Katherine Jackson, mother of the late Michael Jackson, spoke with Oprah Winfrey on Monday in a long, emotional interview about her son and grandchildren.
"I don't think I will ever be healed," Katherine said, recalling Michael's June 2009 death. "It will get better, but some days it's like it just happened... It hurts."
During the in-depth talk, Oprah also spoke to Joe Jackson, Michaels' father, who tried to dance around the fact that "beat" his kinds but basically admitted it.
"You might as well admit it," Katherine to Joe. "That's the way black people raise their children. ... He used a strap." Joe said he'd do it all over again too.
Michael, whose new single "Breaking News" was posthumously released this week, was never the same after his 2005 molestation case, Katherine says.
"All his life, he had to go through stuff like this, and they were just lying on him," she said, asserting that she never questioned his innocence in the matter.
"I never thought [he could be guilty of molestation], because I know he wouldn't," Katherine said. "He loved children, he was around children all the time."
Follow the jump to watch all of Katherine Jackson's three-part interview with Oprah Winfrey, who also spoke to MJ's three young children ...
Katherine said she learned of her son's death Dr. Conrad Murray, after arriving at the hospital: "He came out, and he was talking, and it took him so long."
Frustrated, Katherine asked, "Did he make it?" and Murray said, " 'No, he's gone.' That's all I remember," she said, tearing up once more at the memory.
She called it the worst day of her life.
Today, Katherine said through her rep that Joe Jackson isn't controlling Michael's kids, or forcing them to be the next Jackson singing group in any way.
Katherine believes Prince, Paris, and Blanket "expressed their own desires to be in the entertainment business" during the controversial sitdown with O.
Katherine hopes fans "don't think anyone like Joe or the family is pushing the kids" ... a not-so thinly veiled reference to Joe pushing Michael so hard.
The family matriarch was particularly happy she got to talk about, Never Can Say Goodbye, her tribute book to Michael, in the first segment with Oprah.
Here's the full interview ...
Oprah Interviews Katherine Jackson: Part I
