Michael Jackson (95 page)

However, Steve Shmerier, a California computer executive who dated Debbie for six months before her first pregnancy with Michael,
insists, ‘Debbie told me she had agreed to try for a baby using artificial insemination as a favour to a friend. No names
were mentioned. But with hindsight, you don’t need to be a genius to figure out who she was talking about. She is simply not
the maternal type, though. She’s always said she had no interest in having children. The only reason she agreed to do this
thing for Michael was the understanding that she would not become a traditional wife.’

Michael could insist that the baby was not the result of artificial insemination, and the public and press could either believe
him or not. However, he went a step too far in also claiming that there was no ‘economic relationship’ with Debbie. Such a
statement only weakened his credibility about the baby’s conception. After all, who in his right mind would believe that he
wasn’t giving Debbie
some
money? Even the surrogate mother who comes into the picture as a complete stranger is compensated for her services, let alone
those who are close friends of fifteen years. Is it logical that Debbie Rowe would have a child for one of the wealthiest
entertainers in show business and that he, in return, would not give her even a dime for her trouble?

In fact, according to reliable sources, Debbie has received millions of dollars from Michael over the years, not as payment
for her services but as ‘gifts’ to her. When Michael’s former business manager Myung Ho Lee sued him for fourteen million
dollars in 2002, among the court papers filed was Michael’s
monthly
budget, which included ‘payment to Debbie Rowe’ for $1.5 million. Whether she’s getting money from him every month, annually,
or per child, she will never have to worry about finances again. Michael arranged for other financial annuities for her, as
well as eventually buying her a $1.3 million home in the exclusive Franklin Canyon enclave of Beverly Hills, in the fall of
1997. He and Debbie would never live together.

‘At the time that the story broke, Debbie was supposed to meet him in Australia,’ said Tanya Boyd. ‘She presumed that the
trip would be off, that Michael would be so upset about what had happened that he would refuse to see her. She cried a lot
that day.’

Debbie frantically attempted to locate Michael in Sydney to explain to him how she had been deceived by her ‘friend’. However,
before she could reach him, he was on the telephone, calling her. Contrary to what Debbie expected, as she recalled it, Michael
could not have been more loving and understanding. She now says that it was during that telephone call that she realized that
Michael was the man for her. ‘Look, I can understand how this terrible thing happened,’ Michael told Debbie. ‘I’ve been tricked
by the media before. Relax. It’ll be okay, I promise.’

‘Debbie so appreciated him,’ said Tanya Boyd. ‘Even though she had obviously created a huge jam, he didn’t blame her for it.
That went a long way toward making him a saint in her eyes. She was so relieved, she decided that she would be loyal to him,
and once you have Debbie Rowe’s loyalty, you have it for life – unless you screw up, royally.’

‘Focus, Debbie,’ Michael told her. ‘Keep your eye on the goal, which is that you and I have this baby. Of course, the press
would find out about it, eventually. I expected it. They have made my life miserable for years.’

Though he tried not to show it to the expectant mother, Michael actually was apprehensive about the news of Debbie’s pregnancy
being made public. First of all, would his fans put it all together and realize that he’d been working on having a baby with
Debbie before he was even divorced from Lisa? How would that look? (Oddly, it would turn out that much of his public wouldn’t
figure it out, or, at least, care.) Not only was he unsure how his fans would take it, he was worried about the reaction of
his mother, Katherine.

Indeed, Katherine, still a devout Jehovah’s Witness, was not happy to learn from news broadcasts that her son was fathering
a child with a woman to whom he was not married. ‘This reminds me of what Michael’s father did in the seventies,’ Katherine
said, privately, speaking of Joh’Vonnie. ‘It broke my heart. I won’t have history repeat itself with Michael. I just won’t
have it.’

After the news of Debbie’s pregnancy broke, Katherine tried to reach Michael overseas. It was difficult because of his tight
schedule but on the day the pregnancy story broke, Katherine managed to find Debbie, whom she had met on several occasions,
at a neighbour’s apartment, where she was hiding out from the stalking media. That neighbour recalled, ‘I picked up the telephone,
hoping it was Michael calling for Debbie from Australia, and this woman on the other end said, “Would you please put Miss
Rowe on the phone?” I thought it was a reporter, so I said, “She’s not here.” And the woman said, “Well, this is Michael Jackson’s
mother. Can you help me locate her?” I have no idea how she got my number. I handed Debbie the phone.’

Katherine was, as Debbie’s neighbour put it, ‘sweet as she could have been to her.’ For about thirty minutes, she talked to
Debbie about the sanctity of marriage, and about the Jehovah’s Witness faith. Debbie was impressed. In fact, by the time she
ended her conversation with Katherine, she had not only agreed that it would be best if she married Michael, she was practically
ready to convert.

When Michael found out that Katherine and Debbie had spoken, he probably sensed that his life might be about to change. Indeed,
according to one of his associates, when Michael finally spoke to Katherine on the telephone, she asked him to marry ‘that
nice girl, Debbie’ and ‘give your child a name, not like your poor, half-sister, Joh’Vonnie.’ Michael had never wanted to
repeat the sins of his father, so Katherine perhaps knew how to appeal to him or, as the associate put it, ‘She pushed all
the right buttons.’

Michael agreed that he should marry Debbie. ‘It’s definitely the right thing to do,’ he said.

When one reviews the chain of events described by their intimates, it’s interesting that Katherine’s telephone call to Debbie
and Michael had such an impact on their future together. Prior to the Jackson matriarch’s involvement, the plan was that Debbie
was to have been a ‘surrogate mother’ for Michael – a close friend doing a favour for him by having a baby, which she would
then give him to raise. After the birth of the child, Michael intended to issue a statement, and then keep the mother’s identity
a secret, in much the same way the identities of most surrogate mothers are protected. A good example of what he and Debbie
intended is the way he has handled the identity of the woman who gave birth to his very blond third child, Prince Michael
II. We don’t know who she is, other than that she’s not Debbie; Debbie has denied maternity. He has not divulged her name,
and he hasn’t married her, either. It wouldn’t have been easy, of course, to keep Debbie’s identity undisclosed, but since
he has managed to keep the other woman’s identity out of the press, it obviously can be done. Over the years, Michael had
proven that, if he wishes to do so, he can keep secrets about his private life.

However, Debbie’s having confided to a traitorous friend about the pregnancy, the resulting publicity, and then Katherine’s
concern, altered Michael’s master plan – and also his life. As a result, he was not only going to be a father, but a husband – again.

While speaking to her on the telephone, Michael insisted that Debbie keep her plans to visit him in Australia and, in fact,
take the next plane. She agreed to meet him at the Sheraton on the Park Hotel, where the Jackson contingency occupied forty
rooms. However, she did not know then that she was going to be marrying him, there. ‘She was surprised when she finally got
there, and he told her of his plan,’ said Tanya Boyd. ‘She called me [on November 12, 1996] and said, “Guess what? I’m marrying
Michael tomorrow.” I asked her if she loved him. She thought it over for a moment, and answered, “Yes, I do, sort of.” I pushed.
“Romantically?” She paused, and said, “The kind of love I have with Michael is bigger, more important, than that. It’s not
the kind that most people can understand. Simple love affairs end. This relationship will never end.”’

On 13 November 1996, Michael Jackson sat down at a grand piano in his two-bedroom suite at the Sheraton on the Park Hotel
in Sydney. With a flourish, he played the Wagner march known as ‘Here Comes the Bride’. Michael had on a creamy foundation
and transparent powder that made his face almost stark white. He had extra eyeliner on his lids, emphasizing their almond
shape; his eyes stood out like dark coals. He highlighted his nose and cheekbones with bronze tones. His eyebrows were tweezed
and darkened. He had on a black hat and one long curl framing each side of his face. Also, he appeared to have fake sideburns.
The total effect was nothing short of jaw-dropping, in that Disneyland sort of way.

From one of the other rooms came Debbie Rowe, six months’ pregnant, wearing black and holding a small arrangement of flowers.
It had just been ten days since the world knew that he was about to become a father and now, thanks to his mother, he was
about to become a husband, again. As fifteen of their friends watched, thirty-eight-year-old Michael and thirty-seven-year-old
Debbie – both wearing black – were wed in a simple ceremony. Michael’s best man was a new friend of his named Anthony – who was
eight years old. Michael identified him as a nephew. (However, unless there are relatives unknown to other family members,
he doesn’t seem to have a nephew by that name.) Michael further explained that the boy had been depressed by the death of
one of his parents. ‘I brought him with me to cheer him up,’ he explained.

As they stood in the suite, decorated, wall to wall, with exotic orchids, roses and deep pink lilies, Michael presented Debbie
with a $100,000 diamond and platinum ring. After being pronounced man and wife, they exchanged an affectionate look and a
brief, tentative kiss. Debbie seemed tense, holding herself stiffly. When they drew apart, Michael held her away from him,
gazing deeply into her face. He then leaned in and kissed her on the neck. ‘You are so beautiful,’ he said, holding her with
his eyes. ‘More beautiful than I ever imagined the mother of my child would be. Thank you so much, Debbie. Thank you so much
for being… you.’ It was a touching moment.

The next evening, Michael and Anthony attended the Australian premiere of Michael’s short film
Ghosts
and walked side by side in front of the clicking and whirring cameras. Michael looked content in one of his military outfits
and a black silk surgical mask. Anthony, who wore a simple, short-sleeved black shirt, was dark-haired, good-looking… and,
in the opinion of most observers, a dead-ringer for Jordie Chandler.

Meanwhile, Debbie was in her hotel suite making long-distance telephone calls to friends in the United States. Marsha Devlin,
another one of her Van Nuys neighbours at the time, recalled that Debbie told her she needed her to pay her telephone bill
for her. ‘She had left the States in such a hurry, she forgot to pay it,’ said Marsha. ‘It was disconnected already; she owed
back money for the bill. If she had money from Michael by this time, you sure would never know it. She told me she had about
three thousand dollars in the bank.’

When Marsha asked, Debbie told her that Michael did not stay with her in her suite at the Sheraton on the Park Hotel the night
before they wed, nor on their wedding night. Instead, she said, he stayed with ‘an assistant’ in another room, ‘so that I
could get some rest. I was exhausted.’ Less than a week later, Debbie returned to Los Angeles, never having slept with Michael
in Sydney.

The day before he married Debbie Rowe, Michael telephoned Lisa Marie Presley in Los Angeles to tell her of his plans. He still
cared deeply about her, he said, and didn’t want her to ‘read about the wedding in the papers’. He felt dreadful, he told
her, about the way their relationship ended, ‘with us saying mean things to each other. And now I’m moving on,’ he told her,
according to a later recollection, ‘but I don’t really feel that it’s right, not without your blessing.’ In fact, those close
to Michael say that he was so anxious about his marriage to Debbie, he was jittery and would begin to sob at the slightest
provocation, his tears flowing, unchecked. No wonder he was worn out; his life had been filled with such confusion and anxiety
for as many years as he could remember, the stress of it keenly felt, especially while on the road with yet another strenuous
tour. He was bone tired; getting up on that stage and executing his trademark dance steps had become more of an ordeal with
each passing year. ‘I’m getting too old for this shit,’ he said.

Lisa didn’t know how to react to Michael’s telephone call. She still loved him, she said, but she was adamant that they would
never be together, again. Therefore, he should go forth and do whatever he wanted to do with his life, with Debbie Rowe, or
anyone else. She gave him her ‘blessing’. Anyway, it was time for her to move past the madness of his world, to stop trying
to fathom the unfathomable. After she and Michael ended their marriage, she fell into a serious health decline, ‘the worst
two years of my life,’ as she put it. Privately, she said that she hoped he was content in his new life, but she knew him
too well. His sadness sprang from so many years of distrust and unhappiness, how could a marriage to someone with whom he
wasn’t in love possibly end his misery, even if she was having a baby for him?