London (REUTERS) — Pop icon Michael Jackson lashed out Thursday at a “tawdry” documentary he helped make for British television and denied he would ever abuse children, as his lawyers filed complaints with U.K. broadcasting authorities.

In Monday’s film — a rare look at the American singer’s private life that was shot over eight months — Jackson admitted sharing a bed with children at his Neverland ranch.

The bed-sharing revelations prompted a storm of controversy, including a call by a California lawyer for a probe into life at his fairytale estate.

“Today I feel more betrayed than perhaps ever before, that someone who had got to know my children, my staff and me, whom I let into my heart and told the truth, could then sacrifice the trust I placed in him and produce this terrible and unfair program,” Jackson, 44, said in a statement released in London.

“Everyone who knows me will know the truth, which is that my children come first in my life and that I would never harm any child.”

His lawyers filed official complaints with Britain’s Broadcasting Standards Commission and Independent Television Commission, arguing that the program was unfair and violated his right to privacy.

The complaints said the filmmakers used footage of Jackson’s children despite him forbidding them to do so and had unfairly asked him about a 1993 child abuse allegation without “prior warning in writing or otherwise.”

He also complained that the filmmakers had interviewed a 12-year-old boy who slept in Jackson’s bed, without asking permission from the boy’s parents for the interview.

CONTROVERSY

Jackson has been dogged by controversy and rumor since 1993 when he reached a multi-million dollar settlement with a 14-year-old boy who had accused him of sexual molestation.

In the documentary, the eccentric star insisted there was nothing wrong with having children in his bedroom and vowed to kill himself if there were no kids left in the world.

His two older children, five-year-old Prince Michael I and four-year-old Paris, appeared on film with Jackson wearing party masks. He fed his third child — whom he has nicknamed Blanket — with a bottle while draping a veil over his head.

Granada Television, which produced the film “Living with Michael Jackson,” stood by its journalist Martin Bashir but said perhaps it was “inevitable” Jackson would be upset.

“It’s not surprising that a film about him, which is so open and revealing, draws some hostile reaction and comment about him. It’s regrettable that Michael should feel devastated as a result of that, but perhaps inevitable,” it said in a statement.

“GROSS DISTORTION”

The statement issued for Jackson by a PR firm in London said the star was “devastated and feels utterly betrayed.”

It added that Jackson regarded the program — due to be broadcast Thursday in the United States — “as a gross distortion of the truth and a tawdry attempt to misrepresent his life and his abilities as a father.”

“Michael feels deeply angry that the program could have led viewers to conclude that he abuses children in any way,” it added. “Michael Jackson has never, and would never, treat a child inappropriately or expose them to any harm and totally refutes any suggestions to the contrary.”

Jackson accused Bashir of breaking an assurance not to feature his children and of ignoring pleas to cut footage. Granada said it respected his desire not to show the children’s faces but that there was no agreement not to show them at all.

The singer accused Granada of airing “a salacious ratings-chaser” and was backed up by friends and family.

“It breaks my heart that anyone could truly believe that Michael would do anything to harm or endanger our children,” said ex-wife Debbie Rowe, mother of two of his children.

Friend Uri Geller, the spoon-bending psychic, said fans were sending messages of support, adding: “The people who think about the sexual connotations, they have the warped minds, not Michael.”

The Jackson documentary — made by the same journalist who coaxed a televised confession of adultery out of the late Princess Diana — was viewed by nearly one in four Britons