I think back to the days when we were just kids—just kids with a dream. The Jackson 5 was more than just a group; it was our whole world. We worked hard, not knowing what the future held, just wanting to get on stage and do our thing.
There’s no denying that the Jackson 5 gave us some of the greatest hits of all time. Songs like ABC, The Love You Save, and I’ll Be There took the world by storm when we signed with Motown Records. When our first album dropped at the end of 1969, we skyrocketed to fame, selling millions of records and putting Motown back at the top of the charts.
But behind all that success, there were struggles—dark moments the family probably wished never became public. Fame came with sabotage, jealousy, and even mistreatment from our own father, Joe Jackson. There was a lot more happening behind the scenes than people knew.
Jermaine Jackson, like some of the others in the family, has been open about the challenges we faced. “The Jackson 5 years are so special to me—Tito, Marlon, Jackie—because we set the stage for everything to happen,” he once said. “Marlon and I used to get into a lot of crazy things. We’d go to hotels, throw things out the windows, and do all sorts of wild stuff.”
From the beginning, we were different. By 1971, we were big enough to have our own Saturday morning cartoon, The Jackson 5, making history as the first animated show to feature an all-Black musician cast. It only ran for two seasons, but it was proof of how much of an impact we had.
But as the years went on, things got complicated. By the mid-’70s, we had outgrown the structure Motown had set for us. We wanted more control over our music and a bigger share of the profits. So in 1975, we made a bold move—we left Motown and signed with CBS’s Epic Records.
That’s when the problems really started.
Jermaine, who had married Hazel Gordy—Berry Gordy’s daughter—chose to stay behind with Motown instead of following us to Epic. Without him, something felt off. Our next albums didn’t capture the same magic, and people started blaming his absence.
Jermaine has always said he has no regrets about staying at Motown, believing they did everything for us as a band and as a family. But his departure wasn’t the only issue—there was also the unspoken rivalry between him and Michael.
In 1991, that rivalry became public when Jermaine released Word to the Badd!, a song many saw as a direct attack on Michael. The lyrics criticized his plastic surgery and ego. Later, Jermaine denied it was a diss track, saying he only wrote it to help Michael see reality. But the truth is, the tension had been brewing for years.
Apparently, Jermaine’s breaking point came when Michael asked producers L.A. Reid and Babyface to work with him—after Jermaine had already planned to collaborate with them. Some say the real issue was jealousy. Family friend Stacy Brown claimed Jermaine often ranted about Michael, saying, “That should have been me.” Even their sister LaToya backed up those claims.
No matter what, the Jackson 5 changed music forever. But behind the fame, there was always another story—a complicated, messy, and very human one.
Everyone in the family knew Michael was special. So special, in fact, that they put him front and center as the lead singer—even though Jackie was the eldest. Michael was just five years old when he joined the group, but it didn’t take long for everyone to realize he was the star.
It was the right move. Michael could dance like James Brown, pick up melodies instantly, and make them his own. His voice was incredible, his pitch perfect, and his natural stage presence unmatched. Jackie later explained how it all came together:
“Tito, Jermaine, and I started the group, just messing around on guitar and bass. Then one day, Michael joined in, banging on a Quaker Oats box like it was a drum. He was so good that we knew he had to be part of it. The next thing we knew, he was dancing up front, doing James Brown moves. He used to watch James Brown, Jackie Wilson, The Temptations, The Four Tops—he studied them. That’s when we realized he had real showmanship. We figured, ‘Maybe he should be singing lead.’”
Jermaine saw it too:
“As soon as we put him in the group, it was over. I was the lead singer at first. But when he started watching James Brown, Joe Tex, Sammy Davis Jr., and Jackie Wilson—learning from them—it was a wrap. He had this ability to watch something once and do it perfectly. That’s how he shaped himself.”
With Michael in the spotlight, was there jealousy? Did his older brothers, especially Jermaine, ever resent him? Maybe. But family tensions ran much deeper than sibling rivalry. One of the most shocking betrayals came years later, involving Jermaine and his younger brother Randy’s longtime girlfriend, Alejandra Oaziaza.
Randy and Alejandra had been together for years and had two kids. But that didn’t stop Jermaine from making a move. While Randy was away, Jermaine pursued Alejandra, eventually marrying her in secret in 1995. They went on to have three children together. The betrayal reportedly created a permanent rift between the brothers.
But that was just one layer of dysfunction. The real pain in the Jackson family came from their father, Joe.
Jermaine’s memoir, You Are Not Alone: Michael Through a Brother’s Eyes, laid out the brutal reality of life under Joe Jackson’s rule. The Jackson kids were raised as Jehovah’s Witnesses, which meant no birthdays, no Christmas, no celebrations of any kind. They weren’t even allowed to call their father “Dad”—and if they did, there were consequences. Joe never showed affection. No hugs. No “I love you.” Just discipline.
Life as child performers was relentless. From 1966 to 1968, weekends meant traveling for performances, sometimes getting home at 2 a.m. on a school night. In one particularly chilling incident, Joseph was attacked by a group of men right before his sons were set to perform. Despite being visibly shaken and injured, he forced the boys on stage anyway.
Joe’s strict regimen turned the Jackson 5 into legends, but at a cost. They practiced for five hours every single day after school. Playing outside with friends? Not allowed. Jermaine later admitted they never really had a childhood, something that haunted them for the rest of their lives.
LaToya Jackson was one of the most outspoken about the abuse they endured. She claimed Joe’s violent ways didn’t stop when they became famous. Even as adults, he allegedly continued to beat his sons.
“Even when my brothers were grown, my father would take his fist and punch them, knocking them down the stairs. To this day, they’re still afraid of him. They have kids in college, and they’re still scared of him.”
Michael himself confirmed these horrors. In a heartbreaking 1993 interview with Oprah, he admitted that just being around his father made him physically sick. He recalled how Joe would “tear them up” with belts, electrical cords, even tree branches if they made mistakes during rehearsal. The verbal abuse was just as brutal—Joe constantly mocked Michael’s looks, calling him “big nose.” Many believe that cruel nickname fueled Michael’s later obsession with plastic surgery.
The Jacksons were global superstars, but behind the glitz and success was a childhood filled with pain. Their rise to fame came with scars—ones that never really healed.
One of the things that really messed with Michael Jackson was how his dad constantly told him he was ugly.
In a 2003 interview with Martin Bashir, Michael opened up about the physical abuse he endured. He said his father would use whatever he could get his hands on to beat them—and sometimes, he’d even throw them against the wall as hard as he could. His mom was so scared at times that she would beg Joe to stop.
Then there was a leaked phone call where Michael revealed something even more disturbing. He claimed his father would strip him naked, oil him down, and then beat him.
*”He would oil you down—a whole ritual. He would oil you down so when the flip of the, um… the ironing cord hit, you would just—you know—and it was like dying. You’d have marks all over your face, your back, everywhere.
I always heard my mother screaming, ‘No, Joe, you’re going to kill him—you’re going to kill him!’ But I just gave up. There was nothing I could do.”*
Michael also said in that same recording that his father told him and his siblings that if they ever stopped singing, he’d “drop them like a hot potato.” The fear Joe instilled in them was so intense that Michael once fainted just from seeing his father walk into the room.
And if you thought that was bad, it gets even worse. Michael once recalled playing a game with his sister Janet, where he asked her to close her eyes and picture their father in a coffin. Then, he asked, “Do you feel sorry for him?” Her answer? “Nope.”
But it didn’t stop there. While the Jackson 5 were on tour, Michael’s older brothers would bring women back to their hotel rooms and hook up with them—right next to him as he pretended to be asleep. One girl even remembered hearing a disgusted Michael say, “Nice. Now, will you please go to sleep?”
It’s safe to say the Jackson 5 went through a lot. They barely had a childhood, and the trauma followed them for years.
What do you think was the most shocking part of their story?
Could they have done anything differently?
And how do you feel about the abuse, jealousy, and betrayal they endured—even from their own father, Joe Jackson?
