Michael Jackson's ex-wife Debbie Rowe 'to get full custody of their two children'
By Daily
Mail Reporter
Last updated at 6:29 PM on 26th June 2009
It has been reported that Debbie Rowe is set to get full custody of the two children she bore Michael Jackson during their three-year marriage
Michael Jackson's ex-wife Debbie Rowe is set to take full custody of the two children she bore him during their three-year marriage.
The former nurse attempted to completely give up her parental rights to Prince Michael and Paris in 2005, claiming her former husband was a wonderful
father.
The judge presiding over the hearing granted her request, but is reported to have later reversed his decision.
According to TMZ.com, lawyer Lance Spiegel, who represented Jackson at the time, says the Department of Children and Family Services must conduct a parental
fitness investigation before parental rights can be withdrawn.
He says this did not happen with Rowe, and as a result, her parental rights were not terminated and she is believed to be the person who will gain custody
of the children.
The only way she can be denied custody is if the Californian courts determine it would be 'detrimental for the children'.
If Rowe does ask for custody, she is liable to get a 'huge' amount of child support from the dead singer's estate - or what is left of it.
The singer was pronounced dead aged 50 at a hospital in Los Angeles last night. He was taken there in a coma following his collapse at home.
His lavish lifestyle had left the 'King of Pop' struggling to stabilise his personal finances with his estate an estimated $500million (£303million) in debt.
Family: The singer with his children Paris (left) and Prince Michael earlier this month. He also has another son Prince Michael Jackson II, known as 'Blanket'
He is said to have become increasingly dependent on a circle of benefactors in recent years, who kept him from financial ruin.
Jackson is survived by Prince Michael, 12, Paris, 11, and seven-year-old Prince Michael II, known as Blanket.
The singer had been due to perform a series of comeback concerts at London's O2 Arena, which would have helped clear some of his debts.
Police congregated outside the Palmdale home of Debbie Rowe, ex-wife of Michael Jackson and mother of two of his children
At his peak in the 1980s and early 1990s, the man who made some of the best selling albums of all-time was the world's most bankable star.
Even at his death he still made an annual income estimated at $19million.
In 1985, Jackson paid $47.5million for ATV Music, which owned the rights to 251 Beatles songs written by John Lennon and Paul McCartney.
The steady stream of income it generated allowed him to buy the infamous Neverland ranch in 1988 - a sprawling 2,500-acre estate in the hills of Santa Barbara County wine country - for $14.6million.
However in 1993, he was accused of molesting a 13-year-old boy and although he settled with the boy's family, his reputation struggled to recover. It also sparked a descent into financial problems.
Jackson agreed to merge ATV with Sony for $150million in 1995, and sold Sony music publishing rights for $95million.
But there were still signs his finances were in desperate trouble and in 2002 he faced a lawsuit from Union Finance & Investment Corp for $12million in unpaid fees and expenses.
Together: His three children were spotted out with their faces visible last summer
In 2003 Jackson was arrested on charges of molesting another 13-year-old boy, which led to a trial in 2005 at which he was acquitted.
A forensic accountant said during the trial that the performer was spending $20m to $30m more per year than he earned.
By last year, the mounting debts became so much he faced foreclosure of his Neverland ranch and was forced to sell off personal items.
He found a benefactor in Sheik Abdulla bin Hamad Al Khalifa, but the relationship soured and the second son of the King of Bahrain sued the singer for $7million, claiming he had given him millions of dollars to pay off debts, record an album, write his autobiography and subsidise his lifestyle.
Prince Michael and Paris were the product of Jackson's second marriage to Rowe, a nurse, in 1996.
After the couple divorced in 1999, Jackson took on sole responsibility for their children's upbringing.
There was some controversy surrounding the move and questions were asked as to whether Rowe would receive access rights.
Worrying signs: Michael Jackson holds Prince Michael II, a.k.a. 'Blanket', over a balcony in 2002
Jackson took an unusual approach to protecting them from the media glare by covering their faces.
His third child, Prince Michael II, was born to a mystery surrogate mother he never even met.
In 2002, Jackson caused a public outcry by dangling the baby - referred to as 'Blanket' - out of a third-floor hotel balcony in front of the world's press. He later said he regretted the incident.
Earlier this month, Jackson was photographed with his two older children in Los Angeles.
The public were given a rare glimpse of their unmasked faces as they walked across a recording studio.
Later, when they realised there was an audience, they donned feathered pink and green masks.
Despite accusations that the fair-skinned boy and girl were not his biological children, the singer always insisted they were biologically his.
During his infamous 2003 interview with Martin Bashir, Jackson said: 'I used a surrogate mother (for Blanket) and my own sperm cells. I had my own sperm cells in my other two children. They are all my children.'
It is likely to take months before it is clear whether at the time of his death Michael Jackson had anything to leave his beneficiaries - assumed to be his three children and his mother - or whether a lifetime of accumulated debts has used up the wealth he earned during his career.
The sought-after contents of Neverland were removed from a planned £2million auction could now go back under the hammer in the wake of his sudden death.
Jackson had arranged for his many of his famous stage costumes, paintings, sculptures and awards, arcade games and flashy jewellery, to be sold off in April this year.
But despite his financial woes, the superstar changed his mind at the last minute and organisers were forced to return the property, which is currently in storage.
Darren Julien, President and CEO of Julien's Auctions, had held a series of exhibitions ahead of the planned sale and was sorely disappointed when Jackson pulled the plug.
He told Radaronline.com: 'We returned everything to Michael immediately after the exhibit in April. It is still in storage.'
He added: 'Under the right circumstances, I would agree to undertake the auction again.'
And who's to say that 
