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LoginSunday June 27,2010
By Mike Parker
MICHAEL Jackson’s mother Katherine has told for the first time how Debbie Rowe, mother of the King of Pop’s two eldest children, is helping her raise all three of his offspring.
Katherine, 80, said in a US TV interview she had never met the ex-nurse until after Michael’s death on June 25 last year, saying: “We cried together. We talked. We had a nice time together.
“Debbie is happy with the arrangement the way Michael left it, with me as the children’s legal guardian. I respect her and love her for that. Debbie is their biological mother and I feel she should be in their lives.”
The Jackson family matriarch, who did not once mention her husband Joe during a two-hour NBC Dateline special – her only interview on the first anniversary of Michael’s death – added: “Debbie is now a regular visitor to Encino (the leafy LA suburb where Katherine and the children live). We have clicked and I want those visits to continue.”
As well as spending time with her children Prince Michael, 13, and Paris, 12, Katherine said that Rowe also helps care for Prince Michael II, aka Blanket, 8, the identity of whose surrogate mother has never been revealed. “So he does not feel left out.”
Katherine said: “The kids are doing fabulously well. They are all straight A students.”
She added that plans to send the home-tutored trio to their first private school in September “are still being considered”.
She added: “Blanket is too young but Prince Michael and Paris are very interested. It’s something we are all going to decide together closer to the time. Prince Michael loves the camera and wants to get into that side of the movie industry. Paris wants to be an actress and is learning to play the piano by ear.”
Like his famous father, Blanket “can carry a tune very well”.
She said: “He has rhythm and can dance. He reminds me so much of his father. Michael started dancing when he was a toddler, to a sing-song like sound our old washer-dryer used to make in the kitchen.” Katherine said she and the children were handling their grief differently.
“Paris has pictures of her father all over her bedroom so his face is the last she sees at night and the first when she wakes up.”
Katherine, who unveiled a memorial statue of the King of Pop on Friday afternoon in the family’s native Gary, Indiana, choked back tears as she told Dateline:
“I never looked at Michael (in his coffin) after he passed. I couldn’t. I wanted to remember him the way he was.”
On the same day her husband Joe launched a wrongful death civil lawsuit against Dr Conrad Murray, the King of Pop’s physician. Katherine said she harboured no malice over her son’s death but added: “I do want justice.”
The cardiologist is on $75,000 bail awaiting a criminal trial at Los Angeles Superior Court in August on a charge of involuntary manslaughter, which he denies. A legal expert said: “Whether or not Dr Murray is convicted of the criminal charge against him, he could find himself in the same position as OJ Simpson if he loses the civil suit, facing a judgment of millions of dollars against him.”
Joe Jackson, who was left out of his son’s will, was last night hosting a Forever Michael tribute gala, with a portion of profits from ticket sales destined for the Michael Jackson Foundation, a charity Joe himself set up.
The event came under fire from an attorney who represents Jackson’s estate. He insisted no one had contacted the estate seeking approval for the use of Michael’s name, image or intellectual property for this event. A family source said: “Quite simply, Joe is hurting for cash.”
A spokesman for Joe refused to comment on claims he is offering fans the chance to pose with his three grandchildren for cash.
