My life as the mother of Michael Jackson's children, by Debbie Rowe
By ANNETTE WITHERIDGE
Last updated at 22:29
08 February 2008
Pictures of her beloved 'babies' cover the yellowing walls of Debbie Rowe's remote home. There are favourite snapshots, framed portraits and even paintings which perfectly capture their expressions of innocence. Rowe studies the faces looking down at her and says fiercely: "I am possessive and protective of my babies. Their happiness means more to me than anything else on this world. I love them more than I would ever have thought was possible." It is, one might think, perfectly normal for a mother to feel this way about her children.
But the portraits adorning Rowe's walls show her menagerie of animals - not the two children she produced with, and then handed over to, Michael Jackson. Indeed, there is not even a single, grainy snapshot of either Prince Michael, now ten, or Paris, nine, the children taken from her arms in the maternity ward in exchange for a multi-million-pound pay-off. More than a decade after this plain dental nurse first joined the bizarre Michael Jackson roadshow, she lives alone breeding horses and dogs. There is little evidence in this impoverished and dusty backwater of the small fortune she is reputed to have received for effectively becoming America's most famous surrogate mother. Her 'babies' now include 11 dogs, including one half-wolf, a parrot who shares her bedroom and drinks from her coffee cup, a pair of parakeets and 30 horses - many of them pregnant mares.
She says, with no trace of irony, that she finds it hard to give away her foals. "I have to send them to a trainer so I can detach myself from them. It stops me becoming too involved." Rowe worries more, it seems, about a young animal being led away from its mother than she does about the infants who were taken from her by the reclusive superstar. (Jackson later claimed that he was in such a rush to leave the hospital with daughter Paris in 1998 that he cut the cord and left with the baby covered in blood, taking the placenta with him in his haste.) Since her second child by Jackson was removed, Rowe appears to have had scant dealings with her offspring - although she claims to see them sometimes.
Certainly, though, the photograph of the children which made headline news this week - for once their faces not covered by the customary veils - offered Rowe a tantalising glimpse of the children she gave away. This week, she invited the Mail into her home for an extraordinary, unsettling interview in which she broke the silence she has maintained for years about her infamous children. When asked about their appearance this week, she reacts with the grunt of a satisfied breeder, rather than a sigh of loss. "I turned out two pretty good-looking kids. For that I am proud." She is unhappy, however, that the children's faces have been revealed.
"The veils were my idea, not Michael's. I had kidnap threats when they were babies. I did not want them to be recognised. I'm not happy they've been photographed without the veils." Rowe, 49, is equally quick to dispel rumours that she has fallen out with her ex-husband, from whom she was divorced eight years ago, or is once more desperate for money. She says: "I don't need money. Michael and I are fine.
I see him and the kids all the time. They live in Las Vegas now, just a three-hour drive away." Given the fact that she admitted during Jackson's child molestation court case in 2005 that she hadn't seen him or the children for years, this claim seems unlikely - like so much else in her extraordinary story. The adopted daughter of a millionaire couple from Malibu, Debbie Rowe became part of Jackson's bizarre menagerie some 11 years ago. His marriage to Elvis's daughter Lisa Marie Presley was crumbling, while Jackson's desire to become a father was growing. Rowe was a late developer both sexually and emotionally - she was 30 before she had her first serious relationship. She says of that romance: "I loved him so much. He was my first serious boyfriend - and it still hurts."
By the Nineties, Rowe was recovering from the break-up and working as a nurse for Michael Jackson's dermatologist, Dr Arnold Klein. She befriended Jackson and - like a schoolgirl with a crush - offered to bear him children when he spoke about his longing to be a father. Incredibly, some kind of agreement was struck, and in early 1996 she was artificially inseminated, possibly through IVF, though she refuses to talk about the details. Whether it was with Jackson's sperm or an anonymous donor's - more likely given the light-coloured skin of the children she produced - Rowe is not saying.
The couple married at the Sheraton Hotel in Sydney, Australia, in November 1996, when Rowe was six months pregnant with their son. The bride was 37, Jackson 38, and the best man was an eight-year-old boy (a friend, of course, of the groom). Their marriage was consummated with a peck on the cheek from Jackson, who retired - without her - to another room. There's no evidence to suggest the couple ever had normal sexual relations. The newly-weds returned to LA, but never lived as husband and wife. In February 1997, Rowe gave birth to their son, Prince Michael Jackson. The baby spent several hours in special care before Jackson rushed him to his Neverland Ranch, where a team of nannies stood waiting.
Rowe was quoted as saying later: "I'd never seen Michael so happy and that's what made it so wonderful for me." So wonderful, in fact, that months later, Rowe was artificially impregnated again. She recalls: "Of course it was artificial insemination. Paris was conceived in Paris, that's how she got her name. Michael wanted to call her Princess, but I thought that was stupid." Paris Katherine Jackson was born on April 3, 1998, and this time, Jackson later claimed, he simply wrapped the baby in a towel and fled. Incredibly, it is not the memory of the bloodied newborn being torn from her arms which moves Rowe to tears now - but the sudden admission that she couldn't bear Jackson any more children.
She bursts into tears and, sobbing loudly, says: "I had so many problems when I was pregnant with Paris. After that I couldn't have any more children. Michael was upset about that, he couldn't understand it. He wanted more babies." Rowe, it appeared, had served her physical use and was simply put out to pasture. She filed for divorce six months later - accepting a pay-off worth £4.2million over nine years, in return for giving up her custodial rights to the children. The original divorce settlement allowed her one visit every 45 days, though she later applied to the court herself to terminate her parental rights altogether, claiming it was in the children's best interests. Was she coerced? In the Alice in Wonderland world of Michael Jackson, we will probably never know.
He went on to 'sire' a third child - Prince Michael II, known as Blanket - by an unnamed surrogate. Meanwhile, Rowe claims their relationship remained 'fine'.
She adds defiantly: "It always has been. Michael and I have always got on. I only divorced him because I wanted my life back. I couldn't cope with the constant pressure of fame. He's the genius, the famous one. Not me. I turned out two good-looking kids, but I can't sing, I can't dance." Despite their divorce after a truly dysfunctional marriage, she still shows a surprising loyalty to the singer: when Jackson was accused of molesting a young boy three years ago, Rowe told the court he was a loving and caring father. Under cross-examination, she admitted that she had not seen her ex-husband - or her own children - for some years, which rather undermines her claim to me that she still sees them regularly.
Jackson was cleared of sexual abuse, but moved with the children to the Middle East and then Ireland. In 2006, Rowe took him to court, petitioning for her parental rights to be restored - despite her previous insistence that they should be withheld - and complaining that Jackson had stopped paying her. He claimed she had breached their confidentiality agreement - but a new settlement was reached in secret. Meanwhile, Rowe was apparently finding her 'celebrity' - or 'notoriety' - hard to come to terms with. "I used to be an extrovert, but my marriage made me introverted. I was followed everywhere. I hated the fame. After I married Michael, it was hard to keep working. Staff at the clinic sold stories about me to the media. People were offered a million dollars for a picture of me pregnant. I even told my family to sell one; I thought they could do with the money. But they refused."
After her divorce, Rowe continued to live in the Beverly Hills mansion which Jackson gave her as part of their settlement, and studied at an online university to gain degrees in criminal law and psychology. "I wanted to work in a prison," she explains. "I thought I could help because you can't mess up someone who is already in jail. In the end I loved horses more and I wanted to get away from LA. I was trailed everywhere by the paparazzi."
Three years ago, Rowe sold up and moved to a three-bedroom ranch-style house in Palmdale, an ugly, rundown desert town 60 miles from LA. Here, in the heat and solitude, Rowe appears to have found some peace. She takes a deep breath and says: "Out here in the fresh air I feel much better. No one knows me here. I don't talk to anyone. I just get on with my life breeding horses. As soon as I saw this place I fell in love with it - for the land. I'm up at 6am with the animals and we have the most extraordinary sunrises. "I have a boyfriend. He's a murder cop, we've dated on and off for 30 years. Until now, our timing was always o
Today, she bears little resemblance to the fresh-faced blonde who once posed smiling for glossy magazine 'family' photographs with Jackson and their babies. Her hair is still blonde but her body has bloated almost beyond all recognition. At 5ft 10in tall, she weighs around 15st and is clad in denim with a T-shirt which says 'Shut up and ride'. Eyeliner has been tattooed under her eyes, a process she has topped up every five years. She is also planning on getting laser treatment for her failing eyesight. She says: "I'm 50 in December. That's a big milestone. I want to lose weight. After someone snatched a photo of me, the newspapers wrote about how fat I'd become. That's so unfair because I've lost 20lb. There'll be saying I'm pregnant next."
Rowe pauses and adds: "As a child I didn't dream of marrying Michael Jackson or anyone else famous. I am not fazed by celebrity. I was born and bought up in LA, where I dreamed of having a ranch with horses. It's taken me a long time, but I am finally doing what I always wanted to do." Despite Jackson's dire financial straits and rumours that a mortgage company will repossess his Neverland mansion, Rowe denies she is short of money. Every penny goes on her horses, which she sells for up to £15,000 each, and her beloved dogs. "I can't be bought. I don't need money. I just like to be left alone," she insists.
Bizarrely, as she poses for photographs with her horses, her mind changes. Flushed with the excitement of attention, she announces: "I want a reality TV show. I reckon I'd be great. Can you pitch it for me? It would be me, the dogs and my horses. Do you think they'd go for that in Britain? I think it would be a scream."
But the sight of this middle-aged woman sweating in the heat, craving affection from her animals, is far from funny. One wonders if the children she gave away might have supplied the love she obviously needs, but there seems little chance of that while they remain with their itinerant father.
So does Rowe ever see herself marrying again after her union with a megastar? She says she is happiest living just with her animals. Then she sighs. "There are three stages in marriage. First it's puppy love, then it's for breeding purposes and then, if you can make it through all the bull***t, it's for companionship."
Rowe pauses, then waves a dismissive hand. "I've done the breeding stage. I don't need the rest."
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