Jackson's ex-wife in custody plea

ArticleData Array ( [Article] => Array ( [article_id] => 1043967 [headline] => Jackson's ex-wife in custody plea [abstract] =>

Michael Jackson's ex-wife insists she will fight for custody of the two children she had with the pop star - against his final wishes.

[keywords] => Jackson, Jacko, Michael Jackson, custody, Rowe, Debbie Rowe, will, children, guardian, parent, mother, wife [content] =>

Michael Jackson's ex-wife insists she will fight for custody of the two children she had with the pop star - against his final wishes.

"I want my children," Debbie Rowe told NBC television's local network in Los Angeles, setting the stage for a bitter legal battle with the late star's family.

Rowe, who was married to Jackson for three years from 1996, said she was willing to submit to any testing, including DNA, to prove she was the biological mother of Prince Michael, 12, and Paris, 11.

"I am stepping up," Rowe added. "I have to."

The former nurse also said she was willing to undergo psychological testing to back up any future custody claim.

KNBC TV in Los Angeles said she planned to seek a restraining order to keep Jackson's father, Joe Jackson, away from the children.

Rowe signed over all parental rights to the children after she and Jackson divorced in 1999, describing him as a "wonderful man... a brilliant father".

Mother, Diana Ross named guardians

However a Los Angeles judge reversed the order in 2004 after Rowe cited concerns over publicity related to Jackson's prosecution for child molestation.
  
Rowe later settled the case with Jackson, reportedly securing visitation rights to the children.

Jackson's former wife has been largely silent since the pop icon's sudden death on June 25 from an apparent cardiac arrest.

On Monday, a Los Angeles court named the star's 79-year-old mother Katherine Jackson as the temporary guardian of Prince Michael, Paris and younger brother Prince Michael II, who was born to a secret surrogate.

A 2002 will filed in Los Angeles Superior Court on Wednesday revealed that Jackson wanted his mother to gain custody of his children in the event of his death.

Soul legend Diana Ross was named as a back-up guardian to the youngsters.

Legal experts have been split on whether any move for custody by Rowe is likely to be successful.

US courts 'favour biological parents'

Family law attorney Fred Silberberg said Rowe stood an excellent chance of securing custody of Prince Michael and Paris.

"Generally speaking in California, biology trumps everything," Silberberg said.

"Courts tend to favor the biological parents so in that regard she has a very strong case," Silberberg said, drawing comparisons to O.J. Simpson, who successfully saw off a custody challenge from the grandparents of ex-wife Nicole Brown-Simpson, who he was accused of murdering in 1994.

However other experts say Rowe's chances of success could hinge on her relationship with the children, with whom she has reportedly had only minimal contact for several years.

"If she has a strong relationship with her children and... she has seen them somewhat regularly then she has a very strong chance of getting custody," said Scott Altman, a law professor at the University of Southern California.

"But if... she hardly has visited with her children, they have no relationship at all, they don't think of her as a mother it will be very difficult for her to get custody."

 

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The  woman who gave birth to Michael Jackson's first two children claims the King of Pop isn't their biological father.

Rowe told Britain's News of the World that she was artificially inseminated with sperm for both births from an anonymous donor.

"I was just the vessel," she said. "It wasn't Michael's sperm.

"I got paid for it, and I've moved on. I know I will never see my children again."

The 50-year-old married Jackson at the Sheraton Hotel in Sydney in 1996 and later gave birth to "Prince" Michael Joseph Jackson Jr and Paris Michael Katherine Jackson.

Rowe gave full custody of the children to Jackson when the couple divorced three years later.

Rowe currently lives on a ranch in California and has remained silent on their marriage until the star's death last week.

She said she wouldn't fight for her two children in the wake of Jackson's death because she never developed an attachment to them.

"I was never a good mother ... It was a better feeling giving them to him than it was keeping them as my own," she said.

"I know I will never see them again.

I was never cut out to be a mother - I was no good.

"I don't want these children in my life. My children are my animals now."
 

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[content] =>

Michael Jackson's family secured temporary custody of the superstar's children Monday as the first salvos in the legal issues arising from the pop icon's tragic death began to take shape.
  
A day after a family lawyer said the Jackson clan would seek custody of the singer's three children, a judge named the star's mother Katherine as temporary guardian after approving a petition filed in Los Angeles Superior Court.
  
Jackson's family was also reported to be filing a second petition seeking the right to be named temporary administrators of their son's estate.
  
Court officials confirmed a petition relating to Jackson's assets had been filed but would not go into details.
  
A lawyer for the family, Londell McMillan, said Sunday the family had not yet seen a copy of the star's will.
  
McMillan was appointed amid clear signs the grief-stricken Jackson family was seeking to take control of their most famous member's affairs.
  
Members of the musical clan were also expected to meet activist Reverend Al Sharpton at the family compound in Los Angeles on Monday to finalize plans for a fitting memorial for Jackson.
  
"I'm here to make sure Michael gets in death what he never got in life -- he never got credit," Sharpton said Sunday.
  
"He was not a freak, he's a genius," he said. "He was not somebody who was eccentric, he was innovative and that innovation smashed barriers and he should be given a lot more credit than he's been given."
  
A press conference with Sharpton and Jackson's father Joe was scheduled for 11:30 am local time (1830 GMT).
  
Reports have said Jackson's family is considering a series of simultaneous memorial services around the world for the singer, reflecting the huge global reach of an artist who sold more than 750 million records.
  
Family members attended an awards show Sunday dedicated to African-American entertainers which became a star-studded celebration of Jackson's life, featuring an emotional tribute from his sister Janet.
  
"My entire family wanted to be here tonight, but it was just too painful so they elected me to speak with all of you," Janet Jackson said.
  
"I'd just like to say that, to you, Michael is an icon. To us, Michael is family and he will forever live in all of our hearts."
  
Meanwhile family attorney McMillan said the family was "closely watching" the progress of the official investigation into Jackson's death.
  
The family already has hired a private pathologist who has carried out a second autopsy on Jackson.
  
Details from Friday's preliminary examination of Jackson's body were published in Britain's The Sun newspaper on Monday after the daily said it had seen a copy of the autopsy report.
  
According to the paper, pathologists found Jackson's stomach empty apart from partially-dissolved pills. Jackson's body was also reported to have weighed only 50.8 kilograms (112 pounds) at the time of his death.
  
However the Los Angeles County coroner's office strongly rejected the report, describing parts of it as "totally false."
  
"The report that is being published did not come from our office," said Assistant Chief Ed Winter. "I don't know where that information came from, or who that information came from."
  
Meanwhile lawyers for personal physician Conrad Murray -- who was with Jackson in the hours before his death -- went on the offensive, with attorney Edward Chernoff insisting his client was blameless.
  
"There's nothing in his history, nothing that Dr Murray knew, that would lead him to believe he would go into sudden cardiac arrest or respiratory failure," Chernoff told CNN Monday.
  
"There was no red flag available to Dr Murray, which led him to believe he would have died the way he did. It's still a mystery how he died."
  
Speculation has been rife that excessive use of powerful prescription pain killers may have played a role in Jackson's death, but Chernoff insisted that contrary to news reports, Murray "never prescribed nor administered" two particular drugs -- Demerol or Oxycontin -- to Jackson.
  
He also defended how Murray responded to the immediate crisis after Jackson lost consciousness last week, recounting step-by-step the failed effort by the doctor to revive the singer.
 

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[content] =>

Michael Jackson's seven-year-old will has been filed in a Los Angeles court, giving his entire estate to a family trust and naming his mother as a beneficiary of the trust and the guardian of his three children.

The will, filed on Wednesday, names singer Diana Ross as a successor guardian to 79-year-old Katherine Jackson if necessary.

The will, dated July 7, 2002, estimated his estate at that time at more than $US500 million. It gives the entire estate to the Michael Jackson Family Trust. His former wife Debbie Rowe is cut out of the will.

Royalties make up bulk of estate

The documents said Jackson's estate consisted almost entirely of "non-cash, non-liquid assets, including primarily an interest in a catalogue of music royalty rights which is currently being administered by Sony ATV, and the interests of various entities."

It also names Jackson's longtime lawyer John Branca and John McClain, a music executive and a family friend, as co-executors of the will.

Jackson, who died Thursday at age 50, left behind three children: son Michael Joseph Jr., known as Prince Michael, 12; daughter Paris Michael Katherine, 11; and son Prince Michael II, 7.

Identity of surrogate never known

Rowe was the mother of the two oldest children; the youngest was born to a surrogate mother, who has never been identified.

The children are named in the will.

In a statement, Branca and McClain said: "The most important element of Michael's will is his unwavering desire that his mother, Katherine, become the legal guardian for his three children. As we work to carry out Michael's instructions to safeguard both the future of his children as well as the remarkable legacy he left us as an artist we ask that all matters involving his estate be handled with the dignity and the respect that Michael and his family deserve."

Katherine Jackson given limited control

Katherine Jackson was granted temporary guardianship on Monday of Jackson's three children. A judge held off on requests to control the children's estates, and gave her limited control over her son's troubled, but lucrative finances.

Rowe, who was married to Jackson in 1996 and filed for divorce three years later, surrendered her parental rights. An appeals court later found that was done in error, and Rowe and Jackson entered an out-of-court settlement in 2006.

Neither Rowe nor her lawyers have indicated whether she intends to seek custody of the two oldest children.
 

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