Relationship with Michael Jackson
Rowe met Michael Jackson while working as an assistant in Arnold Klein's dermatology office, where Jackson was being treated for vitiligo. [7] [6] She recalled that after Jackson's divorce from Lisa Marie Presley in 1996, he was upset that he might never become a father. Rowe, a longtime Jackson fan, proposed to bear his children. [8] In an interview with Playboy , Lisa Marie stated that at the time that she and Jackson were married, he knew that Rowe wanted to have his children and that Rowe had "a crush on him". [9]
Children and marriage
Rowe had suffered a miscarriage in 1996 which devastated her. Jackson consoled her throughout the ordeal, and it was announced Rowe was pregnant again in 1996; the two were married on November 15, 1996, in Sydney, Australia. [10]
Rowe had a son, Michael Joseph Jackson Jr. [1] (born February 13, 1997, at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles), [11] who was subsequently nicknamed Prince. [12] The next year, she gave birth to daughter Paris Jackson [1] on April 3, 1998, at Spaulding Pain Medical Clinic in Beverly Hills in Los Angeles. [13] Jackson took full responsibility for raising the children. [8] [14]
Divorce
Rowe, who described herself as a private person and almost never gave interviews, was overwhelmed by the publicity that came with being married to Jackson. [8] The couple divorced in April 2000, and Rowe gave full custody rights of the children to Jackson. [15] Rowe received a US$8 million settlement and a house in Beverly Hills, California. [16] Court documents indicated she had signed a prenuptial agreement and therefore could not obtain an equal division of community property under California law. [17]
In 2001, Rowe went to a private judge to have her parental rights for the two children terminated. [16] In 2004, after Jackson was charged with 10 counts of child abuse, she went to court to have the decision reversed. [18] According to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Rowe, who was a convert to Judaism, sought the reversal in part because she feared the nanny and some of Jackson's siblings were exposing the children to teachings of the Nation of Islam. [19] Court documents from 2005 noted that "[b]ecause she is Jewish, Deborah feared the children might be mistreated if Michael continued the association." [20] On the stand, in the 2005 People v. Jackson case, she explained that she had been granted limited visits to her children, for eight hours every 45 days. [21]
In 2005, Rowe sold her Beverly Hills house for $1.3 million and bought a ranch in Palmdale. [22] In 2006, she sued Jackson for one immediate payment of $195,000 and one payment of $50,000 to pursue a child custody case. [18] Jackson was ordered to pay her $60,000 in legal fees. [23]
