Gruppe: Administrator Rang: ghost
Beiträge: 973 Mitglied seit: 01.09.2005 IP-Adresse: gespeichert
| No kid gloves for Jacko's ex
BY MICHELLE CARUSO DAILY NEWS WEST COAST BUREAU CHIEF
LOS ANGELES - Michael Jackson's ex-wife, Debbie Rowe, went to bat for the pop star at his child molestation trial, but he played hardball with her in their recent child visitation deal, the Daily News has learned.
The top-secret agreement allows Rowe, whose gushing testimony last April helped save Jackson's neck, only sporadic visits with Prince Michael 1st, 8, and Paris, 7, and she can't even tell the tykes she's their mom, sources said.
"Debbie is not supposed to tell the kids she is their mother. That topic is off-limits. But it will be revisited when they are older," said a source familiar with the temporary, court-supervised plan.
The ex-dermatologist's aide, who divorced Jackson in 1999, was secretly reunited with her kids - after almost five years without contact - in August in an L.A. hotel room.
"They handled it fine, but were a bit bewildered," one source said.
The children's hard-nosed nanny, Grace Rwaramba, took the kids to the sitdown while Jackson remained in Bahrain in the Middle East, holed up in the royal palace.
"Grace runs the show. She's the one Debbie will have to deal with," said another source close to the Jackson family.
Jackson still has full custody of the kids and can take them out of the country at will, the source familiar with the visitation plan said. The children are currently home in California at Neverland Ranch, but they vacationed with Jackson in Bahrain last summer and were by his side in London earlier this month.
Rowe, 46, got a scare recently when Jackson's defense lawyer Tom Mesereau said the pop icon had "permanently" left the U.S. and should be crossed off the jury-duty list in Santa Barbara County.
But her fears eased a bit late last week when reports surfaced that Jackson, 47, was back in California recording a hurricane benefit CD in L.A.
"Debbie is really having a problem with this setup. She's afraid Michael could take the kids somewhere and she'd have no hope of visitation," said the family source.
When Rowe's tearful, pro-Jackson testimony body-slammed prosecutors in the kiddie sex case, some observers suggested the King of Pop would reward her with generous visitation of the kids she legally gave up to him in October 2001.
A judge later ruled Rowe's surrender of parental rights was invalid due to "procedural" errors and she got a second chance at the bargaining table.
But after months of legal wrangling, Rowe didn't even score a regular schedule of visits with the cute kids she wept for on the witness stand. Instead, she's at the mercy of Jackson and the no-nonsense nanny to arrange visits when she asks for them.
"There is no specific number of times that she can see them. It's by request, on a case-by-case basis," said the source familiar with the visitation order.
Rowe is not the mother of Jackson's third child, 4-year-old Prince Michael 2nd (nicknamed Blanket), whom the singer once dangled from a Berlin balcony.
Although Jackson smiled and batted his eyes at Rowe in court, he has no interest in rekindling a friendship - much less a romantic relationship, a third source close to the situation said. "A phone call to say 'thanks' would have been nice. It didn't happen. He [Jackson] truly does not want her in his life."
New York Daily News
|