News
Debbie Rowe Drops Custody Fight
By: nypost.comPosted On: 07/14/2009 10:55 A
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Michael Jackson's baby mama Debbie Rowe has sold her kids again -- this time squeezing about $4 million from her former mother-in-law in exchange for giving up her parental rights, a family source told The Post yesterday.
"It's one final payday," the disgusted Jackson confidant said.
The family isn't happy about the mega-payout -- which was set to be sealed in Los Angeles yesterday afternoon -- but they consider it a necessary evil, the source said.
"They felt it was like a ransom-type thing. [Rowe] jumped back into the picture because she wanted money," the friend said.
Rowe -- a former dental assistant who bore a boy and girl for Jacko -- had forfeited her parental rights once before in exchange for big bucks.
After the birth of son Prince Michael, now 12, and daughter Paris, 11, she agreed to allow Jackson to raise them in exchange for a lump sum of $8 million, plus $900,000 annually for five years, the source said.
When Jacko was accused of child molestation in 2001, Rowe resurfaced to reclaim her rights. But she wound up giving her ex-husband full custody of the kids anyway -- in exchange for another $4 million plus a $900,000 home.
This time around, she is forfeiting her restored parental rights to Jackson's mom, Katherine, in exchange for yet another roughly $4 million, the family source said.
"This would be it. This takes away any rights she has to challenge custody at any given time," the source said.
"If something happens to Katherine, [Rowe] can't challenge the next [guardian], whether that be Diana Ross or someone in the family."
Neither lawyers for Rowe nor Katherine Jackson returned phone calls or e-mails.
While it had been thought that Rowe was demanding that Jacko's abusive father, Joe, have nothing to do with the kids, the source said there is no such language in the agreement.
Still, the family will keep him in check, the source said.
Joe Jackson is reportedly pushing his dead son's children -- also including Prince Michael II, a k a "Blanket," born to an unidentified surrogate using donor sperm -- to form a new group, The Jackson 3.
But "that's something the family would absolutely not tolerate," the source said.
The King of Pop's siblings are themselves involved in a venture that has become much more lucrative since his death.
Jacko's five remaining brothers were filming an A&E pilot for what they hoped would be a reality series about them launching a reunion tour.
While the five initially agreed to be paid a total of between $200,000 and $300,000 for the pilot, they now want to add footage of Michael's funeral into the mix -- and boost their take to "between $10 million and $20 million," the family source said.
Jacko's body -- still undergoing testing as part of a police probe -- was abruptly moved from its temporary resting place in a crypt at the famed Forest Lawn Cemetery in the Hollywood Hills last week.
It now rests in a refrigerated unit in the basement of the cemetery's main building for security reasons, according to the site RadarOnline.com.
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