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Debbie Rowe-Katherine Jackson custody battle looming? [Newsday, Melville, N.Y.]
(Newsday (Melville, NY) Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) Jul. 3--Michael Jackson's children could become the center of a custodial tug-of-war between the singer's mother, Katherine Jackson, and his former wife, Debbie Rowe.
"I want my children," Rowe said Thursday morning in a phone interview with the Los Angeles television station KNBC that was not broadcast.
A judge Thursday delayed a guardianship hearing for Jackson's children at the request of attorneys for both Katherine Jackson and Rowe.
That postponement marks another turnabout in the legal process of sorting through the affairs of the pop icon, who died last week at the age of 50 after suffering cardiac arrest. Though Jackson's will named his mother as beneficiary of a family trust and guardian of his three children, Rowe's move may complicate matters.
Still, Rowe's intentions seem unclear. Despite Rowe's seemingly unequivocal statements to KNBC, her lawyer, Eric George, told the Los Angeles Times he did not know whether Rowe would request custody or continue to maintain visitation rights to the two eldest children she shared with the singer. George said he will represent Rowe at a hearing Monday.
The Jackson family's publicity firm said it would announce detailed plans of a memorial service for the King of Pop of Friday morning.
And in the meantime, Jackson's death, once a local case, has become a federal issue as the Drug Enforcement Agency was called in.
Rowe, 50, shared two children with Jackson, son Michael Joseph Jr. (nicknamed Prince), 12, and daughter Paris Michael Katherine, 11. Jackson's son Prince Michael II (nicknamed Blanket), 7, was born to a surrogate who has never been publicly identified.
Rowe granted Jackson sole custody of their two children in 1999, according to the Los Angeles Times. And she was cut out of the singer's recently filed will.
But according to KNBC, Rowe, 50, said she intended to seek custody of her two children and said she would submit to DNA testing to prove that she is their biological mother as well as psychological testing.
Rowe also said she would seek a restraining order to keep Jackson's father, Joe Jackson, away from them.
A memorial service honoring the King of Pop will take place at 10 a.m. Tuesday at Staples Center in Los Angeles. The Jackson family's publicity firm, Sunshine, Sachs & Associates announced late last night that it will hold a news conference Friday at 10 a.m. at the venue to announce preliminary details, including information on how the public can register for 11,000 free tickets.
As for previous reports that Jackson's body was being held for interment at Forest Lawn-Hollywood Hills mortuary the Los Angeles Times debunked them, quoting a mortuary spokeswoman saying, "We've never had him and we're not going to."
Nevertheless, the Web site TMZ published what it called "firm" information that a motorcade would travel from there to the Staples Center complex for the public event Tuesday.
Even as news spread that the DEA was looking into Jackson's death, more stories of his drug use emerged.
Uri Geller, the famed mentalist and longtime friend to Jackson, told The Associated Press in a phone interview from his home near London that he tried to confiscate the singer's stocks of prescription drugs and frequently begged him to kick the habit. Geller said he slept on floors or sofas of the singer's hotel suites in an effort to be heard.
"I tried to drum sense into his brain," said Geller, who ultimately fell out with the singer over the issue. "I told him, 'Michael you're going to die; Michael you're going to kill yourself.' But he just stared at me. Many a time he was in his bed and I stood and shouted at him."
Matt Fiddes, a British karate instructor who for a decade served as Jackson's senior bodyguard during the singer's travels in England, told Sky News a similar story in an interview broadcast Thursday.
"I confiscated packages and Uri did, too. I mean, Uri confiscated injection equipment from his room," Fiddes said.
The bodyguard also said he and Geller once struggled to rouse the drugged pop star for a trip to the London Zoo. "It was clear that he had taken something that morning and he was hard to wake. We were extremely concerned," Fiddes said. "We couldn't get him in a state that would portray him in a good light."
Both men blamed enablers in Jackson's entourage for supplying the singer with drugs.
"When Michael asked for something, he got it," Geller said. "This was the great tragedy."
The singer's brother Jermaine Jackson also addressed the drug issue. "In this business, the pressures and things that you go through, you never know what one turns to," he said in an interview broadcast yesterday on NBC's "Today" show. "I don't know about these things, because I hate anything with drugs."
He added that the stories of drug abuse have hurt Jackson's family members "because we don't know."
With AP
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