Michael Jackson moved out of his infamous Neverland Ranch four years before his death in 2009.
The King of Pop's troubled past meant the uninhabited estate has been neglected ever since the harrowing child abuse allegations against him. Remnants of its past, including its amusement park, were cleared away in 2005.
While Jackson was acquitted of all charges, the ranch had become a focus of the allegations, with prosecutors claiming the singer had sexually assaulted young boys there.
READ MORE: ITV Tipping Point viewers instantly recognise 'gorgeous' Scouse contestant
A new ITV documentary, Searching for Michael Jackson's Zoo with Ross Kemp, will see the former EastEnders star travel across America to find out what happened to the animals Michael Jackson kept at Neverland. Perhaps most memorable was Jackson's pet monkey, Bubbles.
Kemp meets former Neverland employees who describe Jackson as an animal lover and conservation, but he also discovers disturbing new information about the sourcing of the animals and how they were treated at the sprawling ranch.
Jackson resided at the property, set within 2,700 acres of land, for 15 years. The Thriller hitmaker snapped up the estate in 1988 for between $19.5m (£15.8m) and $30m (£24.3m), according to the Mirror.
The property is on a gated estate featuring six bedrooms, a pool house, sprawling immaculate gardens, and the zoo. It also has a four-acre lake, stunning mountain views and three guest houses.
The sprawling retreat was put on the market for a whopping $31m in 2019, its listing agency Compass said it found potential buyers later that year. However the deal fell through in February 2020 with the seller Colony Capital, according to Business Insider, leaving the property's future looking bleak.
But the huge property, 38 miles from Santa Barbara, has been undergoing a renovation in recent months. In February of this year, Errin Briggs, a supervising planner for the Santa Barbara County told SFGATE : "Our staff has been out to the site multiple times for about the last four to six months.
“We don’t yet have any permit requests for new structures, but they’ve pulled permits for roofing, existing structures, electrical — pretty minor stuff, but we can confirm work is being done.”
Searching for Michael Jackson’s Zoo with Ross Kemp airs on Wednesday, April 27, at 9pm on ITV and the ITV Hub
