Years before Michael Jackson exploded as a worldwide conquerer of popular culture, he dated his “chocolate drop” in the late 1970s — legendary R&B singer Stephanie Mills.
More than a decade after the King of Pop passed away in 2009, Mills now admits that she let “the one” get away when she believes she had the opportunity to marry MJ.
Mills, 64, made note of this during a nostalgic look back at their time together, which she posted for her half-million Instagram followers.
Michael and I should have married. I would have protected the beautiful one,” she said, adding four red heart emojis.
The two ironically became very close when Mills rocketed to national fame playing Dorothy in the award-winning Broadway play “The Wiz” from 1974-79 — at the same time that Jackson was playing Scarecrow in the Motown movie version of The Wiz.
According to her recent pronouncements compiled by The Detail, Mills often stayed overnight at Jackson’s temporary home in New York and washed his clothes and cooked for him. Jackson also came to see her show on Broadway almost daily and even took her to the set of The Wiz, where he starred opposite Diana Ross.
Back in August 2021, Mills also posted this old photo of MJ prior to his birthday on the 29th.
Mills offered no explanation as to why the two grew apart after Jackson became friends with Quincy Jones on the set of The Wiz and collaborated on the culture-shifting albums Off the Wall, Thriller and Bad in the 1980s.
Below, Mills explains how she and Jackson were inseparable during the time just before he became an intergalactic megastar.
