Michael Jackson’s family has another legal issue on their hands. The guardianship of Jackson’s three children, Prince, Paris and Blanket, had been a sore subject between his siblings and their mother, Katherine. In June, the guardianship came up again when Paris, 15, attempted suicide. The stress of the wrongful death trial — Katherine is suing Jackson’s concert promoter — had taken its toll, according to press reports.
A family court judge ordered an investigation into the children’s well-being under the co-guardianship of Katherine and TJ Jackson, an adult cousin. The investigation turned up nothing to alter the arrangement. Debbie Rowe, the woman Jackson acknowledged as the biological mother of Paris and Prince, stepped back into the picture, offering to help Paris cope — but vowing not to challenge the custody arrangement.
The new challenge has come from a woman who says she was Jackson’s lifelong friend and confidante, as well as the biological mother of all three children. In a lawsuit filed early in September, Christine Leroux said that Jackson used her eggs to conceive Prince, Paris and Blanket. And now she wants visitation rights and guardianship of all three.
In court documents, LeRoux claims she and Jackson met when they were 7 years old and remained deeply committed to one another until his death in 2009. She says that she chose the children’s names and insisted that Jackson cover the children’s faces in public. She says, too, that she helped Jackson fashion his public image as the King of Pop but herself knew the “real Michael Jackson.”
We will finish this up in our next post.
Source: Examiner.com, “Woman claims to be biological mother to Michael Jackson’s kids,” Kelly Cozzone, Sep. 10, 2013Huffington Post, “Katherine Jackson, TJ Jackson To Retain Guardianship Of Michael Jackson’s Children,” Anthony McCartney, June 25, 2013
