Michael Jackson was a 'child' in 'man's body' and couldn't have hurt anyone, claims Donald Trump's ex

Amongst the many lurid claims made by Ivana – US President Donald Trump's first wife – in her memoir, Raising Trump, the former model talked about her children, Ivanka, Donald Jr, and Eric, and their closeness with the late Michael Jackson.

As it turns out, the King of Pop had won the trust of the Trumps and was "the only person who had an open invitation to come to the triplex for playdates whenever he wanted."

According to Ivana, the award-winning singer was living in Trump Tower at the time and had grown close to the entire family.

The mother-of-three revealed, "[Jackson] would stop by and chat with Donald and me for twenty minutes, and then he'd go up to the kids' floor to hang out with them for hours and hours. They'd watch MTV, play Mario Brothers or Tetris, and build Trump Tower in Legos," according to People Magazine.

"Michael was a 30-year-old kid. He could relate to Ivanka and the boys better than to us," said Trump's ex, before sharing her thoughts on the charges of child molestation against the pop star. Following a gruelling four-month trial, the Smooth Criminal hitmaker was acquitted of the charges in 2005, yet the controversy has lived on, even after his death in 2009.

In her tell-all book, Ivana suggests that she "never believed" the accusations of child molestation levelled against the singer, but went on to assert that nannies were always present when Jackson spent time with her children.

"My read on him was asexual," she said. "He was a child himself in a man's body, tender, sweet and gentle... there's no way he could have hurt anyone."