LOS ANGELES – Michael Jackson’s three children have been given a new guardian in an escalating power struggle within the famous musical family involving the singer’s multimillion-dollar estate and the wellbeing of his elderly mother.
Judge Mitchell Beckloff of the Los Angeles superior court gave temporary guardianship of the children to their cousin, Tito Jackson jnr (34), at his request, after a chaotic week of conflicting reports over the health and whereabouts of family matriarch Katherine Jackson.
Hours after Wednesday’s court hearing, Ms Jackson gave her first television interview since the often wild and conflicting reports surfaced, denying she had been kidnapped by her adult children and saying she was devastated that Prince Michael (15), Paris (14) and Blanket (10) “have been taken away from me”.
Ms Jackson (82), who was appointed guardian of the children in her son Michael’s will, was reported missing and unreachable by granddaughter Paris last week.
She was later said by family members to be resting under doctor’s order at the Arizona home of one of her daughters.
“There are rumours going around about me that I have been kidnapped,” she told ABC News in the interview. “I am here today to let everybody know that I am good and fine . . . My children would never do anything to me like that.”
Ms Jackson said the court ruling that gave temporary guardianship to her grandson Tito was “based on a bunch of lies”.
“I am devastated that while I’ve been away, my grandchildren have been taken away from me, and I’m coming home,” she said.
The family dispute broke into the open earlier this week in an angry confrontation, seen on security video, between Paris and her aunt, singer Janet Jackson, at the family’s large compound near Los Angeles.
Janet Jackson and four of her siblings are embroiled in a dispute over the validity of the will left by their brother Michael after his sudden death in 2009. The will placed his estate in the hands of two non-family executors.
At Wednesday’s court hearing, attorneys for both Tito Jackson jnr and Katherine Jackson raised questions over whether her absence from her Los Angeles home was voluntary.
Tito jnr, the son of Michael Jackson’s older brother Tito, told Judge Beckloff that he spoke on Tuesday to his grandmother but that she was talking strangely and seemed to be speaking in code.
Jackson’s will stipulated that money earned by the estate would benefit his mother and his children. However, Randy, Janet and three other siblings say the pop star’s signature was forged and that he was not in California on the date it was signed.
The executors of the estate said earlier this week they were concerned about protecting the children from “undue influences, bullying and greed”. Since Jackson’s death, the executors have approved numerous projects including a posthumous concert rehearsal film and releases of new and old Jackson music and videos.
Music publication Billboard estimated in 2010 that the Jackson estate generated about $1 billion in the first year following his death.
According to financial documents filed recently, the estate has earned $475 million in gross profits since Jackson’s death, and much of the estimated $500 million debt has been paid off. – (Reuters)