The documentary brought to light the abuse that two children, now men, said they endured at the hands of Jackson.
“His sexual needs were his sexual needs, coming from whatever childhood he has or whatever DNA he has,” Streisand said in an interview published Friday in The Times of London. “You can say ‘molested,’ but those children, as you heard say, they were thrilled to be there. They both married and they both have children, so it didn’t kill them.”
She added that she believed the accounts of Wade Robson and James Safechuck, the men who claimed in the documentary that Jackson abused them when they were children.
On Saturday, Streisand clarified her comments in a statement.
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“To be crystal clear, there is no situation or circumstance where it is OK for the innocence of children to be taken advantage of by anyone,” she said.
In the Times of London interview, she said that while she felt bad for the children, she also felt bad for Jackson and ultimately blamed the children’s parents.
“I blame, I guess, the parents, who would allow their children to sleep with him,” she said. “Why would Michael need these little children dressed like him and in the shoes and the dancing and the hats?”
The comments from Streisand came under fire on social media. The hashtag #CancelBarbraStreisand began trending on Twitter.
Dan Reed, who directed “Leaving Neverland," tweeted: "'His sexual needs were his sexual needs’ — is pedophilia tolerated in parts of the entertainment industry?”
In August 1993, Jackson was investigated by the Los Angeles Police Department over claims that he had molested a 13-year-old boy. In 1994, Jackson settled a lawsuit brought by the boy’s parents for $23 million.
In a 2003 documentary, Jackson discussed sharing his bed with a young cancer survivor. The film sparked a criminal investigation, and Jackson was charged with child molesting, serving alcohol to a minor, conspiracy and kidnapping; he was found not guilty of all charges in 2005.
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.