Jackson never legally adopted kids; Debbie Rowe claims she is biological mom

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Several interesting developments happened this afternoon regarding Michael Jackson. Earlier today we told you that Michael is not his oldest two children’s biological father – his dermatologist, Dr. Arnold Klein is. (In related news, police want to question Klein about any drugs he may have given Jackson). It was reported that presumed biological mother Debbie Rowe was in fact a surrogate and also not the children’s biological parent. This explained why she didn’t seem as attached to them as one would expect – and added another foot to the already mile-high legal issues. However an hour ago Debbie’s lawyer told Radar that she is indeed the children’s biological mother.

Reports that Debbie Rowe is not the biological mother of two of Michael Jackson’s children have been presented as fact by numerous outlets.

But in an exclusive interview with RadarOnline.com Rowe’s lawyer Marta Almli sets the record straight and says without a doubt Debbie is the mother.

Almli told RadarOnline.com exclusively:”We refuse to be drawn into addressing the various rumors and speculation swirling in the media. The vast majority of what is out there is untrue.

“Particularly hurtful and insidious is the most recent rumor — which is entirely false — concerning the maternity of the children. Ms. Rowe is the biological mother of the two oldest children.”

And there you have it.

[From Radar]

The custody of the children is getting incredibly complicated. Obviously a great deal of it will hinge on whether or not the children have a living biological parent that wants custody. Presumably Dr. Klein signed away his rights when he donated sperm, but everything’s completely up in the air in regards to Rowe. Another part of the custody issues that Michael never legally adopted the children – who knows what could happen if they’re legally declared not to be his kids?

We’ve learned Michael Jackson never adopted his three children, even though he’s not the biological father.

We broke the story that neither Jackson nor Debbie Rowe are the biological parents of Michael Jr. and Paris. And Michael was not the biological parent of Prince Michael II either.

Now here’s the rub. We’ve learned Jackson never filed legal papers to adopt any of his children. Legal experts tell us Jackson would be presumed the father but it’s not conclusive by any means.

As for why Jackson didn’t formally adopt — we’re told at the time the kids were born there was no third party whom he believed would try and claim custody. For some reason, Jackson never thought Debbie Rowe would mount a custody challenge.

[From TMZ]

There have been several reports floating around about Jackson fans committing suicide since he died – I’ve read anywhere from one to a dozen, depending on the story. The reports seem like they’re embellished, and stories of this nature tend to come out when someone as famous as Michael Jackson dies. So far it’s mostly internet rumor.

Michael’s body will be returned to Neverland Ranch of Friday for a public viewing and service. Often the families of celebrities just have a private service – which the Jacksons are also doing on Sunday. It’s nice of the Jacksons (some would say good business strategy, but I’m going with optimism here) to give the public a chance to be a part of the mourning process. It sounds like he’ll likely be buried in his hometown of Gary, Indiana, but it hasn’t been decided yet.

Jackson had such a funny relationship with his fans, alternately pulling closer and pushing away. But it seems like he ultimately wanted to connect with them and felt an immense pressure because of that. I’m sure his final memorial will be a fitting tribute.

Michael Jackson

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34 Responses to “Jackson never legally adopted kids; Debbie Rowe claims she is biological mom”

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  1. KDRockstar says:

    I just read about the suicides, too. Seriously, people, grief is awful, but life is worth it.

  2. Ophelia says:

    What suicides?

  3. Maritza says:

    This is getting messy!

  4. nnn says:

    um…maybe Debbie Rowe’s own family will claim the custody of those children who knows. After all if she has a mother, that mother has a serious case against Katherine Jackson.

    this is so tricky.

  5. Annie says:

    I could understand harboring “darker” thoughts after the loss of say, a husband, a wife, a mother, a grandmother, etc.etc.

    But a pop star you didn’t even really know? WTF?

  6. nnn says:

    That picture of Michael Jackson is just scary. Look at the neck : a walking dead body.

    As for the suicide thing i agree with the person above, harboring dark thoughts over a celibrity to the point of committing suicide is going totally over the top.

  7. v says:

    nnn, what picture of michael jackson ISN’T scary?

  8. nnn says:

    lol so true but i never saw one with that scary neck.

    Anyway, I liked him during ‘the Off the Wall’ and ‘Thriller’ area and before that. Musically and physically he was the best until 1983/84.

  9. Cowbell says:

    This doesn’t even make any sense. He had to have adopted the kids. Whose names are on the birth certificate? It would have been quick paperwork at their births. How would he have gotten their social sec. numbers, passports, etc without paperwork that he’s their dad.
    I highly doubt he left that in limbo all these years – it would have made the custody battle with Debbie Rowe moot if he’s not legally their father.
    Silly.

  10. someone says:

    This is ridiculous, Debbie and MJ were married when she had those 2 kids, why would he have to adopt them????

  11. Larissa says:

    @cowbell: ditto!

    you can´t just walk around with someone else´s children, live with and raise them… especially with all the child abuse fuss around him!
    so these reports saying he has not adopted the children are just insane!
    He was even married to the woman ffs!
    Some people give way too much credibility to tabloids and don´t even think through what they read and later on write about!
    In less than a week there were thousands of false reports surrounding his life and death…
    I totally understand this is a gossip blog but everything that goes out there is taken as a fact, which is just stupidity at it´s worse, really!

  12. Enonymous says:

    Michael Jackson is like the boy who cried wolf too many times. He has done stuff that has always contradicted each other bizarrely and has put himself purposely in crazy situations that he could not get out of.

    I am not one of those people who goes after conspiracy theories but reading all this weird stuff about MJ that even the best Hollywood writers could not make it up if they tried to, I would not put it past Michael Jackson at this point if he faked his own death, took a good chunk of the money and run off somewhere where there is not debts to pay back, no 50 concert dates to stress himself over and the media would finally leave him alone and the fans will always remember him now as an immortal icon, which I a sure that was what he always wanted.

    For all of that talent Michael Jackson had, he surely matched it with an equal amount of stupidity and craziness in his part.

  13. Diana says:

    How about one on Reverend Schmuley’s relationship with Michael?

    Understanding the strength and the sadness.

  14. e-non says:

    ugh. i knew this freak show was inevitable; but i couldn’t imagine they would take the body to neverland for viewing.

  15. These poor kids. I sincerely hope where ever they land they are safe and loved.

  16. lola lola says:

    Why in the world would anyone award custody to Jackson’s mother?!? Didn’t she stand by while her husband beat the kids? What I don’t understand is, why doesn’t Debbie Rowe want custody? She doesn’t have to be a mom, she can hire out like KFed. At least that gets those kids away from that insane family.

  17. Trillion says:

    Maybe MJ never made a move to adopt because of the legal procedures that would surely involve more scrutiny into his strange and frankly inappropriate behavior around children. Even if he was innocent of touching them sexually, there was enough weird stuff to warrant more investigation if he brought adoption into it.

  18. CeeJay says:

    This is all so stupid.

    Legal parental arrangements are made when sperm and/or eggs are “purchased” for the purpose of creating a life. I suspect that all of this has been taken care. We are are speculating based on U.S. law and adoption procedures. The kids may not be U.S. citizens and could have been born outside the U.S. For all we know they were born in Borneo and legally adopted in that Territory. Too much is unknown and that is because MJ wanted it that way.

    CB, do yourself and us a favor, report these “reports” as just that…reports. They are not fact. They are not proven. They will fly fast and furiously for several months and years to come, but especially for now.

  19. nnn says:

    Maybe MJ never made a move to adopt because of the legal procedures that would surely involve more scrutiny into his strange and frankly inappropriate behavior around children. Even if he was innocent of touching them sexually, there was enough weird stuff to warrant more investigation if he brought adoption into it.

    ——————————
    He never adopt because he lied first saying that he was the bio father of all his children and that even the youngest bio’s mum was Black.

    he lied from the very begin and lied in the Bashir interview. Therefore he couldn’t adopt children who were supposed to be his through bio lineage.

  20. Cheyenne says:

    If he was legally married to the mother at the time the child was born, the law presumes he is the legal father unless it can be proven that he isn’t.

  21. gg says:

    How in hell does he get away with putting Mother: NONE on Blanket’s Birth Certificate? That’s taking the piss.

  22. Because I Say So says:

    I come from a family where adoption has played a big role. So, I empathize with these kids and the confusion they’re going to feel as they reach that “who am I?” stage. To have no sense of who your biological parents are can be traumatizing enough (and hopefully countered by a loving adoptive family), but to have to have those questions speculated about in the media like this? How terrible! I just wonder what sorts of effed up these kids are going to be not only as a result of living with a virtual recluse, but for the media circus surrounding his death and all of this speculation.

    The sad thing is, no one would really care quite so much if there wasn’t rumors of a $200 million fortune involved. How can they possibly ever trust someone in a situation like that??!

  23. jojo says:

    Am I the only one that finds this disturbing? How could 3 children live with a man who was not legally their father?!?! He would not have been able to register them in school, nor obtain medical care for them (legally at least). The state of California should be in hot water for this, because it is completely insane that these children lived for this long without any legal parent or guardian !!!! This just opens the door wide for pedophiles to have random children living with them that they have no biological or legal connection to (not saying MJ is or isn’t a pedo, just commenting on the situation).

  24. georgiagrl says:

    Remeber the joy he bought us people. Just remember the joy, and not all this CRAP we will be subjected to for many years to come. May he truly rest in peace!

  25. Enonymous says:

    I was always surprised how a court can strip a parent’s right to have custody of their own children for going through a hard period in their life like it was for Britney Spear’s situation a year ago were she was vilified by the media, having her life taken over and her kids being taken away from her because it was blown out of proportion that she was suffering from some kind of mental problems. Yet, Michael Jackson was numerous times accused of child molestation, being seen as the epitome of crazy and a weird human being and just plainly looking at his kids, none of the looked that were biologically related to MJ yet I don’t remember anyone trying to take any of those kids away from his custody. MJ seems to have always used his wealth and celebrity power to get what he wanted even if it was socially abnormal and very unacceptable and the depressing thing is that people let him get way with it all these years.

  26. Feebee says:

    This will be a saga for the ages.

    Why would they bury him in Gary and not near Encino, CA where they had lived since he was 11? I know Gary would love the tourists but really?

  27. gg says:

    @ Enonymous, who said “… like it was for Britney Spear’s situation a year ago were she was vilified by the media, having her life taken over and her kids being taken away from her because it was blown out of proportion that she was suffering from some kind of mental problems.”

    Britney’s problems were not “blown out of proportion”. We saw the photos of her crying on her curb, we saw her attacking people with an umbrella and shaving herself bald for the cameras, just for a start. She was clearly losing it and too focused on that to safely deal with children.

    But yeah, most definitely in MJ’s case, he had the dough, he could do ANYTHING he liked to whomever. Which is wrong. I hope the courts start cracking down on this BS. Children are not accessories or puppies.

  28. TaylorB says:

    His name is on the birth certs as ‘father’ so he can get all documentation he needs, SS cards, etc. Hospitals assume that the person named as ‘father’ is in fact the father, it isn’t like they are going to question the mothers word and request a paternity test before filling out the birth cert. First of all that would be terribly rude, can you imagine ‘Miss, are you SURE that man is the father and not some other person you were banging?’, secondly it would be a logistical nightmare especially in the cases involving donor sperm or eggs, it isn’t like if a woman uses a donor egg they list it as ‘Who the hell knows?’ under mother on the birth cert.

    If a woman, or her legal representative, says Mr X is the father then that is what goes on the birth cert, and he has all the ‘proof’ he needs by law unless later it is questioned and a paternity test is requested.

  29. Enonymous says:

    gg, Britney Spear’s case was much, much less dramatic and dangerous when compared it to Michael Jackson’s life choices and with the media throwing serious allegations about her mental health at that time and her incapability of taking care of her kids and herself because she was a bad mother or a drug addict when she clearly was going through a bad period of depression and breakdown that could be helped, instead everyone was making her out to be this completely incompetent person who could not even think for herself and she was striped of her wealth and custody of her children, so yeah I do still think her situation was blown out of proportion. She needed help yes, of course, but not for her life to be taken over by everyone while someone like Michael Jackson was running around doing weird stuff and god knows what else for years, yet no one did anything about it and just seem to shrug and say “oh that is Wacko Jacko for you.” I wanted to know why was not MJ’s kids taken away from him or at least threaten to, I think MJ’s kids where more in a disadvantage with a parent like him then Britney’s kids.

    I have nothing against MJ and I do feel sorry for him but reading all these stuff (and despite what anyone says, it seems most of the information out there seem to be true one way or the other), it just seems he was not as gullible as we though, he knew when to use his wealth and power when he needed to to get what he wanted no matter how social or moral unacceptable it might be and that is unsettling to me.

  30. aw! says:

    I thought Debbie Rose & MJ were married, so he wouldn’t have to adopt those kids. And who cares about the sperm donor? I doubt that the “father” would come out to claim the kids unless there’s a fortune in it for him.

  31. Ceenitall says:

    First off…
    Just because a tabloid or a website says he never adpoted the kids DOES NOT MAKE IT TRUE!!!!
    Let’s look at it rationaly
    1. He and the mother (bio mother) were married at the time of the first two childrens birth. The law then assumes he would be the father so no adoption would be needed.
    2. If he is listed as the father on all of the birth certificates then he is the father and does not have to adopt his own children.
    3. After his last arrest and trial don’t you think that if there were ANY doubt at all as to who was the legal parent of the children the state of California would have stepped in and tried to take the kids away from him? Even if he was aquitted in a court of law, they would not have let him keep kids that were not legally his.

    If you stop for a second and think about it and stop listening to all the stupid bs that people are saying to sell magazines it doesn’t make sense that the kids are not legally his.

  32. Gigohead says:

    Jojo,

    I was thinking the same thing. He is listed on the BC as the father, although the kids were not biologically his. What did have planned for them? It’s almost like human trafficking — babies for sale to the most rich and famous. It’s scary!

  33. PJ says:

    MJ’s will lists the 3 kids as his children, but does not specify whether they were adopted or not.

    The court papers do not make any distinction between “natural” and adopted children. Apparently adopted parents have the same legal rights as birth parents.

  34. Mizz Thang says:

    All of this shit is hilarious–who cares? And, if anyone is going to commit suicide over someone they’ve never even met, be my guest. Makes more room for the rest of us sane people. No wonder the world sees as loonies.