Michael Jackson’s legacy—and his well-documented relationships with children—is once again under scrutiny, thanks to a new documentary, Leaving Neverland, that details the life stories of Wade Robson and James Safechuck: two men who were befriended by Jackson in their boyhood, and later accused the singer of sexual abuse.

A key part of the documentary centers on Jackson’s 2005 California Superior Court trial, which was prompted by allegations from 13-year-old Gavin Arvizo. At the trial, Jackson was acquitted on 10 felony counts, including four counts of child molestation and one of attempted child molestation. Robson was a star character witness for the defense in that trial, alongside one of Jackson’s longtime friends, actor Macaulay Culkin, who was 24 years old at the time. (Leaving Neverland director Dan Reed did not reach out to Culkin himself while assembling his documentary: “Macaulay has gone on the record many, many times, including recently to say that his relationship with Jackson was innocent,” he told Vanity Fair at Sundance this past January.)

The documentary largely credits Culkin and Robson with exonerating Jackson through their testimony. “I said, I think at this point, you and Macaualy Culkin are the only two people in the world who can save him,” Robson’s mother, Joy, recalls telling her son in 2005, years before Robson went public with his allegations against Jackson. The film also includes news clips that echo that idea: “Macaulay Culkin almost single-handedly devastated and shook the foundation of the prosecutions pattern evidence against Michael Jackson,” says one reporter, over footage of Culkin leaving the court after testifying. “Certainly if the jury believes Culkin, it will be a significant boost to the defense,” says another.

A transcript of Culkin’s 2005 testimony obtained by Vanity Fair shows the Home Alone star both defending Jackson and corroborating details from some of the stories Robson and Safechuck tell in Leaving Neverland.

In the 2003 documentary Living with Michael Jackson, the singer defended his well-known habit of sleeping in the same bed with his young friends. He told journalist Martin Bashir: “I have slept in a bed with many children. I slept in a bed with all of them when Macaulay Culkin was little. Kieran Culkin would sleep on this side, Macaulay Culkin was on this side . . . We all would just jam in the bed. We would wake up at dawn and go in the hot air balloon.”

Appearing on Marc Maron’s WTF podcast in 2018, Culkin affirmed his relationship with Jackson, calling the singer “my best friend growing up for a good, fat stretch of my life.” There’s extensive footage online of the young Culkin boys playing with both Michael and Janet Jackson at Neverland Ranch.

Macaulay Culkin exiting Santa Barbara County Superior Court in Santa Maria, CA on May, 11, 2005 with a Jackson bodyguard. Photo by Robyn Beck/AFP/Getty Images

Culkin first met Jackson backstage at Lincoln Center when, at age nine, he danced the role of Fritz in The Nutcracker. “He came backstage before the show. He loved dance, he was a dance man. He came backstage with Donald Trump,” Culkin told Maron. But the pair didn’t become close until Culkin’s appearance in the 1990 film Home Alone launched him into the stratosphere; while on the stand, Culkin recounted their first phone call, where Jackson said: “I think I understand kind of what's happening, and I’d like to get together and talk.” Later, Culkin famously appeared in Jackson’s 1991 music video “Black or White.”