Personal relationships of Michael Jackson
The personal relationships of Michael Jackson have been the subject of public and media attention for several decades. He was introduced to the topic of sexual activity at the age of nine while a member of the Jackson 5. He and his brothers would perform at strip clubs, sharing the bill with female strippers and drag queens, and the sexual adventures of his brothers with groupies further affected Jackson's early life. The entertainer said his first real girlfriend was the child actress Tatum O'Neal,[1] when he was a teenager in the 1970s; he called her "my first love – after Diana Ross."[2] The pair eventually "cooled off" and Jackson entered into a romance with model Brooke Shields in 1981. Although the relationship was platonic, Shields said there were times he had asked her to marry him, but as he grew older he started to change physically and became more asexual towards her.[3]
Having first been introduced to Lisa Marie Presley by her father's backup singer, Myrna Smith, in 1974, Jackson reconnected with Lisa Marie in November 1992.[4] Shortly after becoming involved with her, in 1993, Jackson was subjected to his first set of child sexual abuse accusations, followed by similar allegations in 2005. Presley supported Jackson as he became dependent on pain medication, and eventually helped convince him to enter drug rehabilitation. In a telephone call, he proposed marriage to Presley. She agreed, and the two wed on May 26, 1994, at a private ceremony in the Dominican Republic. Married life for the couple was difficult, and the union ended in divorce in August 1996. Presley and Jackson continued to date, on and off, for four more years after their divorce.
Throughout his marriage with Presley, Jackson maintained a friendship with Debbie Rowe. She was the assistant of the pop singer's dermatologist and had been treating his appearance-changing disease vitiligo since the mid-1980s, and while he was separated from but still married to Presley. Rowe suffered a miscarriage and lost their baby in March 1996. Following the ordeal and the finalization of his first divorce, Jackson wed the pregnant Rowe on November 15, 1996, in Sydney, Australia. From the marriage, two of Jackson's three children were produced: son Michael Joseph "Prince" Jackson, Jr. (born February 13, 1997) and daughter Paris-Michael Katherine Jackson (born April 3, 1998). Jackson and Rowe divorced in April 2000, with Rowe giving full custody rights of the children to Jackson. His third and final child, son Prince Michael Jackson II, was born to an unnamed surrogate mother on February 21, 2002.
In July 2009, it was revealed Jackson's will named Diana Ross as the next-in-line guardian for his children, after his mother, Katherine.[5] In September 2009, Rabbi and author Shmuley Boteach released a book titled The Michael Jackson tapes, based on taped conversations he had with Jackson in 2001.[6] It included Jackson's thoughts on personal relationships in general and specific ones. His romantic feelings for two famous friends were widely cited in the media; when asked if he got jealous when his long-time friend Elizabeth Taylor dated other men, he replied, "Yes and no. I know that if we ever did anything romantically, the press would be so mean and nasty and call us the Odd Couple. It would turn into a circus and that's the pain of it all."[7][8] It is speculated that Jackson might have dated nine women throughout his career, apart from Lisa Marie Presley and Debbie Rowe, including former model Tatiana Thumbtzen and the actress Elizabeth Taylor, per various media outlets.[9]
In 1993, Jackson was accused of sexually abusing the child of a family friend. The lawsuit was settled out of civil court; Jackson was not indicted due to lack of evidence. In 2005, he was tried and acquitted of further child sexual abuse allegations and several other charges. The FBI found no evidence of criminal conduct on Jackson's behalf in either case.
First relationships[edit]
Tatum O'Neal[edit]
One of Jackson's first documented relationships was with the child actress Tatum O'Neal in the 1970s. Their friendship was established by the time O'Neal was 12 and Jackson was 17, and featured in gossip columns for several years after.[15][16] Jackson reflected in 1982 that he and O'Neal had been engaged in a serious relationship, but because both were busy, it had "cooled off" to the point of their remaining just friends.[16]
In the documentary Living with Michael Jackson (2003), Jackson alleged that near the beginning of their relationship, the 12-year-old actress tried to seduce the then 17-year-old singer. According to Jackson, the incident happened at her home, where she attempted to unbutton his shirt and talked explicitly about sex. O'Neal's behavior apparently proved too much for Jackson, who became scared and covered his face, before she walked away. When confronted with the allegation, O'Neal claimed to have been "just as shocked as everyone else". She stated that while having respect for Jackson as an artist and a person, he had "a very vivid imagination". The actress described his statements as "inaccurate"; "at 12 years old, there was no way she was capable of being as mature or as sophisticated as he claimed".[17][18] O'Neal released her autobiography A Paper Life in 2004, a year after the Jackson documentary. In the book, she claimed it was Jackson who attempted to make out with her. The actress wrote, "I was just 12 and not at all ready for a real-life encounter[...] Michael, who was sweating profusely, seemed as intimidated as I was. He jumped up nervously and said, 'Uh ... gotta go.'"[19]
But this contradicted O'Neal's own account of the relationship, published in 1995 in Vibe magazine, where she remembered Jackson as "being so shy" and "one of the nicest, most innocent people I've ever met", and, "Once he came into my bedroom, and he wouldn't even sit on my bed."[15] She described the relationship as "a really wonderful friendship" where they would dance and "talk on the phone all the time."[15] She recalled that he found it funny that she could drive at 12 and he could not. And that one time they had a "jam session" at her house, where he played the drums and her brother played guitar. She said the relationship ended when she was 12, after he asked her to go with him to the premiere of The Wiz, in which he acted, but her agent disapproved, she did what she was told because she was a child.[15]
Jackson also spoke about O'Neal in 2001 with Rabbi Shmuley. He described holding hands with her: "I was, like, in heaven. It was the most magical thing. It was better than kissing her, it was better than anything."[6] He recalled one of the times they held hands:
Debbie Rowe[edit]
Background and friendship[edit]
Debbie Rowe met Jackson in the mid-1980s, while working as an assistant for his dermatologist Dr. Arnold Klein. Rowe treated Jackson's vitiligo, which he had been diagnosed with in 1986 and which would affect his physical appearance for the remainder of his life.[56][57] Rowe supported Jackson, providing answers to the questions he asked about his medical condition. The pair became good friends; the pop star frequently sent autographed merchandise to the woman, who hung it on the walls of her office. According to her friend Tanya Boyd, Rowe would obsess over Jackson. She would say to her friend, "If people knew him like I knew him, they would not think he was strange. He's unique, kinky, actually."[57]
The Jackson–Rowe friendship would last for several years, during which time Rowe married and divorced Richard Edelman, a man she claimed to have felt trapped by. Rowe and Jackson would both talk to each other about their unhappy marriages; his with Presley and hers with Edelman, a teacher at Hollywood High School. Like Jackson's first wife, Rowe supported the entertainer when he was accused of child sexual abuse. Jackson kept his friendship with Rowe a secret from his wife, who eventually found out but thought nothing of it; she felt Rowe was not her husband's type because she was not glamorous enough.[57]
First pregnancy and miscarriage[edit]
As Presley had refused to carry Jackson's children, Rowe offered to give birth to a child for the pop singer. Shortly after Presley and Jackson's separation, Rowe became pregnant but suffered a miscarriage in March 1996. The event devastated Rowe, who feared she would never be able to have a baby. Jackson comforted and consoled Rowe throughout the ordeal, which remained hidden from the media and public.[47][49]
Second pregnancy and reaction[edit]
Jackson embarked on the first leg of his HIStory World Tour in September 1996. One month into the tour, and several months after his divorce from Presley, it was revealed that Rowe was pregnant with his child. One tabloid newspaper, the News of the World, told the story under the headline "I'm Having Michael's Baby". Rowe felt that the News of the World article was purposely salacious and called the editorial staff "bastards." Biographer J. Randy Taraborrelli later noted that the article, which had been put together from a secret recording between Rowe and a friend, had been fairly accurate. It detailed that Jackson was the father of the baby, and that he would be raising the child alone. It also stated that Jackson impregnated Rowe artificially with his own sperm cells. Further reports alleged that the relationship was an "economic" one.[49][58]
In a statement, Jackson condemned the accusations of being in an economic relationship and using artificial insemination as "completely false and irresponsible". Despite the denials, it was noted that Rowe had received millions of dollars from Jackson as "gifts" over the years. Among court papers filed against Jackson in 2002 by business manager Myung Ho Lee, a monthly budget for Jackson was detailed and included a $1.5 million payment to Rowe, along with a $1.3 million home in 1997; he and Rowe never lived together.[58]
Michael's mother, Katherine, urged her son to wed the mother of his unborn child. Katherine did not want her son to be like his father, who had a child with another woman while married to Michael's mother. Katherine spoke on the telephone with Rowe about the sanctity of marriage and about the Jehovah's Witness faith. She later spoke to Jackson, telling him to marry "that nice girl, Debbie" and "give your child a name, not like your poor, half-sister, Joh'Vonnie."[59] Before Katherine's involvement, Jackson intended to keep the identity of Rowe a secret in an arrangement common with surrogacy contracts. After speaking with his mother, Jackson asked Rowe to meet him in Australia, where he was staying, and they wed the day after her arrival.[59]
Wedding[edit]
Jackson and Rowe wed on November 15, 1996, at the Sheraton on the Park Hotel in Sydney, Australia. The night before the wedding, Jackson had called Presley, who gave him and Rowe her blessing. In front of 15 friends, the pair exchanged vows at the hotel. Jackson's 8-year-old nephew, Anthony, served as the best man during the ceremony.[59][60]
Media and public reaction to the marriage was largely negative. Some commentators believed Jackson was marrying a person he did not love, and it was speculated that Rowe was having a baby who may not have been biologically Jackson's. The Daily Mirror, a British tabloid newspaper, published a photograph of Rowe holding her head in her hands on the balcony of an Australian hotel with the caption "Oh, God! I've Just Married Michael Jackson."[60] However, one Jackson biographer stated that Rowe's dismay in the photo was most probably due to the excessive presence of paparazzi below.[60]
Birth of Michael Joseph Jackson, Jr.[edit]
Jackson and Rowe's first child together, Michael Joseph Jackson, Jr. (also known as "Prince"), was born on February 13, 1997, at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles.[61][62] The baby was nicknamed after Michael's grandfather and great-grandfather, who were both called Prince.[60][63] He was subsequently taken by his father to Neverland Ranch. Rowe recuperated at a friend's house, upon her release from the hospital.[60]
Six weeks after the birth, Rowe saw her son for the first time since his birth. She had met with Jackson to pose for photographs with their newborn son at a hotel. Upon arriving, Rowe was ushered into the hotel room, where she was given the infant to hold and told to smile for the camera with Michael, then sent away. Rowe did not want to become attached to Prince, as she felt it would make her situation harder to deal with.[60] At Neverland, Prince was cared for by a team of six nannies and six nurses during his first few months. According to one nanny who worked at the Ranch, Prince's mother was not a significant presence in the child's early life. "I saw her maybe three times and she seemed very sullen."[64]
Third pregnancy and birth of Paris-Michael Katherine Jackson[edit]
Rowe announced that she was pregnant with Jackson's second child in November 1997.[65] The baby was to be a girl and named Paris, after the French city in which her parents said she was conceived. On April 3, 1998, Paris-Michael Katherine Jackson was born. Paris' middle names come from her father and paternal grandmother.[65][66] Jackson later claimed that he was so anxious following the birth of his daughter, that he "snatched" her and ran straight home "with all the placenta and everything all over her". Rowe later confirmed that Jackson had the placenta frozen.[67] Following the birth, Jackson's associates contacted Pope John Paul II at the Vatican in Rome, in the hope that the pontiff would personally baptize the pop star's daughter. An official for the Pope informed Jackson by letter that the leader of the Catholic Church would not participate in what may be perceived as a publicity stunt.[65]
Divorce[edit]
Feeling uncomfortable with their arrangement, Rowe asked Jackson for a divorce, which was granted in April 2000. Rowe received around $10 million in a settlement, which started with an immediate payment of $1.5 million.[65] With the divorce, Rowe gave Jackson full custody rights to Michael Jr. and Paris.[68] They concluded that despite coming to the end of married life, they would continue to remain friends.[69]
In the television documentary, The Michael Jackson Interview: The Footage You Were Never Meant to See, Rowe attempted to explain her relationship with Jackson and their two children:[70]
Allegations regarding sexuality[edit]
Allegations of being gay[edit]
Despite his relationships with women, Jackson's sexuality was the subject of speculation and controversy for decades. The pop singer faced allegations of being gay since he was a teenager, as well as later being labelled asexual.[74][75] One 1970s newspaper story alleged that the then 19-year-old singer was to have a sex change operation and marry the songwriter Clifton Davis. Jackson found out about the story from a crying fan. The musician reassured the girl that the tale was untrue and condemned it as a "stupid rumor".[74][76] The story circulated for many months, during which time Jackson became upset; he was raised in a family where homosexuality was considered sinful. Jackson would continue to deny being gay throughout his life. In a 1979 interview, the pop star stated that he was not gay and that he would not "have a nervous breakdown because people think I like having sex with men".[74] He added that if he let the rumor affect him, it would make him cheap and make it sound as if he was prejudiced against gay people. He expressed that many of his fans may be gay, and that he did not mind that, opining "That's their lives and this is mine."[74]