Michael Jackson: 'Madonna's not nice'

Michael Jackson reportedly admitted that Madonna hadn’t "been kind" to the late singer when the two struck up a friendship during the '90s.

Rabbi Shmuley Boteach appeared on the US news programme Dateline during an exclusive interview to discuss his forthcoming book The Michael Jackson Tapes: A Tragic Icon Reveals His Soul In Intimate Conversation, while he also played recorded conversations he had with the King of Pop between 1999 and 2001, Entertainment Tonight reports.

Jackson reportedly thought that the 51-year-old popstar, who paid tribute to him in a speech during the recent VMA Awards, was keen on "shock value", after she showed him books with sadomasochistic overtones.

"You know, at the time I was with Madonna, she was into books, all over, a whole collec... like a library of books of women who were tied to walls, different things," he said on the recording. "She said, 'I love spanky books'. Why would I want to see that? I think she likes shock value."

While speaking about jealousy being problematic in Hollywood, the 'Beat It' singer referred to Madonna as not being "nice", adding: "They admire you and know you're wonderful and great, but just they're jealous 'cause they wish they were in your place, wish they were in your shoes. And 'M' is one of 'em. Madonna. She's not nice, she hasn't been kind".

It was reported earlier that Boteach had revealed that Jackson had claimed on tape that he was the victim of media scrutiny because of the colour of his skin.