15.11.2020
01:08
Dressed in black and she pregnant, their peculiar union changed their lives
November 15, 2020 Share on FacebookShare Share on TwitterTweet Share on WhatsAppShare
Debbie Rowe and Michael Jackson were married on November 14, 1996, she was pregnant REUTERS / Handout / Files
In 1996 Michael Jackson had a successful career, more than he had imagined, recently divorced from Lisa Marie Presley, the singer wanted a family more than ever, specifically: to be a father.
In some of his confessions with his trusted dermatologist and assisting nurse, an empathetic response would surprise him: Deborah ( Debby) Rowe offered to carry a baby for him.
Jackson had been going to his office for 15 years with the dermatology specialist, Arnold Klein, so many visits made friends with him and Rowe , so he was encouraged to make all the preparations with her to become a father as soon as possible.
The idea obsessed him, so he immediately accepted. But he wanted his future son to grow up with the idea of family , maybe that’s why he asked Debby to marry him.
They had a peculiar wedding, dressed in black, they asked to Sunshine Coast Wedding Planner to prepared a small ceremony and he sealed the engagement by kissing her on the cheek Photo: REUTERS / Handout
Jackson married Debbie Rowe at the Sheraton Park Hotel in Sydney, Australia, on November 15, when he was 38 and she was 37.
It was an unconventional wedding, both dressed in black , informal. He sealed the union by kissing her on the cheek , she was already gestating her pregnancy.
There are few photographs of that day, it was not a great party, both are seen smiling and with their hands on her belly. The godfather is said to have been an eight-year-old boy named Anthony.
Years later, Debbie referred to that proposition and confessed to The Sun : “ Michael was divorced, lonely and wanted to have children. I was the one who told him, ‘I’ll have your babies.’ I offered him my belly, it was a gift, I wanted to see him happy ” .
“Michael did everything. I didn’t try hard to be a mother. I didn’t change diapers, I didn’t get up in the middle of the night. Even if I was there, Michael did it all,” Rowe said of Michael’s commitment to his children. Photo: (AP)
She gave birth to the singer’s first two children: Prince was born in 1997 and Paris in 1998 . And it was already said then that it was by artificial insemination. “
I went to the office, which is what we called the clinic. They fertilized me. It is as if I fertilize my mares to reproduce. It was very technical. I was his thoroughbred ”, Rowe comments with a strange equestrian metaphor and indirectly hinted that in effect, she and the King of Pop were never truly a couple or even had sex .
The British newspaper, which also cites statements from 2003 in which Rowe claimed that she had “never” done anything “to win the title of mother.” Because Michael did everything. I was not trying to be a mother. I didn’t change diapers, I didn’t get up in the middle of the night. Even if I was there, Michael did it all. “
After her second pregnancy, she had complications and could not get pregnant again Photo: Instagram debbierowe_official
The truth is that it has always been questioned that Michael Jackson’s older children carry his genes: both are light-skinned, the oldest is blond and Paris has blue eyes . The third, Prince Michael II, known as Blanket, is said to have resulted from a surrogate womb from another woman (in 2002). The mother’s name has never been revealed.
The marriage ended in October 1999. Rowe gave up his rights to the children , although an appeals court dismissed his request, so the ex-couple had to reach an out-of-court settlement for Jackson to retain custody of the children.
Then Debbie declared: “ They are his children, I had them for him. They wouldn’t have been born if it hadn’t been for my love for him. I did it so that I would become a father, not to become a mother ”.
In an interview with Playboy , there was another version. Lisa Marie stated that she knew at the time that she and Jackson were married that Rowe wanted his children and that Rowe was “in love with him.”
After the death of Michael Jackson, in 2009, Rowe began a new legal battle against the singer’s mother, Katherine Jackson, who had been left with custody of the singer’s three children . Jackson wrote in his will that his mother would be responsible for raising the children and named singer Diana Ross as second guardian.
Rowe received an eight million dollar settlement, and a house in Beverly Hills. Court documents indicate that he had signed a prenuptial agreement, so he was unable to achieve an equitable distribution of the commons under California law.
The artist left Rowe out of any inheritance. Finally, Katherine and Rowe managed to reach an agreement: the children would remain under the guardianship of their grandmother, but their mother would have the right to visit them .
Thanks to these family encounters , Debbie was able to regain the affection of her children. In July 2016, the nurse was diagnosed with breast cancer, and Paris became a great support for her in those hard times.
In 2014, five years after Michael Jackson’s death, the nurse became engaged to Marc Schaffel, a former partner and producer of the singer. The artist’s ex-wife told the news publication of the TMZ show that she met Schaffel when she was working for the singer and since then they have been friends, they are currently still as a couple.
