Hannah Stephenson talks to Michael Jackson’s former bodyguards Bill Whitfield and Javon Beard about the star: He may have been the world's most famous pop star, but Michael Jackson was a sad, lonely figure who lived for his children and longed for a more normal life.

So say his two bodyguards, Bill Whitfield and Javon Beard, who were with him virtually 24/7 during the last two-and-a-half years of his life.

Now, almost five years after his death, they have written a book about Jackson's final years in seclusion with his children, his financial crises and the weeks leading up to his death on June 25, 2009.

It aims, they say, to set the record straight and paints a picture of a star who, despite his eccentricities, was a good father to Prince, now 17, Paris, 16 and Blanket, 12, but was trapped by his own success and tormented by paranoia, loneliness and isolation.

"We worked for Mr Jackson, we didn't work for the 'King of Pop'," says Whitfield. "We got to see him as a man and a father. It was so good to see the side of him which was so in tune as a parent, from helping them with their homework and making sure they were eating right, to putting them to bed."

"He was certainly eccentric," Whitfield, a former policeman and veteran of the security profession, recalls. "He would go into a store and buy everything. When we were staying in hotels, he would buy thousands of books. At one point, he bought a whole book store."

He travelled from state to state with a silver briefcase containing two Oscars from Gone With The Wind, which he'd bought at auction for 1.5 million dollars, and another containing thousands of dollars.

At home, he hoarded hundreds of bottles of Tabasco sauce, danced on his own until 4am, allowed his family to see him only if they booked an appointment and worked on elaborate disguises, from being dressed in the searing heat of Las Vegas as a biker, complete with crash helmet and leathers, to wearing facial bandages. His children, too, always wore masks when they were out.

Jackson held lavish birthday parties for his children with clowns, magicians, huge cakes and balloons, but nobody came apart from their teacher, the nanny and the security guards. Home-schooled, they didn't have any friends.

Toy shops would be closed so they could shop undisturbed, entire cinemas rented out to them, all employees strictly vetted.

Thousands of dollars in surveillance gear covered every inch of the property, panic buttons were installed in different rooms and armed security guards patrolled the grounds. But Jackson still went door to door checking the locks, and he often checked that Whitfield and Beard were in their security trailer outside the house.

At the peak of his success, Jackson was worth a reported 700 million dollars, but at one point his finances were in crises due to severe mismanagement, say the authors, who weren't paid for four months.

"We stayed because of our loyalty to him," says Beard. "We knew he wasn't in control and we didn't want to bother him about it. In some walks of life, he was naive.

"He was very hurt about all the [sexual abuse] allegations," Beard continues. "I'm a father myself and I wouldn't have worked for him if I'd had any doubt about him. He wouldn't hurt a fly."

Jackson died on June 25, 2009 from an overdose of the anaesthetic propofol. His doctor, Conrad Murray, was later convicted of involuntary manslaughter and sentenced to four years in prison (he served two).

The bodyguards were in Las Vegas preparing for Jackson's This Is It tour when they heard their boss had died in Los Angeles.

Beard recalls: "I didn't believe it, because there was once a time when we were driving in the car in Virginia and someone said on the radio that he had passed away. I said to Mr Jackson, 'They just said you passed away', and he said, 'Oh, I get that all the time'.

He went to the funeral, which was awash with celebrities.

"I saw a bunch of celebrities and it made me a little angry. I'd never seen them before. They said they were his friends but in the two-and-a-half years I was with him, I'd never heard from these people."

Remember The Time: Protecting Michael Jackson In His Final Days is available now at £14.99.