“I COULDN’T BELIEVE WHAT I WAS HEARING” — MARTIN BASHIR RECALLS THE MOMENT MICHAEL JACKSON LEFT HIM COMPLETELY STUNNED. K2

The journalist appeared in the new documentary “Michael Jackson: The Verdict,” in which he detailed filming his controversial 2003 special “Living With Michael Jackson.”

Martin Bashir and Michael Jackson in ‘Living With Michael Jackson’.Credit: ABC

Martin Bashir opened up about his now infamous documentary special with Michael Jackson in a new docuseries about the King of Pop’s 2005 child molestation trial.

The journalist, who spent months interviewing Jackson in 2002 for his 2003 documentary, Living With Michael Jackson, stated in Netflix’s Michael Jackson: The Verdict that he was “gobsmacked” by Jackson’s admission that he slept in his bed with children.

All three episodes of Michael Jackson: The Verdict premiered Wednesday on Netflix.

“I was anxious about what was going to happen when I put these difficult questions to him,” Bashir said in The Verdict. “But, as we moved towards the end of the filming, he said, ‘I want you to meet somebody.’ I said, ‘Right, who do you want me to meet?’ He said, ‘He’s a little boy and we’ve healed him of cancer.'”

The boy Jackson brought out was Gavin Arvizo — the child who would eventually accuse Jackson of having molested him in 2003. The allegations led to the high-profile 2005 child abuse case, in which Jackson was indicted on multiple counts of molestation and conspiring to commit extortion, and child abduction. He was acquitted of all charges.

“And then, Michael volunteers during the conversation that they sleep in the bed together,” Bashir continued.

In the special, Arvizo held Jackson’s hand as his head rested on the King of Pop’s shoulder.

“Why can’t you share your bed?” Jackson asked. “The most loving thing to do is share your bed with someone.”

“All of us, the production team, are completely gobsmacked. I mean, we can’t believe what’s going on in front of us,” Bashir said.

Bashir explained that Jackson confirmed he had guest units on the Neverland property but that “whenever kids come here, they always want to stay with me.” The journalist couldn’t get over the fact that Jackson disclosed something on camera that had always been asked about him.

“I realized that we had something that was hugely significant, but I didn’t realize the extent of the bombshell until the broadcast,” Bashir said. The documentary special aired in February 2003.

Following the doc’s release, the media swarmed around Jackson’s admission, and an investigation was opened into claims of child sexual abuse. Jackson, for his part, released a lengthy statement sharing his devastation over the interview.

In the statement, it was conveyed that Jackson regarded the special “as a gross distortion of the truth and a tawdry attempt to misrepresent his life and his abilities as a father,” adding that he “would never have consented to participating in this film if he had been aware of how Bashir was going to falsely portray him.”

In The Verdict, Jackson’s biographer, J. Randy Taraborrelli, noted that Jackson was only interested in Bashir because of his 1995 interview with Princess Diana, whom Jackson “idolized.”

“He wanted to be portrayed in a more human way by the guy that did it for Princess Diana,” Taraborrelli said. “But Michael didn’t do enough research because if he had done it, he would’ve realized that the Martin Bashir-Princess Diana interview was kind of a disaster.”

Taraborrelli explained that it was Bashir’s interview that led to the fracture between Diana and the royal family after she discussed her husband Charles III’s affair with Camilla Parker Bowles.

“Michael trusted Martin Bashir, and Martin Bashir, he was looking for a great story,” Taraborrelli said. “And Michael sort of handed him this opportunity on a silver platter.”

Entertainment Weekly has reached out to Jackson’s estate for comment on Netflix’s docuseries.

Michael Jackson: The Verdict is now streaming on Netflix.