This morning I read that Michael Jackson’s children will continue to be homeschooled by the same tutors they had under Michael’s care instead of attending the prestigious Buckley School that other younger members of the Jackson family in Encino, CA attended. The Jackson family reportedly wants to maintain as much normalcy in the children’s lives given that they are already adjusting to the transition of losing a parent as well as changing homes and legal guardianship. With the untimely death of Michael Jackson, the public received almost play-by-play coverage about the Jackson children and the status of who would serve as their new parental guardians. Though we currently see that the family and courts have come a long way to determine the new legal guardians of little Michael Jr., Paris, and Prince, let’s reflect upon what brought us to this moment.
The death of music icon, Michael Jackson, shed light upon what it means to be a parent. Upon his death, we saw the legal strings that connected Michael Jackson to being his children’s father, which, we learned, did not necessarily include him biologically being related to them. However, since Michael’s name is on the children’s birth certificates, there’s no legal doubt that he was their guardian. Almost immediately following the King of Pop’s death, the media spun into a whirlwind trying to figure out the mother(s) of the children, whether or not they wanted to come back into the children’s lives, and if the Jackson family would need to pay them to keep quiet and/or maintain their custody of Michael Jackson’s children.
Michael Jackson’s ex-wife gave birth to two out of the three Jackson children, Prince Michael and Paris. And, although we learned more about her at the time of Jackson’s death, Rowe’s general relationship with the children has been distant. CNN reported that after Rowe gave up her parental rights to Jackson in 2001, she changed her mind, sought temporary custody of the children, and a California appeals court ruled her rights were improperly terminated, which opened the possibility of a custody battle.
When accounting for who would take care of the Jackson children moving forward, the courts legally turned to the will of Michael Jackson (as he was the children’s caretaker). Michael Jackson listed his mother, Katherine Jackson, and longtime friend, Diana Ross, as next in line to parent the children in the event of his death. It appears that Michael Jackson chose two women who he loved dearly and who he saw as the ultimate mother figures in his life. Of course, there was talk about whether or not the women would be able to care for the children given their older age.
However, on July 30, the court ruled in favor of Michael’s request and rewarded custody of his children to his mother, Katherine Jackson. Debbie Rowe agreed to not challenge the singer’s mother for custody of the children though she was granted visitation rights. Also according to the article, “the agreement does not involve any financial payments to Rowe ‘apart from the continuation of spousal support payments’ that Michael Jackson personally agreed to make to Rowe after their divorce.”
The goal in parental custody hearings is for the parties to come to an agreement about home and care for the children, with their best interest at heart. Katherine Jackson, as the new legal guardian of the Jackson children, will hopefully prove to be the best decision for the children.
However, do you think there could have been a better option for the Jackson children? In the event that Katherine Jackson is not able to care for the children, who then would be next in line?
Posted by Adrienne on September 9, 2009 at 2:08 pm.
