July 2, 2009 Bodyguard says Jackson abused prescription drugs Play video

(NECN/APTN: London, England) - In an interview with British broadcaster Sky News on Thursday one of Michael Jackson's former bodyguards said the pop idol abused prescription medications, not recreational drugs.

"I knew they were there and I confiscated packages and Uri did too, I mean Uri confiscated, you know, injection equipment from his room and whisked it away and Uri would scream at Michael, you know, intensely to stop doing this," Matt Fiddes said, referring to Uri Geller, one of Jackson's confidants.

Fiddes, an English karate instructor with his own martial arts business, who worked as a senior bodyguard during Jackson's travels in Britain for a decade, said the pop idol took so much that it could be difficult to wake him for engagements. Fiddes recalled one occasion when Jackson planned to visit London Zoo to see the gorillas, chimpanzees and other primates - but was too spaced out to go anywhere. "He would come round and say it was just jet lag, that's all it was and we never made it to that London zoo visit, we couldn't have him in a state that would , you know, portray him in a good light."

Fiddes said both he and Geller told others supplying medications to Jackson to stop, but when their efforts "got back to Michael, Michael would have a, you know, a screaming fit that we were interfering with his private life." Several other Jackson confidantes have expressed concern since his death at the volume and mixture of medications he was

taking. Self-help guru Deepak Chopra said he rejected Jackson's 2005 appeals for painkillers and that their relationship suffered lasting damage because of it.

Fiddes also told Sky News that the pop star had a girlfriend "for some time" before he died. "I think the family were aware that there was somebody special in his life that he loved and adored and had his ups and downs with," he said. Fiddes filed a lawsuit against Michael Jackson's brother, Tito, last year over a loan he claims he made to Tito to cover a family trip to Devon, England to look for possible properties for the Jackson clan to purchase.

The wrangle was the focus of a UK documentary entitled, "The Jacksons are Coming", aired late last year on Britain's Channel 4. Tito Jackson rejected the claims made by Fiddes and said their friendship soured when he realized Fiddes was trying to profit from his connection to the family.

Material courtesy of APTN. Interview courtesy of Sky News.