MICHAEL JACKSON’S ex-wife, Debbie Rowe, the mother of two of his three children, suggested yesterday that she would fight the dead singer’s family for custody of the children.
“I want my children,” Ms Rowe told Los Angeles TV channel KNBC.
Ms Rowe’s comment came amid reports that a public memorial service for Jackson will be held next Tuesday at Los Angeles’s Staples Centre. His family has abandoned plans to hold a public viewing of the singer’s body at his Neverland ranch outside Santa Barbara.
Jackson’s three children – Prince Michael, Paris and Prince Michael II – have been in the care of his mother, Katherine Jackson, since his death last week. In a will he wrote seven years ago, Jackson said he wanted his mother to take care of his children and that if she was unable to do so, custody should go to singer Diana Ross.
The will stated explicitly that Ms Rowe should get nothing from Jackson’s estate. She relinquished visitation rights to the children eight years ago after an $8.5 million divorce settlement with Jackson.
“These are his children,” Ms Rowe told a Los Angeles court at the time. “I had the children for him. They wouldn’t be on this planet if it wasn’t for my love for him. I did it for him to become a father, not for me to become a mother. You earn the title ‘parent’. I have done absolutely nothing to earn that title.”
Ms Rowe told the court that she would not want the children if Jackson died, adding that she was sure the singer had “a wonderful person in mind” to take care of them.
“Not that I don’t love them. I do. I think they are adorable. They’re his kids. They’re his kids. They are not my kids,” she said.
Jackson’s brother Jermaine said yesterday that the three children were doing well, adding that they had seen their father in the hospital after he died. He praised his brother’s decision to leave the children in the care of his mother, who is 79.
“I thought it was a great will, because the children are fine – my mother’s the right person to be there,” he told NBC News.
“She’s capable, she’s up to it, because she’s always with all the grandchildren all the time. She loves the laughter and the crying and all the excitement. She’ll have someone with her to make sure they’re doing the right things.”
Mr Jackson said he did not know if drugs played a part in the singer’s death but he suggested that the pressure on his brother in the last decade or so of his life took a toll on his health.
“Michael was always concerned about everybody. And to have that weight on your shoulders and to have that kind of pressure . . .
“The world didn’t appreciate him. The world loved him, but certain people, certain industries didn’t appreciate him. He became a victim of his own success. It was hard for him.
“The things that happened during his life and then the pressure, the pressure. He felt tremendous pressure. You work so hard to do good and it’s perceived a different way.”