Blast to the past! La Toya Jackson reflected on fond childhood memories with siblings Michael Jackson and Janet Jackson.
Us Weekly recently caught up with the 61-year-old singer, who is set to star on season 13 of Worst Cooks in America: Celebrity Edition.
“It’s funny, because I’ve been asked to do it for so many years. They’ve asked me to do it and I just didn’t do it,” she exclusively told Us of her appearance on the show. “It got to a point where it’s like, ‘You know what? You need some culinary skills. You need to know how to cook better than what you do.’ Because I can only make a few dishes. Personally, I thought I made them well. But I learned from being on the show, no, I didn’t.”
The “If You Feel the Funk” songstress then reflected on the important role that good eats played in her relationship with Janet, 51, and Michael, who died in 2009 at age 50.
“Janet would eat anything. Actually, she was so cute as a kid. When she was in kindergarten, she would come home from school, pull her whole little stool up to the oven, put a steak in, go watch cartoons,” she recalled. “As soon as the cartoon goes off, she knows the steak is ready. We used to get the biggest kick out of it, laughing. She would go to the oven and pull it out and eat it and then go back and sit down and watch her little cartoons.”
As for the King of Pop? “[Michael] just loved vegetables. He didn’t eat meat, so he would have vegetables constantly and they’re done differently,” La Toya explained. “And then, of course, his go-to snack food was always chips.”
The “Like I Do” singer also shared a sweet story about Michael’s beloved chimpanzee, Bubbles. “He was just adorable trying to help the chefs in the kitchen cook,” she said, despite mom Katherine Jackson’s disapproval. “My mother was always against that, but there’s nothing you could do about it when the chefs are saying, ‘Bubbles, go get the plate over there! Go get the knife!’ And he’s trying to stir the pot and my mother goes, ‘Do not let that animal stir the food!’”
La Toya added: “Bubbles was like one of us. That’s how we treated him. We didn’t know any differently.”
Worst Cooks in America: Celebrity Edition airs on the Food Network Sundays at 9 p.m. ET.
Reporting by Marc Lupo
