‘Paris wants to be an entertainer. Prince Michael, the oldest, is assertive. I see such sadness there. He cried at the hospital but hasn’t cried since. He has become the little man of the family. Blanket is the baby. He is very funny, a real prankster like his father.’
Although the memorial was watched by millions on TV, the most poignant farewell came last Monday night at Forest Lawn Cemetery, where the family had an open coffin viewing.
She says Paris bought a cheap ‘mood’ necklace – a metal heart which changes colour when it touches the skin. ‘The heart is in two pieces. Paris told me, “I want one half to go to Daddy and I will wear the other half for ever.”
‘She carefully wrapped it around his wrist. She said; “Daddy this is for you.” Then she placed it on him and said, “On Daddy, it will be blue because he is cold. On me, it’s purple.”‘She got some coloured stones and she decorated his body. She said, “He’s so cold, he is so cold.” His lips were slightly swollen from the autopsy. She asked, “Who did that to Daddy?” I told her it was because he had passed.
‘I put one of his sequined gloves in there. And a pair of his favourite sunglasses.’
Michael Bush, Michael’s long-time costumier, made an elaborate cream jacket decorated with pearls and beads. He was dressed in black trousers with a large gold belt with two cherubs on either side of the buckle. Karen Faye, his make-up artist, applied cosmetics to his face.
La Toya says: ‘I am so proud of Paris for speaking at the memorial service. When Stevie Wonder was performing she whispered to me, “Auntie La Toya, I want to go up there and say something about Daddy.”
I couldn’t just walk her up on stage but at the end, when we were singing We Are The World, she said, “I’m too shy now” but then changed her mind and said those words about loving her Daddy that everyone saw.
‘The boys didn’t want to come to the viewing, but Paris was insistent. She wears Michael T-shirts every day and the walls of her room are covered with posters and pictures of her daddy. She still writes him letters every day, sweet lovely letters about how much she loves him.
‘Her letters are brilliant. When you read them you cry. She loves the light on stage. She is always singing Daddy’s songs and she is special. She has it – the X factor.’La Toya says she was shocked by the emergence of a 2002 will stating Diana Ross should be a back-up to Jackson matriarch Katherine as the children’s guardian.
She says: ‘Michael always told us that he wanted his eldest sister Rebbie Jackson to look after the children. Rebbie had a nice family, which Michael loved. He told many family members that she was his choice. We believe there is another will which will emerge. He updated his wills almost every five years, so we expect one to come out from 2007.
As the question of the children’s future remains unresolved, Debbie Rowe, the birth mother of the two eldest, is expected to begin her fight for custody of the children in the Los Angeles courts next week.
La Toya dismisses her: ‘These are not Debbie’s kids. They don’t even know she’s their mother. Like everyone else in his life, she was motivated by money. She has always said she’s not their mother.
‘My understanding is that she will now go after the kids. I know a few things about Debbie and I will prevent that from happening.
‘Debbie has only seen the children a handful of times. Michael never introduced her as their mother.’
She confirmed that Blanket, the youngest, was created from a donor egg and donated sperm: ‘Michael didn’t want to know who the biological parents were.
‘They took eggs from a donor and I believe the sperm came from one of five donors picked from a book. Michael didn’t know who the mother and father were. I don’t know who carried the child and if the surrogate knew whose child she was carrying.
‘Those children were his greatest joy. He was a superstar but the only people who loved him unconditionally were the children.’
Beyonce attended the Show Your Helping Hand Campaign Press Conference at the United Center on Friday, July 17th in Chicago, Illinois. The superstar played a gig later on that night for her ‘I Am’ tour.
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