Woman with fear of Michael Jackson has explained how the phobia started

The woman who went viral for showcasing her real-time experience of a Michael Jackson phobia has opened up about how the unconventional phobia began.

In the video that went viral, Ruby Marriott was seen at a bar in Ayia Napa while on holiday visibly distressed by a Michael Jackson impersonator performing behind her. Take a look:

The video's caption reads: "Our first night in aiya napa took a turn for the worse," alongside with onscreen text saying: “My sister has a phobia of Michael Jackson”.

18-year-old Ruby is seen in the video looking extremely uncomfortable as a man dressed in a red jacket and black trousers shows off some Jackson-esque dance moves to the sound of 'Thriller'.

In just a matter of hours after being uploaded on TikTok, the video racked up a staggering nine million views and has well and truly gone viral, with some even calling for the young woman to appear in the upcoming return of ITV2's Big Brother.

And now, Ruby, from Rotherham, South Yorkshire, has explained her fear.

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“I have a genuine fear of Michael Jackson," she said. "It all started when I was younger at about five years old. My sister and my cousin used to show me creepy edited videos of him that people made and conspiracy theories that he’s alive."

Hardly the kind of stuff you want to be watching as a five-year-old, to be fair.

She went onto say: “'Thriller' is the main song that scares me, mainly because of watching the music video when I was younger and it is one of his biggest hits so it’s played around me a lot."

However, the phobia was really cemented for her on a family holiday to Los Angeles because of the house they were staying in.

"There was a door with about eight padlocks on it and one of my family members jokingly said ‘what if Michael Jackson is hiding in there?’, knowing my phobia of him.

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"Every night for three weeks, I had the same nightmare of him creeping out of the wardrobe and coming for me while I was asleep. It was awful!"

And though many years have passed since these moments that went onto be formative, Ruby’s phobia of the 'King of Pop' hasn’t eased up at all.

It was Ruby’s first night in Ayia Napa to celebrate her uncle and aunt getting married. She entered a bar that was 'really quiet' with her family, but little did she know this quiet bar was fated to ruin her night.

She said of the viral video: "We had no idea about any tribute acts so we went in and had a few rounds of drinks. I was enjoying it a lot, we were all dancing, taking photos and having a laugh.

"It wasn’t until half an hour in that I heard the start of Thriller playing and I instantly started panicking.

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"I turned around and saw a Michael Jackson impersonator dancing around on the dance floor next to me. I ran over to where my family were sitting and instantly started crying and panicking even more."

Afterwards, Ruby remained shaken up all evening and even had to FaceTime her boyfriend to calm down.

Her sister, Macey, posted the video after showing her friends, who 'found it hilarious'.

Although Ruby was less than impressed by her sister's video at first, she’s since said: "I am finding it funnier now, but it hasn’t changed how I see Michael Jackson."