Pop music legend Michael Jackson confessed he was molested as a child, a close friend has sensationally revealed.

The King of Pop opened up to friend Geoffrey Mark after hearing about his pal’s own childhood suffering sexual molestation.

The superstar detailed how he was “inappropriately touched by an adult” while he was a child performer.

However rather than believe the abuse was criminal or even abnormal, Jackson interpreted these actions as natural behavior.

Mark, an Emmy-winning producer, asserts that the star, who died in 2009, “normalized” the disgusting acts of his abuser.

The “Thriller” artist was groomed by a predator and carried a “heavy emotional load” throughout his adult years, Mark believes.

Jackson never identified his molester to Mark.

The bombshell revelation about the singer’s damaged childhood comes as worldwide audiences are enthralled watching MJ’s rise from child star to international icon in the musical biopic “Michael.”

The movie, which has already earned close to half a billion dollars, doesn’t include Mark’s shocking revelations — nor does it portray the many allegations of child-molestation made against Jackson.

Mark feels that “the tragedy” of MJ’s childhood may explain why he, as an adult, got in trouble over relationships with child friends.

Eight of his former child companions have publicly claimed the star abused them.

Mark believes that Jackson was “not evil” — but might have been so emotionally stunted and damaged from his early life that he didn’t know “what was right and wrong”.

Jackson made his admissions to Mark during several intimate chats at the Hancock Park, L.A. mansion of mutual friend and dermatologist Dr. Arnold Klein during parties in the late 1990s to early 2000s.

“Michael told me he experienced abuse as a kid,” Mark said in an exclusive interview.

“I was sexually abused by my father and others [who are also deceased] in my family. Michael said that he was sexually abused. He didn’t use those terms, because he didn’t think of it as abuse or sex.

“It was playtime.”

Jackson never went into detail about the abuse.

“Michael shared, very broadly, news that there was intergenerational touching and beyond.

“It’s not like Michael said, ‘Oh, I was abused.’ That would never have crossed his mind. 

“Because he had been conditioned that this was normal and natural. . . . Other then it did happen a lot, it was a part of his growing up and was normal.”

Mark, 67, recalled how the deeply troubling subject arose during a dinner at Klein’s where guests discussed their fathers.

“I shared that I really couldn’t chime in because my father had both sexually molested and physically tortured me,” Mark recalled. “And Michael found that revelation to be strange.

“He almost sort of cocked his head like a dog, like he was not understanding . . . It was something he thought was normal and natural, and did not understand why, when it happened to me, I was upset about it.” 

During the Klein soirées, Jackson and Mark bonded over their love of music and entertainers, chatting about stars like Fred Astaire, Gene Kelly and Ella Fitzgerald.

Despite then being a father to Prince and Paris, Jackson never spoke about his own kids.

The chats came several years after MJ paid child accuser Jordie Chandler over $20 million in an out of court settlement.

The singer continued to hang out with children at his Neverland ranch and on world tours, including Wade Robson, James Safechuck and Frank Cascio, who have in recent years accused him of grooming and molestation.

The late father of three was cleared on all counts of sex abuse claims by former cancer patient Gavin Arvizo in a 2005 criminal trial.

Mark believes Jackson sought to relive his childhood joy, not realizing his experience was distorted.

“If I thought that Michael was evil or a predator, if I thought there was evil intent on his part, I probably wouldn’t be talking about it. 

“Michael, to the best of my knowledge, thought that he was entertaining children the way he was entertained.” 

Mark insists he could never say MJ was a pedophile.

“I can only react to what I saw and heard. I was not in the room when Michael was with the children.”

Jackson turned to drugs and alcohol as a coping mechanism, Mark believes.

“It is not unusual that an awful lot of alcoholics and addicts have had some kind of childhood, sexual or physical trauma. 

“It’s the underlying pain that causes one to reach out for medications to begin with – to dull the pain.”

Mark, who has written best-selling books about Hollywood including a definitive Lucille Ball portrait with another on the way, sees Jackson as two entities — the professional entertainer and the confused adult trying to find his place away from the limelight.

“Everything was about the career and the money – because that’s what his father wanted,” Mark said. “Michael was unsure who he was and whether anyone liked him for being Michael. He didn’t know who to trust. Including himself, because he wasn’t sure who he was.”

Mark has kept details of these private dinners a secret because of the complicated nature of Jackson’s trauma, addictions and sex abuse allegations made against him.

“I’ve never gone public with this. I’ve never traded off of it. I’ve never made money off of it. Addiction is a disease,” he said.

While Jackson has been accused by multiple ex companions of sexual abuse, claims of him being a victim himself have never emerged.

His sister La Toya, in interviews during the 1990s, claimed their father Joe Jackson abused her as a child. But she later retracted those comments.

MJ often spoke about his father beating him during his childhood in Gary, Indiana during the 60s and 70s.

But in the 2003 documentary “Living with Michael Jackson,” he revealed he “totally” forgave Joe.