphasized.

As you said that, I was taken back to when we first met in Las Vegas, when Marlon had point blank stated, "If Joe was here, you wouldn't be."

"We are twenty one years old, why would you need permission?"

"I know, I know, I'm really sorry!" you exclaimed."¹⁰

That was the end of the story but she stayed in California and kept sending him letters about her life, her love life and her kid... Ironically, she became a few years later the mysterious girl who hides behind one of Michael's greatest hit Billie Jean. She never claimed that her child was Michael's. But it was her love affair with the kid's father which was at the origin of the song. Theresa Gonsalves, the girl who had fancied Michael Jackson for so long, was the real Billie Jean. She was the inspiration, the muse of one of the greatest songs of all times, though she never took advantage of it. When Star Magazine revealed that she was the real Billie Jean in an article published in 1984, Michael told her that she should be paid for the interview:

"Are they going to pay you?"

"I don't know."

"Well do the story only if they pay you. Tell them anything you want and I will back you one hundred percent."¹¹

However, as time went by, their relationship gradually faded. After 1984, they only met twice, in 1986 and 2003. But in an interview Theresa confirmed David Guest's statements according to which Michael was no longer a virgin when he was 19 years old.¹²

( extract of the book "Michael Jackson and women", June Forester)

⁷ :Theresa Gonsalves, Remember the Time, p 15

⁸ : https://lacienegasmiled.wordpress.com/2009/12/01/1977-theresa-gonzales/

⁹ : Theresa Gonsalves, Remember the time, p 42-43

¹⁰ : Theresa Gonsalves, Remember the time, p 51

¹¹ : Theresa Gonsalves, Remember the Time, p 57

¹² : Interview of Theresa Gonsalves on YouTube : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x6zYOQv6Qj0

^{Source. Note: an account on Quora is (probably) needed to access that link directly, so one can alternatively go here and scroll down to the answer by the user June Forester.}