Katie Couric said Michael Jackson once asked her on a date but she turned him down
- Katie Couric said Michael Jackson once asked her on a date days after they met.
- Couric said Jackson's hand "felt like a dead fish" and he had tape on "what was left of his nose."
Katie Couric spills plenty of juicy details in her new memoir, "Going There," from what it was like to meet Princess Diana to her thoughts on Martha Stewart's sense of humor.
The legendary TV journalist also opens up about her love life, even revealing that she once got asked on a date by Michael Jackson.
But Couric said Jackson didn't personally invite her. He asked his spiritual adviser, "Rabbi to the stars" Shmuley Boteach, to make the call on his behalf.
At first, Couric was confused, as she wrote in her memoir. She thought Boteach was asking her out - despite being married with nine children.
"Not for me, silly," Couric recalled Boteach telling her. "For Michael. He'd love to take you to dinner."
Couric said she had met Jackson just a few days earlier at the Four Seasons Hotel in Manhattan.
"He had taken the entire floor, plus the ones above and below for his entourage," she wrote. "There were stone-faced, wired-up security guys everywhere - stationed in the halls, at the elevators."
When Couric met Jackson, she said everything about him seemed "soft and weak."
"His smile, his voice, but especially his hand, which felt like a dead fish when he offered it," she continued. "He had medical tape running down and across what was left of his nose. There was a computer on the desk behind him with a screen-saver montage of beautiful children."
Couric said she had gone to Jackson's hotel hoping to score an interview and a performance for the "Today" show, but didn't have much luck.
"Talking to Jackson was like talking to a wilting flower," she said. "I found it a little hard to get traction. As we said our goodbyes, I mentioned to Michael, 'I'd love to interview you sometime.' He smiled. More crickets."
Couric said she found it strange that Jackson was trying to get a date with her through Boteach.
"That he was using Rabbi Shmuley as his matchmaker didn't add up," she continued. "Maybe he thought being seen with wholesome me would be good for his increasingly sketchy image, although I had serious doubts it would be good for mine."
While Couric doesn't specify when Jackson asked her out, the "Thriller" singer was accused of molesting children in the '80s and '90s. Jackson denied the allegations until his death in 2009.
As for Couric, she never gave his date a second thought.
"My answer was easy as ABC," she said, referencing the famous Jackson 5 song. "No thanks."