1995 – 1999 :: Debbie Rowe | La Cienega Just Smiles

1995 – 1999 :: Debbie Rowe

July 31, 2010

Michael, Prince, Debbie in Munich July 5 1997
Snippet of Debbie Interview November 1997
Full 40 Minute Take Two Bashir Interview, February 2003
Bashir Take Two Excerpts: Dating, Sex, Babies
Debbie Rowe Visiting This Is It, 25th October 2009

They meet at a dermatology clinic in 1981,

It was 30 years ago that Rowe, a nursing assistant in the office of Dr. Arnold
Klein, a Beverly Hills, Calif., dermatologist, first met one of his famed
clients — Michael Jackson.

“I go ‘Hi’. And he goes ‘Hi,’ and I said, ‘You know what? Nobody does what you do better, and nobody does what I do better. Let’s get this over with.’ And he laughed, and we just became friends. It was just right away,” said Rowe in a 2003 interview. (Bashir Part 2, 2003)

Testimony From 2005

What kind of work was that that you were
doing for Mr. Klein?
A. He’s a dermatologist. I was an assistant for him.
Q. For what period of time were you his
assistant?
10 A. From 1979 to 2000 or 2001.
11 Q. What kind of work did you do for Mr. —
12 Dr. Klein?
13 A. I assisted him with surgeries and patients.

15 Q. When did you first meet Michael?
16 A. In the .80s.
17 Q. And how did you meet Michael?
18 A. Through my office when I worked with Dr.
19 Klein.
20 Q. Okay. And what was your position with Dr.
21 Klein at the time?
22 A. I was an assistant.
23 Q. And Michael went to Dr. Klein for various
24 treatments, right?
25 A. Yes.
26 Q. And do you recall when he first went to Dr.
27 Klein?
28 A. Yes. The very first day, yes. I was not 8020
1 his nurse then.

Reginas Santos, MJ’s Publicist Statement 5 November 1996

“To avoid any further inaccurate reports in the media and tabloid press, Michael Jackson announces today that his longtime close friend of 15 years, Debbie Rowe, is pregant and will have his child in early 1997.”

Arnold Klein, July 8th 2009

KING: Now, the Debbie Rowe part of the story. She was your nurse, right?
KLEIN: Yes.
KING: They met, I guess, in your office?
KLEIN: Yes.

Debbie and Klein accompany him on a few dates of the Bad Tour, Gothenburg, Germany, July 11-12 1988

20 I did go to the last concert in Gutenberg [sic: Gothenburg), I
21 think on the tour previous to that. Because
22 Gutenberg wasn’t on the “Dangerous” tour.

Teddy Riley says MJ spoke to him about Debbie, Dangerous recording sessions took place between June 25, 1990 – October 29, 1991.

“Pleasing the kids, that’s all I want to do,” Riley, 30, says with a sheepish smile in the dressing room moments later.I just get joy from doing the music,” he continues as he and his group mates–Chauncey Hannibal, Mark Middleton and Eric Williams–watch other “All That” segments on monitors and munch on soul food from Roscoe’s Chicken & Waffles. But as he speaks, it becomes clear that there’s more to it than that. I wrote ‘Remember the Time’ when Michael {Jackson} told me about falling in love with {Debbie Rowe}, the woman he just married. I don’t know why he didn’t marry her the first time around. That’s why songs like that, and Bobby Brown’s ‘ My Prerogative,’ are still relevant, cause they speak about their lives and the lives of others. My songs are just a soundtrack for life.

Michael includes Debbie in a painting, 1991

Apocalyptic scene with portrait of Michael Jackson in armor. Oil on panel, signed and dated 1991.

Also seen at the back of his interview with Oprah, Feb 1993

Interview with Cowan, the painter

10. The woman in the white dress: ‘He told me he was seeing this nurse about something and that something magic was going to happen. What was happening was she (Debbie Rowe) was carrying the babies or they were making the deal to do it, so I painted a nurse that looks like an angel.’

Debbie Rowe (Interview with KNBC November 28 1997)

Interviewer: Having the baby was her idea. It was a subject that was talked about before Jackson’s marriage to Lisa Marie Presley.
Debbie: He did love her very, very much, still does. Still cares about her very, very much. But, um, it didn’t work out. And, uh, he was devastated.
Interviewer: After the divorce, Debbie, who met Jackson while working in a Dr’s Office again brought up the subject of children.
Debbie: Well, I said, I said, you know, my offer still stands….
Interviewer: So, if you want to be a parent ….
Debbie: So I said, I said…If you want to be a daddy…I want to do it.

Tonya Watt’s, a friend of Debbie Rowe’s,

Me and Micheal Jackson’s wife

Let me start by saying Michael Jackson was truly my first love. I will admit my madness for him did not start until Thriller. It was Christmas time when the video came out. I will never forget watching it on Christmas Eve. I tried to learn every move and so did everyone else (admit it).. I had posters all over my room.. and when BAD came out I had this Cardboard huge picture of him from the Album cover. I got it from the record store in the mall. It was behind my bed and he was always with me. I will also have to add to this story that I really did get into fights with people espeically in high school.. decade or more since the BAD album. I hated when people made of fun of him and they pissed me off and they picked on me about it.. Even one teacher use to always give me a hard time. I was a Michael Jackson advocate (still am)..One time I told my teacher if he didn’t stop I was going to stand in the hall.. LOL! but I was really mad..just so you know..

Moving on…When I moved to Los Angeles. I moved in to an apartment in Van Nuys, California. The lady across the hall was super cool. She knocked on our door very often. She would soon become a big part of my life. I can still say to this day I have never met anyone quite like her. She was something else. It wasn’t very long before she told us how close she was to Michael Jackson. She worked for his dermatologist and had known him for many years. Well, I have to admit I did not believe her. I figured she was some crazy lady and a liar. She said he gave her the vehicle she drove and that she is very good friends with him. I soon find myself in her modest apartment looking at all of the proof I needed, to know that she was telling the truth. I told her all about my love story. Over the next two years we become very good friends. I can remember one day answering her phone and it was him.. wow! I recognized his voice and flipped out.. I had already met him by this time so he knew who I was. He asked her” if that was that country girl” Very Cool.. So yes, I did meet him once.. alot of people don’t believe me and others don’t care. LOL!

Either way it happen.. and it was something very special to me and I will never forget it. I will always have a soft spot in my heart for him. I also know he is innocent so whatever.. don’t piss me off about that shit either.. ha ha

Debbie and Arnold accompany him on the Dangerous World Tour, 1992

What was the first tour that you went on
7 with Michael?
8 A. “Dangerous.”
9 Q. And approximately when was that?
10 A. I don’t remember. That was — all those
11 tours. And they all just ran together, because it
12 was a long schedule.
13 Q. Okay. Was it in the .80s or .90s; do you
14 know?
15 A. I think it was in the early .90s.
16 Q. Okay. And where did that tour go to?
17 A. I think it started in Bangkok, and went
18 throughout Asia, Japan, Singapore. Then there was a
19 break. And then it went to Europe.
20 I did go to the last concert in Gutenberg [sic: Gothenburg), I
21 think on the tour previous to that. Because
22 Gutenberg wasn’t on the “Dangerous” tour.
23 Q. And were you traveling with Michael along
24 with his physician?
25 A. Yes.
26 Q. Okay. And you then went on another tour
27 after that?
28 A. Yes.

Michael enters rehab, November 12 1993

‘When he went into the rehab, I remember that Debbie was so, so relived.’ says Tonya Boyd. ‘When Michael got out of rehab he started dating Lisa Marie. But he never stopped seeing Debbie, even after he married Lisa Marie.’

“I know when Michael was addicted, Debbie stayed on the telephone for hours and hours, pleading with him to save himself”, says Debbie’s friend Tonya Boyd. “She told me that she said: ‘If you die, I will be crushed. I wouldn’t be able to survive it. You are my very life’.” (Daily Record)

Debbie and Arnold Klein testify that Michael has vitiligo and lupus at the deposition in early 1994

Photo of Debbie and Mike at a clinic/hospital, 1995

Magic/Madness, 1995

Lisa Marie’s friend Monica Pastelle says: ‘I recall Lisa telling me that Michael was trying to make her believe he was interested in a white nurse who worked for his dermatologist. Lisa just laughed it off. She thought Michael was trying to make her jealous, just playing games.’

‘But it was true, just the same: Michael was seeing Debbie Rowe while he was married to Lisa,’ says Monica Pastelle. ‘And Lisa knew it. At one point, she and Debbie had a tense telephone conversation during which Lisa said: “Look, nursey. I’m sorry that you’re in love with my husband. But he’s mine. So get lost”.

‘Afterwards, Lisa burst out laughing. She said: “Can you imagine? Me acting like the jealous little wife because Michael’s wet nurse -or whatever she is- is in love with him. What is this craziness?” ‘

Debbie on set of YANA, Tonya Watt’s Myspace, July 12 1995

So She took me to Gower Studio where he was shooting a music video. He works at night so we went around 11pm. I was so nervous (only he and Dolly would make me nervous).. We arrivedand his body guards led us to a trailer. She went in and left me outside of the trailer for a while. Finally, she opened the door and called me in.. She said “Michael this is Tonya Tonya this is Michael”. he shook my hand.. and I said the dumbest shit ever… ” “should I faint now or later” giggle giggle.. He then said “listen to her laugh.”. so I sat in the corner in a chair while she, Michael and the makeup artist all carry on while he is getting his makeup done… not many people can say they have done that.. he is very private about his make up affairs ha ha

Off to the set we went… I was so shy and trailed behind.. He stopped and waited on me.. Such a gentleman.. We did go in his personal trailer and there was candy all over the place..just as I would have imagined . We soon had to leave cuz Lisa Marie was on her way. She was in that video and well, it was time to go..

Neverland….. I also got to go to Neverland with her. It was wild.. He was not there but his spirit was and it was amazing.. It was so surreal walking thru his home… with such an inviting staff treating us awesome…

Baby! Wow! One day she starts telling me she was planning on having him a baby! How did I find myself in Michael Jackson’s world (sort of).. She told me this way before she was ever pregnant . I have to admit even still. I was not sure if she was telling the truth. This is just getting too far fetched.. LOL! Your gonna have his baby and give it to him. Well, she was telling the truth. That’s exactly what she did two times. Funny thing is I have never told anyone this.. except me and my family laugh about it. I’m just saying:: I have a neice name PARIS.. She loved Paris’s name.. when my neice and nephew visisted from Alabama. She arranged it with MJ for us to all go to Neverland..Well we always joke and say thats where they got the name PARIS.. My lady friend did tell me that one time.. but who would believe me so nevermind doesn’t matter anyway.

July 31-August 6, 1995

After an argument with Lisa Marie, Michael flies to Disneyland Paris and doesn’t see or speak to Lisa Marie for 6 weeks.

She tells Rolling Stone in 2003: “He got upset and he would just disappear.”

Lisa, Playboy, June 2003

PLAYBOY: Did you and Michael discuss having kids?

PRESLEY: Yeah. [Laughs] I got out of that one. “I just don’t think it’s a good idea right now.” But I knew that’s what he wanted. And I knew Debbie Rowe was offering to do it for him while we were married, according to him. She was a nurse who had a crush on him and offered to have his babies.

PLAYBOY: Was he trying to leverage you into agreeing?

PRESLEY: Kind of. “Debbie Rowe says she’ll do it.” Ok, have Debbie Rowe do it! And it’s funny, when I imagined having a child with him, all I could ever see was a custody battle nightmare.

Lisa Marie files for divorce, December 1995

Debbie becomes pregnant with Michael’s child, December 1995

January, 1996

Michael shoots the “Prison” version of the They Don’t Care About Us video directed by Spike Lee in New York .

March 1996

Debbie sufferes a miscarriage.

April 28 1996

Wearing a black surgical mask, pop singer Michael Jackson arrives with an unidentified companion at a performance of the play “Sisterella.”

May

Debbie Rowe gets pregnant again with Michael’s baby.

Amsterdam, September 28/30 1996

November 3 1996

Media learn about Debbie Rowe’s pregnancy.

Tonya Watt’s Myspace on the story breaking,

When the story broke that she was having his baby! The madness of Micheal Jackson’s life had landed in mine and let’s just say it was not pretty.. I was managing the bldg by this time… News trucks, paparazzi, you name it.. they were lined up outside our building and it was a big ol fat trip. Then everyone that lived in the building started getting phone calls from Hardcopy, Extra, Entertainment Tonight, British shows, papers. How they got our phone numbers is still beyond me. She started neeeding a body guard and could not leave her home. His life is sad and I get it now. I only tasted a peanut!

Then there was the night that she got a call from Hardcopy ttelling her that an Xfriend of hers was coming out saying some bad things. They told her if she would do the interview they would not run the negative one. Somehow I find myself in my bathroom gagging over the toilet. My nerves were about to have a heart attack.. ha ha What is going on? There are cameras in my living room.. and I am being interviewed with very strict guidelines of what I can and cannot say.. I hated it.. How did I find myself speaking on her behalf about her and Michael Jackson. I still have a copy of it. I can’t even watch it .. embarrassing.

The whole thing really turned out a big heart ache. Before it was all over noone in our building trusted each other. Someone stole a picture of her and MJ out of her apartment and sold it. She didn’t know who to trust and our building became bad energy.. I moved soon after and so did she. She will always have a soft spot in my heart!

weird.. many many years later I am now really good friends with his manager from back in the day. Random, I met him thru music.. in Nashville…So now I know two people that know him very closely and another reason I know he is innocent…….Just saying! MJ I love you! forever! If I had a son… he could come over and play cuz I trust you! I listen to my heart and my instincts are always right.. so fuckem…

She did end up becoming his wife and then they later divorced…. I kept her dogs while she went out of town to marry him.. ok true story whatever.. ha ha

Magic/Madness, November 3 1996

“At the time when the story broke, Debbie was supposed to meet him in Australia”, said Tonya Boyd. “She presumed that the trip would be off, that Michael would be so upset about what had happened that he would refuse to see her. She cried a lot that day.”

The day the story of Debbie’s pregnancy broke, Michael’s mother Katherine tracked Debbie down at her friend Tonya Boyd’s house where she was hiding.

‘I picked up the telephone, hoping it was Michael calling for Debbie from Australia, and this woman said: “Would you please put Miss Rowe on the phone?”

‘I thought it was a reporter, so I said: “She’s not here.” And the woman said: “Well this is Michael Jackson’s mother. I simply must find her.” Iimmediately handed Debbie the phone.’

Katherine was, as Debbie’s friend put it, ‘sweet as pie to her’, and talked for an hour about the sanctity of marriage, and the Jehovah’s Witness faith which she believed in so passionately.

Debbie, say friends, was impressed. In fact, by the end of the conversation, she had agreed that not only should she convince Michaelto marry … she was practically ready to convert to the Jehovah’s Witness faith.

When Michael found out that Katherine and Debbie had spoken he probably suspected that his life was about to change. Then, when Katherinefinally managed to get her superstar son on the telephone -according to what Michael told one of his managers- Katherine wept and told him to
marry ‘that nice girl, Debbie’ and ‘give your child a name’.

Katherine pushed all the right buttons or, as one Jackson associate puts it, ‘she played him like a fiddle’. ‘Finally’, says a source close to the singer, ‘Michael agreed that he should marry Debbie Rowe. “It’s definitely the right thing to do,’ he said” ‘

Nov 7, 1996

The LA-based, British-run, Splash news agency is very smug about breaking the Michael Jackson baby story with London’s News of the World under the noses of us Yanks. “We’ve been working on the story for 2 1/2 months.

Our source told us originally that (Debbie Rowe) is having his baby, but it was us who established it was true,” says Splash partner Kevin Smith. Video of the woman, a blond nurse who helped treat Jackson for his skin disease, has been sold around the world by Splash, including to Hard Copy and Geraldo Rivera this week. News of the World broke the story Sunday, after confirming Splash’s information.

November 7th 1996

The nervous nurse who is bearing Michael Jackson’s glove-child may be cracking under the media glare.

Debbie Rowe has been dodging reporters ever since word of her peculiar pregnancy leaked out.

And worried pals yesterday said a 37-year-old woman in her condition should be taking it easy.

“I’m very worried about her right now,” Tonya Watts told “Hard Copy” last night. “I’m worried that the stress might be affecting her.”

“I don’t think she was ready” for all the attention, added Kevin Forrest, who along with Watts lives in the same Los Angeles apartment complex as Rowe.

As for the 38-year-old Jackson, Watts said, “Michael is actually very normal.”

“Everyone has a hard time seeing they are normal, two normal friends,” she said of the soon-to-be parents.

Jackson announced this week that Rowe was pregnant with his child, and denied reports that she was artificially inseminated.

But the mascara-wearing superstar has been unable to dodge suspicion that the pregnancy like his failed marriage to Lisa Marie Presley is an attempt to repair a public image that was damaged by accusations that he molested a 13-year-old boy. Jackson insists he’s innocent.

Watts insisted the pregnancy was for real.

“She didn’t break it to us until recently,” said Watts. “I mean we are all neighbors and great friends, and we have hung out a lot. But she would never tell us who the child belonged to.”

“She is very excited to give Michael something he has always wanted,” she added. “It’s like a dream come true.”

Rowe was quoted in the tab as saying that she and the Gloved One had sex but didn’t conceive. “Michael then said that artificial insemination would be a foolproof way of doing it and he was proven right,” she reportedly said.

Splash, November 7, 1996

How Splash confirmed it: “(Rowe) told us in her own words, but she didn’t know she was talking to us.” A deceptive tactic? “We call it investigative journalism,” says (Stuart) Smith. He says he met Rowe, but won’t say how. “She really is Michael Jackson’s best friend,” he says, but adds that the two aren’t romantically involved. “Theirs is a brotherly-sisterly love.” Says News of the World’s Stuart White: “She didn’t do this for monetary gain, but monetary gain will result. She made it clear her role is to deliver (the baby) to Jackson after three to four weeks. It will be looked after by two nannies hired by Jackson.”

November 8

What is the origin of the stories that Michael’s baby was conceived by artificial insemination and that MJ paid his wife, Debbie Rowe-Jackson, to have the child?

In early November 1996, the London tabloid, News of the World, claimed that Debbie Rowe-Jackson had conceived Michael’s child through artificial insemination at the Los Angeles Fertility Institute and was being paid $500,000 to have the baby. The tabloid further claimed that Rowe-Jackson would surrender custody to Michael and would retain only visiting rights. The New York Daily News quoted neighbors of Debbie’s, Kevin Forrest and Tonya Watts, as saying that she had told them she was having the child out of friendship, but it was a natural conception. The News of the World countered by publishing what they said was an interview with Debbie’s father, Gordon Rowe, in which he said she told him in a phone call that the child was conceived by artificial insemination. The December 2, 1996 issue of People magazine quoted a neighbor and “pal”, Mary Colandro, as also saying Rowe-Jackson was “having the baby for Michael as a friend” though it was a natural conception. On November 4, 1996, Michael Jackson confirmed that he was indeed to become a father, but called rumors that the mother was artificially inseminated “completely false and irresponsible” and denied he had paid Rowe-Jackson to have the child. Nevertheless, the tabloid stories were picked up and repeated around the globe by mainstream news outlets until they gained a dubious legitimacy in the mind of the public.

Michael Jackson and Debbie Rowe were married on November 14, 1996, in Sydney, Australia. Reports soon followed in the Australian tabloids that Debbie was asking for a divorce. At length, tired of immodest speculation in the media, Michael and Debbie issued a press release on January 6, 1997, in which they said, “Deborah has been extremely upset by the flagrant fabrications and utter lies that have been published about her and the false statements attributed to her father which he never made. Deborah’s father supports her decisions 100 percent. Not inclined to respond to false and vicious reports, Deborah is adamant about again setting the record straight that Michael is the father of the child, the pregnancy is not the result of artificial means, that she has not been paid to have Michael’s baby, and that she is not seeking or filing for a divorce.”

(San Jose Mercury News, People, Entertainment Wire)

“It was not an accident,” says Kevin Forrest, a neighbor of Rowe’s. “Michael wanted to have a child. And when Lisa Marie wouldn’t… well, it was not an accident. Debbie wanted to do this for Michael.”

Saturday, November 9th 1996

The woman who is carrying Michael Jackson’s baby has told friends that the King of Pop’s marriage to Lisa Marie Presley broke up because she wouldn’t have his child.

Friends of Debbie Rowe, a 37-year-old divorced California nurse, said she took on the task of bearing Jackson’s baby purely out of friendship and that she expects little in return and will let him raise the child.

“It was not an accident,” said Kevin Forrest, a neighbor of Rowe’s. “This was a planned pregnancy. Michael wanted to have a child for some time. And when Lisa Marie wouldn’t. . . . It was not an accident.”

“[Debbie] wanted to do this for Michael,” he added. “He’s ecstatic. She’s proud and happy to be able to do this for him. She loves him as a friend. It’s her dearest relationship.”

Forrest’s wife, Tonya Watts, said Rowe was hurt by reports that Jackson was paying her $500,000 to have the child through artificial insemination.

“This is a natural conception. Debbie finds it amazing that people won’t believe that. She told me two years ago, ‘Michael likes girls,’ ” Watts said.

Forrest said the baby “will be raised by Michael. She doesn’t want to have control of it. She said she did this for Michael. They’ll continue the same visiting relationship they’ve always had.

“Debbie denied receiving any money,” he added. “He’s not handing her a check. Obviously he’ll take care of the medical expenses. She can’t afford that.”

Rowe, a shy and decidedly unglamorous divorcee who lives with her two dogs in a luxury apartment building in Van Nuys, Calif., has been in hiding since news of her impending motherhood brought scores of reporters to her door.

Forrest and Watts said they noticed that Rowe was “showing” but didn’t say anything.

When word broke, Rowe was so upset, “she cried. She cried for three or four days straight,” said Watts. “She didn’t want anyone to know until the baby was born. She’s not Madonna. She’s not used to this, the paparazzi.”

So far Rowe has kept mum, but Jackson has confirmed that she is carrying Michael Jackson Jr., and a British tabloid says it has tapes of her in which she waxes ecstatic about the child.

Rowe and Jackson met in 1985 when he arrived at her work place the Beverly Hills clinic of Dr. Arnold Klein, dermatologist to the stars. Jackson was seeking treatment for vitiligo, a skin condition that whitens the skin.

Rowe’s three-year marriage was starting to crumble and would end in divorce in 1990.

November 14 1996

Concert in Sydney . After the show, just after midnight (thurs on the 15th) , Michael marries Debbie Rowe in the presidential suit of the Sheraton-on-the-Park Hotel.

He denies in a press release the news reports claiming that Debbie has been artificially inseminated.

Magic/Madness 14 November 1996

They were duly married at a hotel between Michael’s touring commitments. Afterwards, it was rumoured that Debbie Rowe received $1 million to give birth to Michael’s son Prince Michael Jnr. However, according to a reliable sources in the Jackson camp, Rowe actually received $500,000 –
and not to give birth but rather as a ‘wedding gift’.

Any story that she has a contract with Michael Jackson, and that she has received millions of dollars to bear his children, is simply untrue. Indeed no document has ever surfaced to support the rumour.

‘None of it is true,’ Debbie said when pressed to confirm stories of a deal. ‘ Why won’t people believe me? I would never have his children for money. I am doing it because I am his dear friend.

‘They’re adults,’ Tonya Boyd explains. ‘Say what you want, have any
judgement you like about it, but it’s their life, and they get to live
it whatever way they choose.’

‘They are cordial when they see each other,’ says Tonya Boyd. ‘Like many couples, they have an arrangement that works for them. No one can understand another person’s relationship, I guess. Not really.’

Nov 14, 1996

Michael Jackson was still married to Lisa Marie Presley when he first started trying to have a baby with a secret girlfriend!

His lover, Debbie Rowe, says sleeping with Michael was “the weirdest experience of my life” – because his idea of foreplay was to put on a horse’s head or a suit of armour!

But bedding the Gloved One was a thriller, adds the pretty medical assistant – calling Michael an “incredible” lover who left her exhausted.

Debbie also revealed: – She first became pregnant last December – the same month Michael separated from his wife – but miscarried three months later. – The baby boy will be named Michael Jr. – Debbie has agreed to give Michael full custody of their son. – Michael plans to raise the boy in France, and the child will never set foot in the US. – Terrified of kidnappers, the star will hire an army to guard his precious only child.

November 15 1996

Michael & Debbie attend the Australian premiere of Ghosts.

Concert in Sydney (attended by Debbie)

Katherine Jackson interview, November 22 1996

Just a few days after Michael Jackson’s Australian marriage to once-divorced nurse Deborah Rowe, who’s due to bear him a child in February, an enterprising San Diego radio station got a phone interview last weekend, with Michael’s mother, Katherine Jackson.

She says she is looking forward to the birth of her 22nd grandchild, and that she’ll still be friends with Michael’s first bride, Lisa Marie Presley, whom Mrs. Jackson describes as “down to earth.” It all depends on your perspective, I guess. Here’s what else Katherine Jackson had to say about her son’s abrupt nuptials…

Q106, San Diego, California: Was this a surprise for you?

KATHERINE JACKSON: Yes, it was in a way.

Q106: Did you know her, have you met her?

JACKSON: I’ve never met her.

Q106: Did Michael ever talk to you about her?

JACKSON: Oh, sometimes.

Q106: Did he talk to you in a way that you would think maybe, he was in love with her, or one day might want to marry her? Or this would be it?

JACKSON: Not exactly.

November 18 1996

Michael Jackson’s new bride is a far cry from the glamorous and famous woman his first wife Lisa Marie Presley, was.

Debbie Rowe, 38, is a divorced nurse who, up until marrying Jackson was living in a modest apartment in Van Nuys a not-so-well-heeled suburb of L.A.

Where Lisa Marie favours designer clothes from the likes of Versace,(unreadable) of make-up and regular visits to the hairdresser the new Mrs Jackson prefers basic jeans and T-Shirts and little make up.

She is solidly built and wears her blonde hair free flowing.

And while Lisa Marie gets around in limos, Debbie Rowe relies on her Harley-Davidson motorbike to get around Los Angeles.

Rowe was single and childless after divorcing her husband of six years a computer technician, whom she married in the early 80s.

She filed for bankruptcy in 1989 and was living in an (unreadable)-a-month apartment until marrying Jackson this week.

Jackson and Rowe met 15 years ago, when the superstar first came to see Rowe’s boss Dr.Arnold Klein, a Beverly Hills dermatologist about his rare skin disorder.

Rowe helped Dr Klein treat Jackson and, sources said, soon became a close secret confidante of the singer.

She has travelled all over the world with him on concert tours and their close friendship is said to have been a thorn in the side of Lisa Marie Presley during her marriage to Jackson.

Friends say Rowe’s apartement is covered in wall to wall posters of Jackson as well as memorabilia from her time spent travelling with him.

It is claimed that this is the second pregnancy to Jackson for Rowe.

She is said to have fallen pregnant in December last year, only to have a miscarriage in February.

Jackson has vehemently denied that Rowe became pregnant by artificial insemination. Such reports were “completely false and irresponsible.”

“He (Jackson) trust her like no one else,” a US magazine quotes a friend of Rowe’s saying.

“She is devoted to him. She has been an hand to soothe him. She has seen him at his worst, and his lowest, at his most embarrassing. She saw him humiliated by his illness. He has nothing to hide from her”

Rowe graduated from Hollywood High in 1978 and within 5 years had married.

When news of the pregnancy emerged friends of the couple strongly denied that Jackson had paid Rowe 3 million to carry his child.

“No money involved,” said one. “Debbie is just doing a nice thing for somebody. She genuinely loves him but as a brother. The baby is a gift of love.”

People Magazine, December 2 1996

WHEN MICHAEL JACKSON DECIDES to get married, he doesn’t exactly wait for June to roll around. On the morning of Tuesday, Nov. 12, Debbie Rowe—six months pregnant and apparently feeling it—said goodbye to her two beloved dogs, left in the care of neighbors in her Van Nuys, Calif., apartment complex, and boarded a jet bound for Australia. When she touched down in Sydney—Wednesday afternoon local time, after 14 hours in the air—the 37-year-old dermatologist’s assistant was whisked by limo to the Sheraton on the Park hotel. There, she disappeared into the $2,750-a-night Presidential Suite and rested. The following day, Jackson performed to a sellout crowd of 40,000 at the Sydney Cricket Ground. Then, around midnight, as the singer joined 30 or so associates at a post-concert party in a private room downstairs, Rowe slipped into something white and put on her makeup. At about 2 a.m., Jackson and a few pals made their way upstairs. The superstar sat down at a grand piano in the two-bedroom suite and played the Wagner march known to millions as “Here Comes the Bride” while Rowe entered and, after 15 years as Jackson’s friend, became officially embroiled in his strange—and increasingly troubled—world. “Please respect our privacy,” Jackson, 38, said in a release after the event, “and let us enjoy this wonderful and exciting time.”

How many days had elapsed since Jackson confirmed that he and Rowe were expecting a child? Ten. How many questions about the groom had been resolved by the hasty civil ceremony? Zero. The singer’s second marriage happened so fast, in fact, many people didn’t even realize he was already divorced from Lisa Marie Presley, 28, whom he wed in May of 1994 and separated from 20 months later. Their split became official last August, with no regrets on either side. “They fell out of love,” says Presley’s attorney John Coale. “Anything she feels is going to remain private.”

Rowe is already finding out how hard it is to know both privacy and the King of Pop. From the moment she was thrust into the spotlight by Jackson’s announcement that she was expecting, she has had to live with speculation that her baby is in part a public-relations ploy. Friends of Jackson’s insist that the marriage and pregnancy have nothing to do with his reported $15 to $20 million settlement of a child molestation suit in 1994, a just-published book about that case, or a new civil case being pressed in Santa Barbara (Calif.) superior court by the alleged victim’s father. Still, even Rowe’s father has expressed skepticism. Last week, Gordon Rowe, 67, a retired cargo pilot who lives in Cyprus, was quoted at length in News of the World, the racy British tabloid that reportedly broke the story of Jackson’s involvement with Debbie earlier this month. As published in NOW, Rowe knew his daughter was friendly with Jackson but was stunned when she told him of her pregnancy.

“I said, ‘Isn’t this the same man who was accused of child abuse?'” Rowe reportedly told Debbie. As published in NOW, Rowe said Debbie dismissed the allegations. “She said, ‘None of the charges against him were proved.'” She reportedly did not, however, dismiss reports—denied by the Jackson camp—of artificial insemination. “Isn’t he capable of fathering a child like anyone else?” asked her father. “She laughed and said, ‘Michael doesn’t do anything like anyone else. Dad, you have no idea who the real Michael Jackson is. He is the most compassionate person I have met in my life.’ ”

Rowe’s father has since issued a general retraction of his NOW statements. Her friends insist that Rowe is acting out of the goodness of her heart. “I know she doesn’t want the publicity,” says Rowe’s pal Mary Colandro, 35, a tennis coach who has lived next door to Rowe for nine years. “She’s done all this for Michael. She told us she was having the baby for Michael as a friend.” She also told neighbors she was not artificially inseminated. “She said it was natural, and I believe her,” says Colandro. “On the other hand, she is Michael’s good friend. She is very loyal to him.”

Until recently, Rowe’s life was hardly the stuff of which cover stories are made. Born in Spokane, Wash., to Gordon Rowe and Barbara Chilcutt in 1958, Deborah Jeanne Rowe had moved to California by the time she was 15. About that time, her parents were divorced, and, according to NOW, her father took off for the Middle East. Soon after graduating from Hollywood High School in 1977, Rowe began working in the Beverly Hills office of dermatologist Arnold Klein. One former patient is still grateful for the care Rowe gave her father. “She held his hand during the surgery,” says the patient, “and called to follow up. She is the right hand to Dr. Klein. She really kept the business going.”

In 1982, Rowe married Richard Edelman, then a 30-year-old teacher at Hollywood High. The couple moved into a condominium in Van Nuys, where Edelman started his own computer consulting business. According to a pharmacist with whom Rowe had developed a friendship over the years, Edelman was “too quiet” for Rowe, a woman who, he fondly notes, “used language like a trooper but was always very pleasant.” By the time their marriage fell apart in 1988, a major problem seemed to be money. In 1989, Rowe and Edelman filed for bankruptcy, with assets of less than $40,000 and debts of more than $73,000.

To friends, Rowe has always seemed a good-hearted woman, most comfortable in jeans and T-shirts and not much makeup. She has two dogs, a golden retriever named Cuervo, after the Mexican tequila, and Harley, a German shepherd named for the motorcycle Rowe loves to ride when she’s not at the wheel of a truck. “If anyone has problems, she handles them,” says Colandro. “She’s a great rescuer.”

No doubt Jackson saw these qualities some 15 years ago, when he first met Rowe at the office of Dr. Klein, who was reportedly treating Jackson for vitiligo, a condition that causes skin discoloration through loss of pigment. Over the years, she and Dr. Klein accompanied Jackson on various world tours, and Rowe befriended the superstar. A few posters of Jackson popped up on her apartment walls, but no one was likely to hear Jackson’s “Billie Jean” blaring from Rowe’s stereo. “She seemed to prefer New Age,” says Colandro, “or easy listening.”

Though Rowe dated several men in the years after her divorce, pals say Jackson wasn’t one of them. And as far as anyone knew, she was not in a relationship last spring, when Rowe surprised her pharmacist friend with the news that she was expecting a child. “I’m doing a favor,” the pharmacist recalls her saying, “for a good friend.”

Most of her neighbors knew that the good friend was Jackson. He had just split with Presley in January, less than seven months after telling Prime-Time Live that he and Lisa Marie wanted to start a family. Apparently, Rowe was ready to give Jackson the child Presley did not. At first their plan took an unhappy turn, friends say, when Rowe miscarried last spring. “She was really sad for about a week,” says Colandro. But her pharmacist friend says she quickly bounced back. “She’s that kind of a gal,” he explains. “She doesn’t get heartbroken.”

As the world now knows, another attempt to conceive a child proved successful. But would Rowe raise the baby in her $840-a-month, one-bedroom apartment? Or would Jackson take custody and raise their child on his 2,700-acre Santa Ynez Valley Neverland ranch, complete with zoo and amusement park? How would the couple interact over time? Would money change hands?

When it came to marriage, Jackson seemed to want to act first and figure out the details later. A week before the Sydney wedding, his lawyers contacted the Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages in Christchurch, New Zealand. (Jackson had show dates in Auckland on Nov. 10 and 11.) They filled out registration forms for Jackson and Rowe and asked marriage celebrant Anne Stubbersfield to be ready on short notice—which never came. “I’m sorry I didn’t get to marry him,” she says with a laugh. “New Zealand could have been put on the map.”

In the end, of course, that honor went to Australia, where, as Elton John told talk show host Rosie O’Donnell last week, “all the loonies get married.” (Now openly gay, Elton married a sound engineer, Renate Blauel, in Sydney in 1984; they divorced four years later in Britain.) But how loony is Jackson, really? If ever he could have been described as blissfully wacky, that no longer seems to apply. Three years after he was accused of molesting a 13-year-old boy in 1993, Jackson is still dealing with the fallout. Five former employees are suing him for wrongful termination, claiming they were threatened, harassed and forced to quit during the police investigation into the charges. A book on the case by author Victor Gutierrez—filled with legal papers, bank statements and photos—was published in Chile in September and has sold some 5,000 copies Stateside. And though he negotiated the multimillion-dollar settlement from Jackson in 1994, the father of the boy Jackson allegedly had molested recently hit the singer with another $60 million lawsuit.

According to one of the father’s lawyers, James E. Prosser, Jackson violated the terms of the settlement, which required him to make no public statements about the case, when he told Prime Time Live’s Diane Sawyer last year that the accusations were “lies, lies, lies, lies.” In addition, the suit claims that anti-Semitic lyrics in Jackson’s HIStory album (which were later changed by Jackson, who issued a public apology) were aimed at the boy and his father.

Jackson is, in other words, a man who could use a “great rescuer” like Rowe—and his friends know it. “She’s a really gentle person, very loving,” says Stephen Millard, marketing director at Epic International Artists, Jackson’s label in Australia. Adds another associate: “Lisa Marie had a mind of her own. Debbie is not involved in the limelight. She is very easygoing.”

So easygoing that she spent her first day as Mrs. Michael Jackson on her own—while her hubby, surrounded by his usual entourage of associates and kids, cuddled a koala at Sydney’s Taronga Park Zoo. Later, Jackson went, without Rowe, to the Australian preview of his new 35-minute film “Ghosts”, a horror/music video. At the entrance to the theatre, the singer was surrounded by fans, one of whom gave him a pair of blue baby booties, which he clung to during the screening. Rowe remained out of sight for the next few days as she, Jackson and several colleagues traveled from Sydney to Brisbane to Melbourne. Nor was she at the hospitals he visited, the events he attended or the concerts he gave. “She’s six months pregnant,” says a spokesperson for Jackson’s concert promoter. “She wants to rest.”

Or hide. Rowe has been getting a crash course in what it means to do “a favor” for a famous friend—as have many of her pals back home. In Van Nuys, one old buddy has turned down tabloid offers adding up to $20,000 for private details of Rowe’s life. “I guess it’s about integrity,” says her friend. “But it’s hard,” he adds with a laugh.

His friend Debbie doesn’t have it easy either, being married to a man who once had too little childhood and now may have way too much money and freedom. If Jackson wants the world’s sympathy, he has a tough row to hoe, but if it’s advice he’s after, there’s no shortage of givers. In Christchurch, Anne Stubbersfield may have lost her shot at performing Jackson’s ceremony, but she still has words of wisdom. He should “think seriously” about his future as a husband and a father. Take classes in parenting. Get prepared. “You’ve got to be normal now,” says Stubbersfield. In his own way, Michael seems to be trying.

Mr and Mrs. “King of Pop” are currently on a weeklong rendezvous in a some secluded European hideaway- a country known for its divine chocolate. They are actively performing their maritial duties, in hopes of bringing forh another little Jackson. I hear that Michael “just loves” these romantic vacations with his wife.

I also hear that Debbie intends to slap serveral of the supermarket tabs with lawsuits demanding retractions on their stories about her relationship with Michael.

February 13 1997

Debbie Rowe gives birth to Prince Michael Joseph Jackson Jr at the Cedar Sinai Medical Center of Los Angeles. Michael attends the birth and soon takes his son to Neverland. Grace Rwaramba and Pia Bhatti are hired as Prince’s nannies and they move to Neverland with Omer Bhatti.

I want a little Jackson No 2.(News) – Sunday Mirror May 11, 1997

Baby-mad Michael Jackson wants a second child with his wife Debbie Rowe. Jackson, who is in France with their three-month-old son Prince, has flown Debbie to Paris to plead his case – and is also said to have had his frozen sperm flown to her in Los Angeles. But Debbie is refusing to have another child unless she can live with Jackson as a “proper family”. A friend said: “Debbie doesn’t want to be a baby-making machine. She really cares for Michael, and wants him as a proper husband.”

Reading Eagle, May 19, 1997

Michael Jackson and his 3-month-old son, Prince Michael Jackson Jr., reportedly are living in France without the child’s mother. People magazine says Debbie Rowe has returned to her job as an assistant to a Beverly Hills dermatologist. She is living in the same Van Nuys apartment she had before becoming pregnant and marrying Michael Jackson. Jackson reportedly calls his wife twice daily from France, where he bought an estate. Rowe has been flying there every weekend to visit, People says.

March 25 1997

British magazine OK gets a world exclusive by publishing the first ever official pictures of MIchael & Debbie with their son Prince (at Neverland) accompanied by a candid interview of the couple.

OK Magazine Interview April 1997

Interviewer: Michael, how does it feel to be a father?

Michael: It was an incredibly joyful experience. I’m in bliss 24 hours a day.

Interviewer: Can you talk us through the birth of your son?

Michael: It’s hard to take it step by step, but the snapshots in my mind from the birth show our excitement and nervousness. Debbie was so strong throughout the delivery. There were shouts of joy when the baby was born. I couldn’t believe the miracle I had witnessed. It was unbelievable!

Interviewer: Michael, describe the relationship between yourself and Debbie?

Michael: Debbie and I love each other for all the reasons you will never see on stage or in pictures. I fell for the beautiful, unpretentious, giving person that she is, and she fell for me, just being me.

Interviewer: Debbie, what are you current feelings for Michael?

Debbie: I love him even more now than before our son was born. Fatherhood has brought out a very protective streak in him. He is so loving and strong.

Interviewer: What is the boy’s name? Why is he so named and which of you does he look like the most?

Michael: His name is Prince Michael Junior. My grandfather and great-grandfather were both named Prince, so we have carried on that tradition and now we have a third Prince in the family.

Debbie: He’s so beautiful! I think he has my eyes.

Interviewer: Michael, among all your life’s glittering achievements, how does fatherhood rate?

Michael: Words can’t describe it. There is no miracle in life that compares with watching your son come into the world.

Interviewer: Has the baby smiled or responded in any way to the two of you yet?

Michael: He smiles all the time and his eyes twinkle when I sing to him. He definitely knows my voice. Debbie tickles his chin and he giggles.

Interviewer: Debbie, does Michael change the baby’s nappies, get up in the middle of the night to feed him and do his share of the chores?

Debbie: Yes, Michael does everything. He loves being involved in every aspect of caring for the baby. He is such a wonderful father, feeding him, holding him and of course, singing to him.

Interviewer: Debbie, you have married and had a baby with the most famous man on earth. What effect has that had on you?

Debbie: I have married and had a baby with the man I will always love and I am on top of the world. The only time I feel sad is when I see quotes attributed to me that I never said. Or when I hear late night comedians taking cheap shots at my husband when they are not true. Don’t believe 99% of the garbage you read or hear. I know that we will be under increasing public scrutiny and I don’t look forward to that, but I know that will always be a part of being married to Michael.

Interviewer: Michael, you so rarely give interviews. What is the one thing you would like to say to your fans at this time?

Michael: Thank you to all of my fans for understanding how important it is to me to protect my family from the public eye. I have lived in a “fishbowl” all my life and I want my son to live a normal life. You’ve stood by me throughout my career and now you share my greatest joy. I love you.

Interviewer: Michael, what are your hopes for Prince Michael Junior’s future?

Michael: I want him to grow up surrounded by love and family, to receive the best education I can provide him with, to discover and develop his talents, and to use his resources to make life better for those less fortunate than he.

Interviewer: Are you preventing Debbie from seeing the child?

Michael: No, that is completely false. We have been together as a family since the birth of our son, and we’ve cherished every moment as a family.

Interviewer: Michael, what has been your family’s reaction to the birth?

Michael: They are all very excited. I’m already getting lots of tips and advice about schools and such.

Interviewer: What sort of dad will you try to be?

Michael: The best! My father was always there for us through the stardom of the Jackson Five and through many of the ups and downs that followed. I too will always be there for my son. It’s the most important thing in the world to me.

Interviewer: Debbie, what are your family’s feelings about Michael?

Debbie: They’re crazy about him. They were delighted to discover how warm and genuine he is.

Interviewer: And how would you describe Michael’s strengths as a father?

Debbie: He’s very patient and protective. He never rushes what he’s doing with the baby. I was very proud of how tough he was about our privacy. He’s incredibly strong.

Interviewer: Michael, are you still close to your family? How often do you see your parents, brothers and sisters? Have they met your baby yet?

Michael: We talk and see each other all the time. We recently had a big ‘get-together’ where all the cousins met one another for the first time.

Interviewer: We believe the child’s godmother may be Elizabeth Taylor. What is it that draws you to Elizabeth? Many would call it an unlikely friendship. What do you have in common?

Michael: Elizabeth knew many of the things I went through growing up in the spotlight. I can say a few words or just sigh sometimes, and she knows what I’m feeling. It was wonderful to find someone who understood me so well. I pray for her, and I want her to share the joy of my son’s birth for many years to come.

Interviewer: What sort of gifts have you received for Prince Michael Junior?

Michael: We’ve received some fantastic gifts; wonderful treasures, stuffed animals, toys and baby clothes from around the world. We would like to take this opportunity to thank all my wonderful fans for helping to welcome our baby into the world!

Interviewer: Michael, what are Debbie’s strengths as a mother?

Michael: Debbie is a very strong and caring woman. She’s a wonderful mother!

Interviewer: Can we expect a song about your son on your new album?

Michael: The birth of my son has been very inspirational to me artistically, and there will definitely be a song in the future.

Interviewer: And one about Debbie, too?

Michael: Any song about my son has to be about Debbie as well.

May 29 1997

Michael arrives in Bremen ( Germany ) with Tarak Ben Ammar and they attend a press conference.

Prince Michael Jr is taken to a Paris hotel suit with his nannies so that his daddy can join him after each concert of the European tour. Debbie also flies every week end to spend time with Michael & their son.

Jun 22, 1997

*So What’s new on the Michael Jackson/Debbie Rowe front? Mr. and Mrs. “King of Pop” are currently on a weeklong rendezvous in some secluded European hideaway – a country known for its divine chocolate. (We can say no more!) They are actively performing their martial duties, in hopes of bringing forth another little Jackson. I hear that Michael “just loves” these romantic vacations with his wife.

I also hear that Debbie intends to slap several of the supermarket tabs with lawsuits, demanding retractions on their stories about her relationship with Michael.

And finally, a source close to Jackson sends word that Debbie wishes I wouldn’t “decry” Michael so much Gee, I think we’ve been kinder to Michael Jackson than anybody else in the press. I always, always emphasize that no matter what rumors swirl, Michael has never been found guilty of any crime. Just the other day I reported how well his ” Blood on the Dance Floor” album is doing in Europe. But I was also duty-bound to report that it has flopped in the United States.That’s not “decrying” Michael, just telling the truth.

June 27 + 29 1997

Concerts at the Pard Des Princes in Paris (attended by Debbie)

July 2 1997

Michael takes Debbie & Prince to Vienna where he performs in concert

July 4+6 1997

Concerts in Munich (attended by Debbie)

July 6-10 1997

Michael takes Debbie & Prince to

July 10 1997

Concert in Sheffield (attended by Debbie)

July 11 1997

While a pregnant Debbie returns to the states Michael goes to London where he is joined by his ex wife Lisa Marie

The single HIstory/Ghost is released in Europe .

Toledo Blade, Jul 14, 1997

WE LOVE to tell you the latest on MICHAEL JACKSON and DEBBIE ROWE. I guess that’s because we know an insider in the Jackson camp who loves to tell us. Sharing — that’s what it’s all about. Anyway, Debbie, MJ and baby Prince continue their royal progress through Europe, while Michael plays to sold-out stadiums. Although Debbie is not at all a grandiose type — “just a home girl,” as she often jokes — she can’t help being thrilled by the nearly royal reception she receives whenever she’s spotted by the fans. ”Its almost a Princess Diana thing”, says my source, who has witness the frenzy.` Debbie’s boss, dermatologist Dr. Arnie Klein, is missing her presence in his office, so she will return to her ordinary day job in LA as soon as Michael finishes his tour. As for another Jackson baby, our acute and observant source says, “I believe No. 2 will be on its way.Debbie herself seems totally happy and fulfilled. “We are really in love,” she said recently, “and Michael has been so romantic.’

ET Tonight, July 15th 1997

Michael’s personal photographer John Isaak was also interviewed by Entertainment Tonight yesterday. Commenting on media rumors that Michael’s marriage to Debbie is not happy, he said, “It’s all lies. A lot of it, they just make up stories and that bothers me, and I am sure it bothers Michael so much.” They showed photographs he took of Michael and his son Prince never seen in US before, including one of just Michael’s large hand holding Prince’s tiny fist.

Jul 17, 1997

They split last year, but Michael Jackson and former wife Lisa Marie Presley were hand-in-hand Tuesday night returning to his hotel after his sell-out London concert. Presley stood at the edge of the stage through the show at Wembley stadium. Afterward, the two returned to the Carlton Towers hotel and Jackson waved to fans.

July 17, 1997

Lisa Marie Presley stood stageside at Michael Jackson’s Tuesday performance in London’s Wembley Stadium and afterward returned with him hand-in-hand to the Carlton Towers Hotel. Current wife Deborah Rowe – nowhere in sight.

Daily Record, July 26, 1997

Michael Jackson is a hunk in the bunk, according to his wife Debbie Rowe. Speaking for the first time about their bizarre marriage, Debbie said Michael Jackson lives to make love round the clock. Debbie, 38, said she doesn’t give a hoot that he and first wife Lisa Marie Presley spent time together in London recently.

And she revealed he wants a bunch of kids and plans to name them ALL Prince, just like the baby boy she had for him.

Fun-loving nurse Debbie insists she and Jackson can hardly keep their hands off each other and have sex whenever they can. “I can’t wait to see him again,” she said. “We’re going to stay all day and night in bed – I can’t wait.”

Sep 20, 1997

Odd popman Michael Jackson and usually absent wife Debbie Rowe are expecting another baby, according to London tabloids. Jackson supposedly was so pleased that he immediately gave her a $168000 Mercedes S600.

September 22 1997

Singer Michael Jackson’s publicist denies reports that Jackson’s wife, Debbie Rowe, is expecting to give birth to the couple’s second child in December.

Last week, the “New York Post” reported the story, and carried a photo of Rowe wearing a suggestively loose-fitting shirt, which seemingly fueled the reports, yet doesn’t actually mean anything.

Rowe also reportedly quit her job as an assistant to Jackson’s Beverly Hills dermatologist last week, six months after marrying one of the world’s wealthiest entertainers.

The couple’s first child, a boy named Prince, was born last February.

Sep 24, 1997

Recent photos of Debbie Rowe show a noticeable tummy bulge, leading to speculation that she’s as much as six months’ pregnant. But gossip maven Liz Smith says somebody in the know insists that Rowe isn’t expecting. “Debbie is a big, healthy girl,” the source told Smith.”At her trimmest, she’s somewhat Valkyrian in build.” In other words, it ain’t over till the fat lady gives birth, which the source says isn’t happening “anytime soon,” even though the couple “are trying, as the coy phrase goes.” Their first child, Prince Michael Jackson Jr Their first child, Prince Michael Jackson Jr., is 7 months old.

Oct, 20 1997

MJ, LMP, his parents and her children in South Africa.

Victoria Advocate Oct 20, 1997

But did you know that Debbie Rowe, the dermatologist’s-assistant-turned-King-of-Pop-spouse was fuming at photos of the event? Rowe, who is reportedly pregnant with Jackson’s second child, was left in the dark about the trip. The entertainer was snapped with former wife Lisa Marie who was accompanying him on the tour with her two children by previous hub Danny Keough – Danielle, 8, and Benjamin, and Michael and Lisa Marie were holding hands and inseparable the whole time, says the Star tabloid.

Enquirer, October 21, 1997

MICHAEL JACKSON has reportedly begged LISA MARIE PRESLEY to give marriage a second try. The king of pop whisked his ex-wife away for a hush-hush second honeymoon in exotic South Africa. And during the romantic getaway with Lisa Marie’s daughter DANIELLE, Jackson popped the question to her. A source told American tabloid THE STAR, “He’s really excited about the possibility of starting over with Lisa Marie. While they were in Africa they both realized how much they had missed each other.” Michael’s kid sister, a great friend of Lisa Marie, played matchmaker to bring the couple together. And despite Jackson being married, his wife DEBBIE ROWE was unaware of the they secret tryst at the Palace Hotel, in Johannesburg. Jackson and Lisa Marie stunned the world when they married in the Dominican Republic. But 20 months later the fairy tale union ended in divorce. Even though Jackson has fathered a baby with his new wife, Rowe, he has always remained close to ELVIS PRESLEY’s little girl.

20th November 1997

LIfe magazine has an exclusive photo essay hitting stands Monday- Michael Jackson, posing with his baby boy, Prince, for the cover. And many pages inside.

LIfe’s photos are taken by the great Harry Benson: Michael is awash in gentle light and shown performing all sorts of Daddy-like tasks, changing diapers, etc. And there are even photos of Michael’s bedroom, which one enters by passing under campy Boy and Girl Scout mannequins. Prominent on the wall of this sanctum is a painting of Jesus-the traditional Anglo-Saxon blue-eyed version, with the halo and the blood-red Sacred Heart. Jackson, naturally, had complete control of which photos Life used.

The text, by David Friend, is also revealing. Michael’s voice “quavers” when he speaks of ex-wife Lisa Marie, and the writer observes that Michael seems to “pine for her.” And Michael implies that Lisa Marie would still like to have a baby with him, “She’d like to, yes,” he says, before putting a finger to his lips. “Shhhh.” (Michael keeps a magazine photo of Lisa Marie at age 5, with her father, Elvis, framed on the table of his nightstand. ” This is the age when I first met LIsa Marie. I’ve known her ever since.”)

OK, so where does all this leave the current Mrs. Jackson, the infrequently seen Debbie Rowe? Michael insists they do spend quality time together, watching cartoons, playing with the baby, and she has been out on tour with him “a lot.” Debbie is no longer working for Dr. Arnie Klein, leaving herself free for Michael.

Michael plays coy as to why Debbie isn’t present for the photo shoot, hinting that her absence might have to do with having to “take it easy.” Then he whispers, “There’s a new one on the way.”

My inside-the-Jackson-camp sources insist Debbie is pregnant, after months of rumors. Antoher little Jackson is on the way. And they say Michael and Debbie aleady know the sex of their upcoming addition – it’s a girl.

Time will tell, Meanwhile, Michael, from all appearances, seems to be a devoted father.

P..S. ON Michael Jackson. Michael and his wife, Debbie Rowe, were together last Wednesday when our story broke that they are expecting a baby girl. The life magazine article in which Michael more or less tipped the world to his “expectancy” (though not to the sex of his child) was read over the phone to him Wednesday night. The people at Life believe he was pleased with their effort.

So how did the article by Harry Benson and David Friend come about?

Michael himself phoned Friend about a month ago to congratulate LIfe on its “Life Legends” speicial issue. One thing led to another and pretty soon David had an exclusive interview, and Harry was warming up his cameras. These Lifers say Michael made no demands and does not have any rights over the photos, nor did he ask for any. “He trusted us,” says David.

Life got an usual tour of Michael’s bedroom at his Neverland rack hear Santa Barbara, Calif., including a look into his closet to see all his many toys, his gittering wardrobe and his amazing belts and hats. Writer Friend says the thing that he had not known was that Macaulay Culkin is the godfather of Michael’s son, Prince.

Nov 22, 1997

Michael Jackson confirms in the Life magazine issue out Monday that wife, Debbie Rowe, is pregnant with their second. Says work has hindered their home lives, (“It’s very hard. We haven’t been able to spend time as a family. Not at all”). Says Wife No. 1, Lisa Marie Presley is sorry she never had his kid (“She regrets it. She said so,” saysJackson).

THEY’LL LOVE PARIS IN THE SPRINGTIME JAX, WIFE TO NAME GIRL AFTER CITY OF LIGHT, Nov 27, 1997

The pop star’s nurse wife, Debbie Rowe Jackson, also told KNBC-TV in Los Angeles she doesn’t feel threatened by her hubby’s friendships with other women, including ex-wife Lisa Marie Presley and Elizabeth Taylor. “My friendship with him is the most important thing to me,” the normally reclusive Rowe Jackson said. “And if this marriage gets in the way of that friendship, then we’ll put the marriage aside. But I want to go on as friends.”

Rowe Jackson told the station she still lives in L.A. and often visits Jackson and their 9-month-old son, Prince Michael Jackson, at the Neverland Ranch about 100 miles away. And the King of Pop was reportedly so thrilled he was going to become a pop again he gave his wife a $168,000 Mercedes.

Paris Michael Katherine Jackson is scheduled to debut in May.

“He’s picking out clothes already to dress her up,” she added. “I wanted to name her Michael after Michael, but Michael said no.”

She called the secretive singer a doting dad.

“Whenever the baby is awake, he is with the baby the whole time,” she said. “When the baby is napping, that’s when he steals away to work, to write music, to dance.”

She said they may try to have another baby after Paris is born.

“He loves kids,” she said. “I hope we have lots of kids together.”

Her first pregnancy, announced before the wedding, was met with worldwide disbelief, and critics called it a publicity stunt to divert attention from Jackson’s child-molestation scandal.

Jackson denied tabloid reports that Rowe was artificially inseminated and paid $528,000 to have his baby. But her dad, Gordon, said the new mom told him she had been artificially inseminated.

Transcript of KNBC News Interview, November 28 1997

Kelly Lange [of KNBC news]: She is Mrs. Michael Jackson, Debbie Rowe. She has never given and interview about her marriage or her baby until now. Tonight Debbie Rowe speaks exclusively with our Chuck Henry about her life, her baby son, and Michael. Chuck Henry got the story and he’s here now with all the details.

Introduction:
Chuck Henry Interviewer

Debbie Rowe works as a nurse in a Dr’s Office. Keeps her job, goes to work every morning, she really is an ordinary woman. But, she’s involved in an extrodinary situation.

Debbie: I haven’t abandoned him, a lot of people think I have abandoned him. I haven’t abandoned him. I haven’t abandoned my husband.I’m there! It’s not like I’m that far away, I can be there in 13 hours.
Interviewer: And Debbie flies to Paris twice a month for a weekend visit. Do you miss your son?
Debbie: Sure. And I miss Michael a lot too. But I don’t feel like I have to be there. I don’t think being there 24 hours a day makes a better relationship.
Interviewer: Debbie says there was no prenuptual agreement, and no financial payoff for her carrying Jackson’s child. Which she says was concieved naturally.
Debbie: I would never do this for money. I did this because I love him. That’s the only reason I did this.
Interviewer: Giving all the stories about Michael Jackson does Debbie feel totally comfortable about this arrangement?
Debbie: Obviously I wouldn’t have had a child if …..
Interviewer: And you wouldn’t leave your child….
Debbie: And I wouldn’t leave our child there…..
Interviewer: If any of those things were true.
Debbie: If any of them were true. If I even suspected any of them were true. He feeds him, he changes his diapers, he reads to him, he sings to him, if he’s on the phone the baby’s in his arms, if he’s having a meeting the baby’s there. He takes naps with him. He, he, he’s….the…..I don’t need to be there. I don’t need to be there. Cause Michael’s…..I’ve got nothing to do.
Interviewer: On her visits to Paris Debbie says the three of them just…..
Debbie: Get up in the morning. Watch cartoons…cause I like cartoons….play with the baby all day….just hang out.
Interviewer: Having the baby was her idea. It was a subject that was talked about before Jackson’s marriage to Lisa Marie Presley.
Debbie: He did love her very, very much, still does. Still cares about her very, very much. But, um, it didn’t work out. And, uh, he was devastated.
Interviewer: After the divorce, Debbie, who met Jackson while working in a Dr’s Office again brought up the subject of children.
Debbie: Well, I said, I said, you know, my offer still stands….
Interviewer: So, if you want to be a parent ….
Debbie: So I said, I said…If you want to be a daddy…I want to do it.
Interviewer: A week after the story broke Debbie got a call from Jackson…
Debbie: Asked me if I would get married to him, and I said “you really want to?” And he said, “yeah”. And I say, “that’s not gonna affect our friendship? We’re still gonna be friends, right?” And he said, “I promise!” And I say, “the first time this marriage interfers with our friendship, we’re goin’ back to being friends, and forget this other stuff.” And he says, “it won’t happen, I promise!”
Interviewer: So now you’ve had the baby,
Debbie: It was the world’s best experience.
Interviewer: And through it all, Michael never left her side.
Debbie: He did not let go of my hand the whole time. It’s like no, no go see what he looks like. No I’m not gonna leave ya, no you have to go, you have to go!
Interviewer: Do you want to have more children?
Debbie: Yeah
Interviewer: Does Michael want to have more children?
Debbie: Yeah
Interviewer: You will have more children?
Debbie: We hope so, yeah.
Interviewer: Sooner, Later?
Debbie: Well, depends on our scheduling. (giggle)
Interviewer: Interesting story! Debbie says that she and Michael also plan to have a home together….someday.
Debbie: People say this is your job. It is not my job, it is not my duty. And he understands that…and he understands that I need my independence that I still need to be Debbie.
Interviewer: Yes, she is Mrs. Michael Jackson. Yes, she is the mother of a 14-week old baby. So why isn’t she living full-time with her little boy?
Debbie: We’re untradional people. He works there and I…I work here. And I think that it’s better that a baby’s with his parent whether it be his mom or his dad more than the child would be with a nanny. If the baby were here he’d be with a nanny, because I do work…every day.
Interviewer: Now, I notice that there are no pictures of the baby anywhere in this apartment. Why is that?
Debbie: Well, my apartment had been broken into and pictures were stolen of Michael and I. I don’t want that to happen again. I also am basically a very selfish person when it comes to certain things. And this is one of them. I don’t want to have to share my child with the way he looks, or what he looks like, or adorable moments with anybody.
Interviewer: Debbie says there are just a few people that either of them can really trust, so they end up living a very quiet life together.
Debbie: I don’t like to go out to dinner….I don’t like to go to affairs and things like that. I like to stay home and I like to spend time with him and the baby.
Interviewer: Do you consider yourself Michael Jackson’s best friend?
Debbie: I consider him MY best friend. I would hope I’m one of his closest friends.
Interviewer: But Debbie also says that anyone who knows her, knows that money is the last thing on her mind. She says that she and Michael have no financial arrangements whatsoever. She also says that they may have another child.
Interviewer: First of all, lets address the speculation. Debbie Rowe says she was not paid to have Jackson’s child, this child was conceived the old fashion way, and there was no pre-nuptial agreement. Debbie Rowe is probably unlike any woman Michael Jackson has ever known. Michael Jackson’s wife loves to ride her Harley. An outspoken woman who is independent and self reliant.
Interviewer: Have you ever got Michael Jackson on this thing?
Debbie: Yes, a couple of times.
Interviewer: Why is it that you and Michael don’t live together?
Debbie: I’m really independent and Michael understands that. And I’m really fortunate to have a husband who does understands that…who knows that I need to work and I need to have my own self…because he is so big and he is so Michael. I don’t need to live with him 24 hours a day. He’s working right now. When he comes home we’ll have time and we’ll be together more. I don’t wanna give up my job. I…I don’t wanna do that. I don’t wanna be that…part of that lifestyle.
Interviewer: For Debbie not being with her 14 week old son is not a bad thing.
Debbie: It is unusual…but, I don’t think it’s weird.
Interviewer: There are no pictures of the baby anywhere in the apartment. Why is that?
Debbie: No…well, my apartment had been broken into and pictures were stolen of Michael and I. I don’t want that to happen again.
Interviewer: What would you say to people that would say…well, you and Michael must have had some sort of a financial arrangement. That this was the way it was always meant to be. That you were gonna have the baby…
Debbie: Money….I don’t need money. I would never…I would never do this for money. I did this because I love him. Michael Jackson is an entertainer. What he does on stage is everyone’s business. What he does with me is my business. Our life is our business and no one else’s.
Interviewer: This week tabloid papers are once again speculating. This time they are speculating that Mrs. Jackson is pregnant again. She says that is simply not true.

Life Magazine, December, 1997

Even Debbie has acknowledged that Michael is still smitten. “He cares about her very much, but it didn’t work out and he was devastated,” she has said. “He loved her very much. Still does.”

Michael’s Women

DEBBIE ROWE, aka Debbie Jackson, wife of Michael Jackson, is ho-humming over recent tabloid stories that had her husband getting back together with his first wife, Lisa Marie Presley. It was at Debbie’s urging that Lisa Marie joined them in South Africa recently. “After all,” says our Jackson source, “they are all very close friends.” Oh, it’s so terribly sophisticated and civilized and Noel Coward-like. When Debbie heard that Michael had supposedly remarried Lisa in Johannesburg, her lighthearted reaction was that Michael was not, to her knowledge, a Mormon!

No word yet on any new Jackson progeny, but Debbie and Michael have welcomed an addition to the family- a beautiful German shepherd puppy.

They are just your average young couple in love with all the usual accoutrements- kids, pets, castles, a famous former wife and a gazillion bucks.

“To try and prevent some of the taboo, you know if you have a child out of wedlock. The kids were gonna have it hard enough as it was. They didn’t need to have that label placed upon them, like their father had so many placed upon him. They shouldn’t. If there’s one way we could remove it or try to make it what people thought ‘normal’.”

Sarasota Herald-Tribune, Mar 9, 1998

So what in blue blazes is going on between Michael Jackson and ex-wife Lisa Marie Presley? The odd couple want all of us to think there may be romance afoot. On Valentine’s Day, King Michael and his princess Lisa arrived at Hollywood’s trendy Ivy restaurant without reservations. Michael, wearing his now-legendary surgical mask, was the usual object of frenzied gossip, finger-pointing and general amazement. But the couple was given a table – pronto! They enjoyed an “intimate” dinner and then walked along Robertson Avenue window shopping, while the photographer they brought with them recorded every oh-so-private moment. Talk about controlling your own publicity and magnifying your image. Meantime, we haven’t heard much about Michael’s present wife, Debbie Rowe. She is somewhere in Hollywood expecting his second child.

April 3 1998

Debbie gives birth to Paris Michael Katherine Jackson at the Spalding Pain Medical Clinic of Beverly Hills. Michael attends the birth and soon takes his baby girl to Neverland.

Newsday, April 27, 1998

I HEAR that Debbie Rowe and her hubby, Michael Jackson, are “outraged” by the continuing supermarket-tabloid allegations that they are headed for divorce. Or that their marriage is invalid; a fake in some way. Michael’s feeling feisty and righteously litigious at the moment. The pop icon was recently awarded $2.7 million when he won a lawsuit filed against a man who claimed – in a book and without any proof whatsoever – that he had seen explicit videos of Jackson and a young boy.(And it would have been nice if this victory had been a front-page story, as the initial accusation was.) Anyway, “strong letters” have been sent to those in the media who suggest that Jackson and Debbie, the mother of his two children, are not blissful. In their fashion.

Taken in a suite at the Four Seasons Hotel in Beverly Hills about two weeks after Paris was born in April, 1998

“Michael didn’t spend much time talking to Debbie during the meeting – but he was happy to watch her with the children.

“It was his idea to do the photos. He was already thinking ahead. He wanted the pictures so he could show the children when they were older, so they’d know who their mother is.”

Rebbie Jackson, OK! May, 1998:

One family member she has yet to get the chance to accept is Michael’s wife Debbie Rowe, the mother of his heir Prince Michael Jr. “I have never met Debbie, so I don’t know what she’s like,” she explains.

Daily Record, May 1 1998

Pop superstar Michael Jackson stunned a Scots designer by snapping up pounds 68000 worth of outfits for his wife. Dundee-born David Rees was packing up after a show when Jackson wandered into his Paris salon. David, 33, hastily organised a private show – and Jackson snapped up 17 designs worth a cool pounds 4000 apiece.

He said the outfits were for his wife, former doctor’s assistant Debbie Rowe, 38. David said the star walked in after he finished showing his autumn collection at the Hotel Crillon in Paris. And he added: “He wants to see my next collection. That can’t be a bad thing.”

October 29 1998

Michael & Debbie go to the Getty museum in Los Angeles with Prince & Paris.

December 10 1998

Michael & Debbie attend a dinner in honour of Dr Arnold Klein (dermatologist of Michael & boss of Debbie)

14th December, 1998

The Best scene at L’Orangerie in Hollywood was the arrival of Michael Jackson and wife Debbie Rowe at an intimate dinner for Debbie’s boss dermatologist Arnie Klein. The diner was a little thank-you to Arnie from the American Federation for AIDS Research for all the support he has given to the great AIDS-fighting organization. Jane and Michael Eisner were the hosts. Wallis Annenberg, the Gregory Pecks, Penny Marshall, and Carrie Fisher were in attendance too. (There had been some hope that Elizabeth Taylor might appear, but she didn’t.)

Michael looked like, well Michael. “He’s got a late 60’s Jackie Onassis thing going,” one onlooker said of Michael’s getup. But Rubenesque Debbie sported a slimmer silhouette and much improved hair color. ” She looked almost stunning.” And of even more consequence, this odd couple seemed very cozy, like any other husband and wife out to diinner. Photos of Michael and Debbie were taken for Kleins memory book, but then Michael surprised everybody by saying,” Oh, why don’t you sell these and make a few dollars for AmFar?”

Dec 27, 1998

DINERS at a chic LA restaurant were stunned to see Michael Jackson and his wife Debbie Rowe enjoying a romantic dinner together by candlelight. Can it be that the two are trying to behave like a normal couple?

Daily News 1998.

The news in November 1996 that Debbie Rowe was pregnant with Michael Jackson’s child stunned even the star’s most devoted fans. Her name had not figured before in this official -or unofficial- life story and no one knew who she was or what the nature of her relationship with Michael was.

Michael, for so long supposed to be, at best, androgynous, had in fact met Debbie 15 years earlier when she was a shy and retiring nurse and a divorcee. Theirs had been a romantic, wholesome relationship that came about by chance. The story of how it developed adds a new and unexpected dimension to the life of one of the world’s most successful and controversial entertainer.

Debbie’s colleagues say that whenever Michael came to Klein’s office, she took special care to make certain he was happy by fussing over him and seeing what she could do to make his visit more pleasant.

As a thank-you, Michael would always send her an autographed copy of his latest CD. Debbie would hang the CD picture jackets all over the office until, one day, Klein made her take them down. He told her that the display of affection was “a little inappropriate”.

“Then came the day when Debbie saw Michael naked, which was about five years ago,” recalls a former employee of Klein’s. “Michael had to disrobe for an examination and Debbie accidentally walked in on him. I don’t know what happened, but Debbie was in that examining room with him for a while. Later she said: ‘I’m probably the only woman who has ever seen Michael Jackson naked’. After that she would giggle a lot and blush whenever Michael came into the office.

“When Debbie was asked if she was romantically interested in Michael, she’d turn beetroot red. She ended up marrying someone else for a few years -divorced him in 1990 because she said she felt trapped -but she remained interested in Michael.”

In fact, Debbie and Michael had become close friends, confiding in one another about their lives and their unhappy marriages: Debbie’s to a man she said didn’t understand her need for freedom and Michael’s to Lisa Marie Presley, whom he whined was always “trying to change me.”

Debbie was so close to Michael that she was one of the few friends who assisted him during the allegations that were made about him molesting an underage boy, a time when, in his misery, he had become addicted to drugs. “I know when Michael was addicted, Debbie stayed on the telephone for hours and hours, pleading with him to save himself”, says Debbie’s friend Tonya Boyd. “She told me that she said: ‘If you die, I will be crushed. I wouldn’t be able to survive it. You are my very life’.”

As it happened, Lisa Marie Presley was also instrumental in helping Michael during that difficult time. So was Elizabeth Taylor. It would seem that Michael Jackson, a person not particularly known as a ladies’ man, had all of these women -a rock ‘n’ roll heiress, a screen star and a nurse- wrapped around his little finger, as he played the role of a helpless child.

Debbie was taken by surprise. One friend says: “She called me on November 12, 1996, and said: ‘Hey, guess what? I’m marrying Michael tomorrow.’ I asked her if she loved him. She stalled. Then she said: ‘Well, yes, I do. Kinda. I do.’ So, I pushed on. ‘Romantically?’ I asked. She paused, and said: ‘The kind of love we have is bigger, more important, than that’.”

They were duly married at a hotel between Michael’s touring commitments. Afterwards, it was rumored that Debbie Rowe received $1 million to give birth to Michael’s son Prince Michael Jr. However, according to reliable sources in the Jackson camp, Rowe actually received $500,000 -and not to give birth but rather as a “wedding gift”. Any story that she has a contract with Michael Jackson, and that she has received millions of dollars to bear his children, is simply untrue. Indeed no document has ever surfaced to support the rumor.

“None of it is true,” Debbie said when pressed to confirm stories of a deal. “Why won’t people believe me? I would never have his children for money. I am doing it because I am his dear friend. And I told him: ‘If this marriage becomes a problem and starts interfering with our friendship, then it must end.’ The friendship, that’s the important thing. I love my freedom. I will never settle down. That’s just not me. I can’t be what people want me to be, what Michael’s fans might want me to be. I have to be who I am. I am happy with things the way they are and it’s really nobody’s business.”

Jackson puts aside $10 million a year for Rowe, and has bought stocks and other annuities for her, too. But she doesn’t use the money. Ever since she married Michael, Debbie has been shuttled from modest rented home to rented home in the LA suburbs in an effort to put the media off the scent. Only two weeks ago, she moved again.

Michael is planning to buy her and exclusive home in Bel Air, according to sources, but he will continue to live abroad. In recent years, he has rented luxurious hideaways in France, Britain and Ireland. He has been trying to sell his palatial Neverland ranch -with its 27,000 acres, funfair and zoo, at Santa Ynez, California- for five years. Only the care-taking staff lives there these days.

Debbie and Michael spend little time together. She has made no demands on him whatsoever, and seems content. She sees friends, some of them men, from time to time. But those who know her well explain that she has always had low self-esteem, in the sense that as long as she can make another person happy, she doesn’t care about her own happiness.

In the meantime, Michael has gotten the children he desired, the children Lisa Marie wouldn’t -or couldn’t- give him, and Debbie has been able to keep her cherished freedom. She wanted only to give birth to Michael Jackson’s children. She never wanted to be a mother to them, or a wife to him.

“They’re adults,” Tonya Boyd explains. “Say what you want, have any judgment you like about it, but it’s their life, and they get to live it whatever way they choose.”

Jan 29 1999

Lisa Marie then wanted me to tell her my sources for various items about her ex-husband Michael Jackson and his current wife, Debbie Rowe! I declined, of course. And she declined to say much else, either – merely that she is busy in the recording studio, making an album. “Things are going well. My kids are good!” She promised she’d talk to me when she is ready with the album. So wait for it. You and I have no choice.

Magazine: Brides; A date with romance: In Brief; Jewels; With this ring, Feb 14, 1999

Debbie Rowe, Mrs. Michael Jackson and mother of his son, didn’t say beat it when he presented her with a platinum wedding band with diamond baguettes, which reputedly cost $100000.

Evening Standard, March 5 1999

MICHAEL Jackson’s wife Debbie Rowe was spotted in the Pleasure Chest sex shop in Los Angeles, stocking up on strawberry massage oil, fishnets tights and glow-in-the-dark condoms.

Mirror, 12th April 1999

“To help them grow and let them know you love them by looking them in the eyes, and saying ‘I love you.” And play, play, play with them.”‘ The singer, who spends £3,000 a day on 24-hour nannies, lives apart from Debbie, 40. But he laughs at suggestions his marriage is a sham. He insists: “I love my wife, and we have a happy marriage.

“Debbie is a nurse who loves her work, who loves taking care of people. Every day she wants to get up and look after others, to help them and make them better.

“That’s why I love her, and that’s what gives her bliss in life, God bless her.”‘

Debbie – who met Jackson when she worked as a dermatology nurse and treated him for his skincomplaint vitiligo – is on record as saying: “Michael is a doting father. I know the children are safe whenever they’re with him.”

Further discussion about the marriage is not forthcoming. But again, you are left with a sneaking, dreadful feeling that Jackson might actually be telling the truth. That he might genuinely love his wife after all.

They may even, incredibly, have had sex.

Checks into hospital, April 17/18 1999

Roger Friedman’s column on February 7, 2005:

Michael Jackson checked himself into New York’s Lenox Hill Hospital for two days back in 1999.

The exact dates were April 17 and 18, and the alias he used was “James Walker.”

At the time, he was still married to, though not living with, his second wife, Debbie Rowe, and he already had custody of their two children, Prince and Paris.

Rowe, according to sources, did not know of the hospitalization. Neither did most of Jackson’s close associates.

When he finally checked into Lenox Hill, Jackson was alone most of the time, without any entourage, assistants or pets. Horovitz treated him with IV fluids.

“My job was to hydrate him quickly,” the doctor recalled. “I put the IV in myself, and there was no one else around.”

He ran blood tests, but not for drugs. He said he did not see pill bottles with Jackson, and there was no indication that he was medicating himself at the time. Jackson’s only diversion in his overnight stay was a boom box.

June 2, 1999

There are conflicting reports out of New York that Michael Jackson’s two-year-old son Prince may be seriously ill, and maybe even dying, from a viral infection.

The singer withdrew from Tuesday night’s “Pavarotti & Friends” benefit for Warchild to remain with his son in a New York hospital.

But Jackson’s wife Debbie Rowe, who says she found out about her son’s illness watching the news, says Prince isn’t dying, and she told KNBC in Los Angeles that doctors and even Jackson himself told her that Prince would be fine. In addition, Pavarotti’s spokeswoman, who attended the concert, told MTV News Wednesday that the opera singer never told the sold-out crowd of 17,000 that Jackson’s son was dying. She says Pavarotti’s statement (which was in Italian) was mistranslated by the press, and that Pavarotti said the boy was sick, not dying. As of press time, representatives for Jackson were not available for comment.

July 5-13 1999

Michael, Grace & the kids stay at Disneyland Paris where they are joined by Debbie.

Mid July, 1999

Separation date listed in Debbie’s divorce papers.

September 11-14 1999

Michael is in Disneyland Paris with Grace & the kids. Debbie joins them.

October 8 1999

Pop superstar Michael Jackson and his wife of three years, Deborah Rowe, filed for divorce today in a Los Angeles Superior Court, citing irreconcilable differences.

The divorce petition states that Rowe and Jackson have reached a confidential financial settlement, though it did not indicate if an agreement regarding custody of the couple’s two children had been settled, according to the Associated Press. Rowe and Jackson are parents to a 2-year-old boy, Prince Michael, and a 1-year-old girl, Paris Michael Katherine. The couple has apparently been separated since mid-July. Jackson wed Rowe, a nurse from his plastic surgeon’s office, in November 1996, less than a year after divorcing his first wife, Lisa Marie Presley, after two years of marriage.

Schmuley Tapes, 2000/1

In 1994 Jackson married Lisa Marie Presley but the marriage ended in divorce after two years. In 1996 he married Debbie Rowe the mother of his two children. The three-year marriage ended when Rowe filed for divorce last October.

“I know he was pretty torn up over it. … We left that one alone,” Boteach said.

“I am not privy to the terms of Michael’s divorce,” says Boteach. “But he is cut up over it. She has made visits to the children, but I don’t know how often. What I do know is that Michael is a very understanding father.”

Schmuley on Howard Stern, 6 Apr 2001

Howard: “What about Debbie Rowe? Were they together when you met Michael?”

Rabbi: “They were just coming apart then.”

Howard: “What about his kids? Did he father those kids?”

Rabbi: “Of course. Prince looks like his father. He has Michael’s eyes, the same blotches on his skin.”

Howard: “Does the mom see the kids?”

Rabbi: “Sometimes”

October 17 2001

Represented by attorney Iris Finsilver, Debbie Rowe goes to the family court in Los Angeles to give up her parental rights on Prince & Paris because she says she has not seen them for a year and did not want to disturb them by making intrusions in their life once in a while.

Hearing transcript:

Q. When is the last time you saw the children?
A. I think it was either August or October of last year when I gave up my visitation rights.
Q. Have you communicated with either of the children —
A. No.
Q. — Over the past year?
A. Not at all.
Q. Do you wish to communicate with the children?
A. No.
Q. Do you ever have the desire to call the children over the telephone?
A. No.
Q. Do you have a desire to send any cards or letters to the children?
A. No.
Q. Do you want the court to terminate your parental right?
A. Yes
Q. Okay.
A. Because —
Q. That was my next question. Why?
A. Because Michael is a wonderful man, first of all, a brilliant father. And it’s the best — as their mother, it is the best interest for the children. I don’t know if Judge Lachs understands this. But when I was seeing them every 45 days, it felt like an intrusion on their life and they’re going to have enough intrusions as it is. I don’t want to be part of it. I’m absolutely around if ever Michael needs me, if the children need me for a liver, kidney, a hello, whatever, I will always be around for him. These are his children. I had the children for him. They wouldn’t be on this planet if it wasn’t for my love of 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 absolutelynothing to earn that title.
Q. How long have you thought about your decision?
A. Since — I’ve thought about it for a year. The reason I didn’t do it a year ago, everybody would have gone “UH”, “Uh”, “Uh”, GASP, GASP, GASP. “Oh my God, have you thought this out?” So just so everybody understands, I’ve thought about this a lot. And this is — this is for what’s the best for the kids
…
Do you understand that in the future you will not be able to go back into court to reinstate your parental right?
I undertand that.
Q. Have you ever considered the possibility if Michael should die, what would happen to the children?
A. I’m sure he’s – he has a wonderful person in mind to take care of them.

TV Guide, November 2001

TVG: Which one of your kids is most like you?

MJ: Both, but in different ways. Prince likes to tease, to the point where you want to pull his hair. I always used to tease my sisters all the time.

TVG: And Paris?

MJ: She’s the tough one.

TVG: How is their mother, Debbie Rowe? [A former nurse, she was married to Jackson from 1996 to ’99. Jackson was married to his first wife, Lisa Marie Presley, from 1994 to ’96]

MJ: I heard she’s doing good, she’s fine. Paris is strong like Debbie.

Jermaine Jackson on Larry King, January 9, 2003

KING: By the way, we asked about Lisa Marie. Does Michael keep in touch with Debbie Rowe, his second wife?

JERMAINE JACKSON: I’m pretty sure, yes. Yes. But those are questions that you should ask him.

KING: Because he’s got the children though, right?

JERMAINE JACKSON: Yes.

KING: I did mention the second marriage. Did that end badly?

JERMAINE JACKSON: I really don’t know.

KING: You don’t know Debbie Rowe then?

JERMAINE JACKSON: Debbie Rowe?

KING: Yes, I mean you know her.

JERMAINE JACKSON: Well, not know her, know her. I know that’s where the children came from.

KING: Did that end badly?

JERMAINE JACKSON: I really don’t know. You would have to speak with him about that.

Debbie Rowe Speak Out In Defense Of Michael, February 6, 2003

In the wake of all of the media frenzy surrounding the 90-minute interview, *’Living With Michael Jackson’ which originally aired on Monday in Britain, Michael’s ex-wife, Debbie Rowe, gave an exclusive interview to GMTV in the U.K. Debbie, horrified by the way in which the media has treated Michael since the interview, had these words to say in his defense:

“He is a wonderful, caring man and he’s not portrayed as he really is and it really pisses me off. There could be no other person that could be a better father and I resent anyone making allegations that he is not a parent, and that he is not a proper parent.

No one has ever read more about parenting, no one has ever practised the art of parenting and parenting is an art, you earn the title parent. Because you give birth, because you impregnate someone, it does not automatically give you that title of Mother or Father. You earn the title.

My kids don’t call me mom because I don’t want them to, they’re not, they’re Michael’s children, it’s not that they’re not my children, but I had them because I wanted him to be a father. I believe that there are some people who should be parents and he’s one of them, and he is such a fabulous man and such a good friend and he’s always been there for me, always, from the day I met him. I could do something for him and this is what I wanted to do, you know and people don’t understand that and they want a traditional they think that something has to be traditional and they have this notion of beaver cleaver. That’s, that wasn’t reality in the 50’s and that’s not reality, you know in the 21st century.”

2003, Bashir Take Two

In Take 2, Debbie refused to answer the question wether she had sex with Michael “That’s non of your business and very inappropriate to ask”… but then she said this:

“One of the best things to do is… what I think…When you love someone… don’ t you ever wake up in the middle of the night and just… look at ’em? And see the beauty. I mean that’s… peace. That’… calm. That’s, that’s how that person is. You know you don’t see the stress of the day or what’s going on, you know. And I could sit and stare at him for hours. Cause it was calm.“

Lisa, Playboy, June 2003

PLAYBOY: Did you and Michael discuss having kids?

PLAYBOY: Was he trying to leverage you into agreeing?

PRESLEY: Kind of. “Debbie Rowe says she’ll do it.” Ok, have Debbie Rowe do it! And it’s funny, when I imagined having a child with him, all I could ever see was a custody battle nightmare.

PLAYBOY: He just wanted to find someone to bear his children.

PRESLEY: I think so, but I don’t know.

PLAYBOY: Do you want more kids?

PRESLEY: I’d like two more.

PLAYBOY: And if you don’t have someone to be the father–

PRESLEY: Are you kidding me? No, I will not go to a sperm donor. I could ask Debbie Rowe to be a surrogate for me.

Rumor Concerning Custody, January 28, 2004

In his column on Fox news, Roger Friedman debunks the recent rumors coming from the British tabloid, The Sun, who claim that Debbie Rowe is suing for custody of Prince and Paris.

“Rowe is said to have laughed heartily when she heard the British tabloid The Sun made up their latest fiction.”

The Sun jumped to the conclusion that she was suing for custody based on the fact that she is Jewish and consequently upset about the Nation Of Islam guarding the children.

Friedman, February 18, 2004

Meanwhile, my sources tell me two other very important facts relating to the ongoing Jackson saga.

“The Nation of Islam is still in control,” is the first message. Despite newspaper reports from London, Michael and Debbie Rowe, the mother of his two eldest children, are not in a custody battle. They never discussed Debbie getting more visitations and the Nation of Islam backing away from Jackson.

“It never happened,” said two sources of mine yesterday. I do wish the London tabloid The Sun would stop inventing these fantasies.

[Jackson] Ex-Wife Subpoenaed by District Attorney, Roger Friedman, December 16, 2004:

Michael Jackson’s ex-wife Debbie Rowe, the mother of his two older children, has been subpoenaed to testify in his child-molestation case, sources tell me.

Rowe, mother of Prince Michael and Paris Katherine, was served at her attorney’s office about two weeks ago by Santa Barbara County District Attorney Tom Sneddon.

This turn of events ratchets up the animosity between Rowe and Jackson even more — if that’s possible.

In October, Jackson refused to pay Rowe her annual alimony payment of about $1 million, claiming that she had breached the confidentiality clause in their divorce agreement.

His specific complaint was that Rowe had appeared on “Entertainment Tonight,” although the piece was about her horses and the sale of her home.

The alimony payment is said to have been placed in escrow by Jackson, but no proof has been offered of that so far.

Jackson’s non-payment to Rowe came at the same time that he cut off other financial obligations, including a major one to his ex-criminal attorney Steve Cochran.

Jackson’s former partner Marc Schaffel, who had been receiving installment payments on money he was owed until he was cut off months ago, is also suing him.

Randy Jackson, Michael’s brother and adviser, is said to be behind the abrupt belt-tightening.

In Rowe’s case, however, the cessation of payments follows a long line of contention between the former spouses. Jackson has refused to speak to Rowe since he persuaded her to defend him in a television interview in February 2003 — the so-called “rebuttal video.”

Rowe, who had appeared to be ambivalent about her children, has grown more and more determined to gain custody since then, sources say.

In a few days, her custody case against Jackson will wind up in front of a Los Angeles family-court judge, although Jackson himself is not expected to attend.

Yesterday, the family law team, led by Michael Abrams, tried to get an extension on the case, but was denied.

Jackson, in turn, is said to have served Rowe’s attorney with a lawsuit which, if he wins, would prevent her from turning over any documents to the district attorney.

“He hasn’t shown up for one hearing on the custody issue,” my source said. “He has a team of lawyers fighting Debbie’s one. But he serves them with huge amounts of papers all the time.”

Jackson, according to my sources, seems unaware that Rowe, who could potentially be a damaging witness for the prosecution in the child-molestation case, is hell-bent on seeing the custody case through to the end.

Rowe is also determined to find out who leaked documents about her and the children to Britain’s News of the World tabloid last spring.

The detailed information, which was also considered confidential, did not come from her, but Rowe and her attorneys may soon give voice to their suspicions about the possible culprits, sources tell me.

Joe Jackson’s Autobio, roughly translated from German, December 2004

“During the time Michael had two children with Debbie Rowe she was a good friend to him. But of course the media just reports the bad stuff and so nobody could read about Lisa Marie and Michael meeting in South Africa, or that they were going out very often. Debbie too, knew that Michael will always love Lisa Marie, and I see it the same way. We never met Debbie, but with Lisa the family stayed in contact even after the divorce. She has a special place in Michael’s heart.”