Part 37 (1/2)

At about this time, she was already furious with him because of a cover story in TV Guide TV Guide during which he was quoted as saying that she told him Elvis once had a nose job. 'He was quoting me, ”Presley told me Elvis had a nose job,” which is absolute bulls.h.i.+t,' she now recalls. 'I read that and I threw it across the kitchen. ”I told you during which he was quoted as saying that she told him Elvis once had a nose job. 'He was quoting me, ”Presley told me Elvis had a nose job,” which is absolute bulls.h.i.+t,' she now recalls. 'I read that and I threw it across the kitchen. ”I told you what? what?”'

'It was getting nasty,' she recalled, ten years later. 'I was ready to kill him, I swear to G.o.d.'

In December 1995, Michael finally returned to Neverland. Priscilla Presley decided to pay him a surprise visit to find out what was going on with her son-in-law. 'When she arrived, she saw Michael in the living room playing with about a dozen babies, all crawling about, some laughing, some crying,' recalled Monica Pastelle. 'It was like a big nursery, with a grown man in the middle of it all, seeming in a state of bliss. Though nothing wrong was going on, she was flabbergasted. It was so unsettling, Priscilla left, immediately.'

Lisa was speechless when her mother confronted her about what she'd seen.

A week later, Michael went to New York to begin rehearsals for a concert at the Beacon Theater, 'Michael Jackson One Night Only', which was scheduled to be broadcast on cable television to 250 million viewers on 9 December. On 6 December, he collapsed during a practice session and was hospitalized at New York's Beth Israel North Hospital. His doctors said he was suffering from heart arrhythmia, or irregular heartbeat prompted by severe dehydration, gastroenteritis and a chemical imbalance affecting his liver and kidneys. He also had a viral infection. Yet earlier in the day, he seemed fine. Marcel Marceau, who was going to make an appearance on the HBO programme during Michael's performance of 'Childhood', had been at the rehearsal when Michael collapsed. 'He was so full of energy, in absolutely wonderful condition,' said the mime, who turned away for a moment during Michael's practice session of 'Black and White' under the hot and blinding lights.

'I heard silence,' said the mime, 'and everything stopped. I looked and he was on the floor.'

By the time medics appeared on the site, Michael's heartbeat was irregular and his blood pressure low. He had on so much makeup, they had to check his pallor by the color of his chest when they lifted his s.h.i.+rt.

As soon as he was checked into the hospital, Michael's press people telephoned Lisa in Los Angeles and, with frantic explanations, begged her to fly to her husband's side. 'h.e.l.l, no,' was her response. 'Screw him. I'm not going. Why should I?'

She wasn't going to get out of it that easily, however. Michael's collapse had made big news: 'Jacko on his Backo' screamed the front page of the New York Post New York Post. The hospital even set up a telephone number with daily, automatic message updates on his condition. The media had a.s.sembled in front of the hospital, waiting for his wife to arrive to be with him. His 'people' then badgered her 'people' about Michael's image and how it would 'look' if his wife wasn't at his side. After all, even Diana Ross had shown up. Finally and surprisingly, to her friends, anyway Lisa gave in. Arriving at the hospital the next day, wearing a black pea coat and sungla.s.ses, she was whisked through a side entrance.

It's possible that Michael really did want Lisa to be with him. However, when she got there he must have been sorry she'd agreed to the public relations manoeuvre. She showed up with fire in her eyes. When she walked into the room, the first thing that hit Lisa were all the framed posters of s.h.i.+rley Temple as a child-star, Mickey Mouse and Topo Gigio, the strange, little puppet-mouse popular from the old Ed Sullivan Show Ed Sullivan Show in the 1950s and 1960s. When Lisa looked down at Michael, he appeared to be on his death bed; it seemed as if he had tubes coming out of every limb. He reminded her, she would later say, of the pathetic creature from in the 1950s and 1960s. When Lisa looked down at Michael, he appeared to be on his death bed; it seemed as if he had tubes coming out of every limb. He reminded her, she would later say, of the pathetic creature from E. T E. T. at the end of the movie when the alien has taken a turn for the worst. As she stood there, 'E.T.' gazed up at her weakly and, mustering all his strength, managed to say, 'Hi, Lisa. How are you?'

Lisa wasn't moved. She didn't care much about Michael's health, not at that moment, anyway. She suspected that he wasn't suffering from 'exhaustion' or 'dehydration'. He had long ago confided in her about his panic attacks. According to those who know her well, she figured that he'd suffered another and, based on his destabilized condition, that it had been quite a jolt to his system. Surely, though, it wasn't because of the upcoming concert, she speculated. He'd made many such appearances, why would this particular one cause such a reaction? The broadcast had actually now been postponed indefinitely, costing both Michael and HBO a fortune. (It would never happen.) Whatever was going on with him was serious. Now that Michael was a captive audience, she wanted to confront him. So where had he been? Why was he so anxious? Most importantly, where did she stand with him?

Michael usually tries to avoid confrontation. So, for his irate wife to barge into his safe, hospital haven was upsetting. His heart must have been thundering in his chest.

Making matters more tense was the fact that the Cascio brothers had just left the room five minutes earlier. Had Lisa seen them? It was difficult to tell; her face was that impa.s.sive. But it's likely she wouldn't even have recognized them now. Still, it was a close call.

Lisa closed the door behind her. She and Michael then engaged in a private and, judging from the shouting going on in the room hers, not his heated conversation. 'I'm like a lion, I roar,' she would say in 2003. 'I won't be a victim. I don't sulk, I get angry. I go immediately into retaliation.

'I couldn't figure out what was wrong with him,' she recalled. 'I started asking questions, and it was always a different story. He said I was causing trouble and stirring up problems. He told me, ”You're making my heart rate go up,” and asked me to leave. I said, ”Good. I want out. This is insane, all of it.”'

When the door to Michael's room opened, Lisa burst out as if shot from a cannon, past everyone in the hall and straight to the elevator. 'Mrs Jackson,' exclaimed one of the doctors. 'My goodness! Your husband cannot be upset like this. He's much too fragile. If you're going to do this, you'll not be able to visit him.'

Lisa gave him a sharp look.

Michael's mother, who had been pacing in the hallway, regarded her daughter-in-law intensely. She could not fathom that Lisa would fly all the way from Los Angeles to New York just to fight with her son. Janet, who had also rushed to be at her brother's side, had just gone to the ladies' room. As Lisa stood waiting for the elevator, Katherine walked up to her and exploded in stunned disbelief. 'What is wrong wrong with you, Lisa,' she hissed. 'You are so with you, Lisa,' she hissed. 'You are so spoiled spoiled. I can't believe that you would do this to Michael.' At that moment, the elevator opened and Lisa got into it. She turned, faced Katherine and gave her a critical look. Luckily for Katherine, the elevator's doors then slammed closed between them.

Lisa wanted to see Michael the next day. 'Absolutely not,' Michael's handlers told her. There had been a meeting with Jackson family members and it was decided that Lisa was an antagonizing presence in Michael's life, and that he should now be protected from her, at all costs. Furious, Lisa went back to Los Angeles.

Perhaps a clue to Michael's behaviour his distancing himself from Lisa and his subsequent, apparent panic attack can be found in a.n.a.lysing a chain of events from late 1995. It would be many years later that Debbie Rowe would reveal that she became pregnant that December. Michael had certainly given Lisa fair warning that Debbie would have his baby if she wouldn't do it. 'Tell her to go ahead and do it,' Lisa had said. If she was being sarcastic, perhaps Michael didn't catch the mockery.

Did Lisa know about the pregnancy? 'I don't think Debbie even knew yet,' observed Monica Pastelle. 'I think by the time Michael was on his back in the hospital, she was only a couple of weeks' pregnant. As for Lisa, if she had known, do you think Michael would have been still drawing breath when she left that hospital room?'

It certainly appears either that Michael was a fast worker when he realized his marriage was in trouble or that he had a master plan to father a child, once and for all, which did not involve his wife. Some have said that Michael and Debbie were intimate. Others have said Debbie is 'not his type' and insist that they underwent the process of artificial insemination shortly before Michael ended up in the hospital. Since no one who knows them well enough to be privy to such information wants to discuss it, Debbie's pregnancy remains one of Michael's most sensitive secrets. 'I can only tell you that I did not discuss it with him,' said one of his advisers. 'I did not want any more information about any of it.'

When Michael was released from the hospital after a week, he went off to Euro-Disney in France to recuperate. He must have had at least a half-dozen children with him, judging from photographs taken on his vacation.

On 18 January 1996, I appeared on CNN to announce that Lisa Marie Presley had filed for divorce from Michael Jackson. In her pet.i.tion, she noted the 'Date of Separation' as 10 December 1995, just after she saw Michael in the hospital. 'This person is one of the biggest entertainers out there,' Lisa told Newsweek Newsweek in 2003. 'He is not stupid. He's very charming when he wants to be, and when you go into his world you step into this whole other realm. I could tell you all about the craziness all these things that were odd, different, evil or not cool but it still took me two and a half years to get my head out of it.' in 2003. 'He is not stupid. He's very charming when he wants to be, and when you go into his world you step into this whole other realm. I could tell you all about the craziness all these things that were odd, different, evil or not cool but it still took me two and a half years to get my head out of it.'

In March 1996, Debbie Rowe suffered a miscarriage. 'I was just devastated,' she has said. 'I thought I would never be able to have a baby, and I really wanted to have his. Michael was there to console me the whole time.'

It's fascinating, in retrospect, that Debbie's pregnancy and subsequent miscarriage as well as her very existence in Michael's life had still escaped public scrutiny. It seems incredible that someone of Michael's celebrity status could be married to one woman and planning a baby with another... and no one in the media would catch on to any of it. How, one wonders, did he manage it? 'Carefully,' responded someone in Michael's camp, only half-kidding. 'Very carefully.' Or, perhaps not very well at all, it could be argued... if, in fact, he had a panic attack over it.

Michael's divorce from Lisa was finalized on 20 August 1996. As part of the settlement, Lisa received ten per cent of royalties from Jackson's HIStory HIStory alb.u.m. According to the agreement, she was allowed to write a tell-all book about her marriage, if she ever chose to do so; she did not sign a so-called 'confidentiality agreement'. At the time, though, Lisa just wanted to get on with her life and career. She said that she had great regard for Michael and refused to speak critically of him. She knew that he wasn't entirely venal... she just didn't know, at this point, what to think of him. So, she chose to preserve her dignity by keeping sacred their private life together. Seven years later, though, in the spring of 2003, Lisa began to discuss her frustration as Michael's wife during promotion of her long-antic.i.p.ated debut alb.u.m, alb.u.m. According to the agreement, she was allowed to write a tell-all book about her marriage, if she ever chose to do so; she did not sign a so-called 'confidentiality agreement'. At the time, though, Lisa just wanted to get on with her life and career. She said that she had great regard for Michael and refused to speak critically of him. She knew that he wasn't entirely venal... she just didn't know, at this point, what to think of him. So, she chose to preserve her dignity by keeping sacred their private life together. Seven years later, though, in the spring of 2003, Lisa began to discuss her frustration as Michael's wife during promotion of her long-antic.i.p.ated debut alb.u.m, To Whom It May Concern To Whom It May Concern, on Capitol Records.

Michael was deeply conflicted by the end of his marriage to Lisa, his heart flooded with despair. Never before had he connected with a woman, or maybe even another person, on the level that he had with her. She had been there when he most needed her, during the dark days of allegations and drug abuse. 'She's like a force of nature,' he said of her, 'always there for me. I don't know how I'll be without her.'

He also had a strong s.e.xual connection to her, and that had been a first for him. Previously, he hadn't been able to open himself up, feel uninhibited and truly, physically intimate with anyone. However, for some reason, he was able to let himself go with Lisa. Who knows why? It's easy to be sceptical of Michael's relations.h.i.+p with her, but doing so risks ignoring his obvious humanity. Despite the plastic surgeries and maddening friends.h.i.+ps with boys, and all of the rest of the eccentric behaviour that goes into making Michael Jackson such a strange individual, he is still a human being with emotions, feelings and a beating heart and, somehow, Lisa Marie Presley was the one to truly touch it, to truly affect him. 'I'm afraid it will never happen for me, again,' he said at the time. 'I'm scared to death that it's over for me, now.' Indeed, it was difficult for him to let it go.

Michael spent a couple of weeks lamenting what had occurred with Lisa. 'Lisa said that the part of him that is critical of himself the beaten child part of him really kicked in after the divorce was finalized,' said Monica Pastelle. 'He wanted to call and talk to his best friend, her. He didn't want to let go. She needed s.p.a.ce, though. She really needed time away from him. She felt that he had really screwed with her mind, and she got sick and her body started breaking down after the divorce. She poured her life into him. Now, she needed to reclaim it for herself. He had a hard time with that.'

In the end, Michael Jackson had no choice but to go on alone. He was a survivor, he told himself. He had music to work on, career commitments a huge, world tour coming up with a show that, as always, demanded his complete focus. Besides, he and Lisa had different goals in life. He wanted to raise children; she already had two, and had made it clear that she didn't want any more with him. Michael wasn't used to waiting for other people to catch up with him and with his goals. When Debbie Rowe said she would have his baby, he jumped at the opportunity. With glacial determination replacing his despondency, he was ready to push onward. That had always been his way; at the age of thirty-eight, he wasn't going to change.

Debbie is Pregnant.

In September 1996, Michael embarked on a new worldwide concert schedule, the HIStory HIStory tour, the first leg of which began in Prague, Czech Republic, and would not end until Honolulu, Hawaii, at Aloha Stadium in January 1997. The second leg would begin in Bremen, Germany, in May 1997 and end in Durban, South Africa, in October 1997. During the tour, Michael would perform eighty-two concerts in fifty-eight cities to over 4.5 million fans. It was a gruelling schedule. All told, the tour, the first leg of which began in Prague, Czech Republic, and would not end until Honolulu, Hawaii, at Aloha Stadium in January 1997. The second leg would begin in Bremen, Germany, in May 1997 and end in Durban, South Africa, in October 1997. During the tour, Michael would perform eighty-two concerts in fifty-eight cities to over 4.5 million fans. It was a gruelling schedule. All told, the HIStory HIStory tour visited five continents and thirty-five countries. tour visited five continents and thirty-five countries.

A month after the tour began, and just a few months after his divorce was finalized, Michael made headlines again with another bombsh.e.l.l revelation: a woman was carrying his baby. Debbie Rowe was five months' pregnant, which meant she and Michael had been working on a baby while he was still technically married to Lisa. Debbie later explained, 'I said, ”You deserve to be a father. Let me do this for you. Let me have your baby.” He was surprised, but he said, ”Yes. Let's do it.”'

Debbie's existence in Michael's life and her pregnancy was finally revealed when she was tricked into discussing it with a 'friend' who was surrept.i.tiously tape-recording the conversation. 'She just didn't know any better,' explained Tanya Boyd, one of the neighbours in the Van Nuys apartment complex where she lived at the time. 'She was an open-hearted girl who never dreamed that there were people out there tape-recording conversations for the tabloids.'

However, there it was, for all to see, on the front page of News of the World News of the World (3 November 1996). 'I'm Having Jacko's Baby,' blazed the headline, with individual photographs of Michael and Debbie. She was appalled. 'Oh, my G.o.d, no,' Debbie said to a friend who was with her when she saw a copy of the publication. 'Please, tell me it does (3 November 1996). 'I'm Having Jacko's Baby,' blazed the headline, with individual photographs of Michael and Debbie. She was appalled. 'Oh, my G.o.d, no,' Debbie said to a friend who was with her when she saw a copy of the publication. 'Please, tell me it does not not say that. It's my own fault. Look at this thing. say that. It's my own fault. Look at this thing. Look at it Look at it. They're treating us like freaks!' Debbie took the newspaper and flung it across the room, angrily. Then, she sank into a chair, buried her face in her hands, and burst into tears. 'Those b.a.s.t.a.r.ds,' she kept said. 'How can they do this to Michael? He doesn't deserve it. And he's going to be so mad at me.'

In truth, the article was fairly accurate, especially reading it retrospectively. In it, Debbie was quoted as saying that Michael was, indeed, the father of the baby, and that he'd be raising the child without her. She also said, according to what the News of the World News of the World reported as being on the tape-recording, that the two had engaged in s.e.xual activity, but that when she did not immediately become pregnant, they decided to try what she said Michael referred to as 'a foolproof way of doing it': artificial insemination. She said that the process occurred at the Los Angeles Fertility Inst.i.tute (on Brighton Way in Beverly Hills). The first time ended in miscarriage, she said. This time, she felt she would carry to full term. The article also said that Debbie would receive about $500,000 from Michael when she delivered the baby. reported as being on the tape-recording, that the two had engaged in s.e.xual activity, but that when she did not immediately become pregnant, they decided to try what she said Michael referred to as 'a foolproof way of doing it': artificial insemination. She said that the process occurred at the Los Angeles Fertility Inst.i.tute (on Brighton Way in Beverly Hills). The first time ended in miscarriage, she said. This time, she felt she would carry to full term. The article also said that Debbie would receive about $500,000 from Michael when she delivered the baby.

The revelation was almost as startling and maybe more so than the excitement that had resulted from Michael's surprise nuptials to Lisa Marie Presley. The questions from the media came fast and furiously: who was the expectant mother? What is she to Michael? Why is it that no one had ever heard of her before? It all seemed strange, almost like a publicity stunt.

Debbie's father, Gordon Rowe a retired cargo pilot who lived in Cyprus went on the record to say that the baby was conceived by artificial means at the Los Angeles Fertility Inst.i.tute.

'She broke the news to me in a telephone call,' he said. 'I only speak to her once in a while, and I knew something was up. She said straight off: ”I'm going to have Michael's child.” After I recovered from the shock, Debbie said, ”Come on, it's not so bad. We had the child by artificial insemination.” I said, ”Debbie, why artificial insemination? Isn't he capable of fathering a child like anyone else?” She laughed and said, ”Michael doesn't do anything anything like anyone else.” I said to her, ”Isn't this the same man who was charged with child abuse?” She said, ”He wasn't charged with anything, not at all.” Then, she told me, ”Dad you have no idea who the real Michael Jackson is. He is the most compa.s.sionate person I have ever met in my life. If you could only spend one day with him, you would love him like I do.”' like anyone else.” I said to her, ”Isn't this the same man who was charged with child abuse?” She said, ”He wasn't charged with anything, not at all.” Then, she told me, ”Dad you have no idea who the real Michael Jackson is. He is the most compa.s.sionate person I have ever met in my life. If you could only spend one day with him, you would love him like I do.”'

Gordon had rarely seen Debbie since he and her mom, Barbara, divorced more than twenty years before; he had not been directly involved in her upbringing since the early 1970s. 'She's always been a rebel,' he said of Debbie. 'Maybe if I'd been more of a father, things would have been different.' After his comments received worldwide publicity, he issued a general retraction of everything he had said, each and every word. It appeared that Gordon spoke too soon, and that Michael was unhappy about his comments. The pop star soon issued his own statement: 'The reports speculating that Ms Rowe was artificially inseminated, and that there is any economic relations.h.i.+p, are completely false and irresponsible.'

However, Steve Shmerier, a California computer executive who dated Debbie for six months before her first pregnancy with Michael, insists, 'Debbie told me she had agreed to try for a baby using artificial insemination as a favour to a friend. No names were mentioned. But with hindsight, you don't need to be a genius to figure out who she was talking about. She is simply not the maternal type, though. She's always said she had no interest in having children. The only reason she agreed to do this thing for Michael was the understanding that she would not become a traditional wife.'

Michael could insist that the baby was not the result of artificial insemination, and the public and press could either believe him or not. However, he went a step too far in also claiming that there was no 'economic relations.h.i.+p' with Debbie. Such a statement only weakened his credibility about the baby's conception. After all, who in his right mind would believe that he wasn't giving Debbie some some money? Even the surrogate mother who comes into the picture as a complete stranger is compensated for her services, let alone those who are close friends of fifteen years. Is it logical that Debbie Rowe would have a child for one of the wealthiest entertainers in show business and that he, in return, would not give her even a dime for her trouble? money? Even the surrogate mother who comes into the picture as a complete stranger is compensated for her services, let alone those who are close friends of fifteen years. Is it logical that Debbie Rowe would have a child for one of the wealthiest entertainers in show business and that he, in return, would not give her even a dime for her trouble?

In fact, according to reliable sources, Debbie has received millions of dollars from Michael over the years, not as payment for her services but as 'gifts' to her. When Michael's former business manager Myung Ho Lee sued him for fourteen million dollars in 2002, among the court papers filed was Michael's monthly monthly budget, which included 'payment to Debbie Rowe' for $1.5 million. Whether she's getting money from him every month, annually, or per child, she will never have to worry about finances again. Michael arranged for other financial annuities for her, as well as eventually buying her a $1.3 million home in the exclusive Franklin Canyon enclave of Beverly Hills, in the fall of 1997. He and Debbie would never live together. budget, which included 'payment to Debbie Rowe' for $1.5 million. Whether she's getting money from him every month, annually, or per child, she will never have to worry about finances again. Michael arranged for other financial annuities for her, as well as eventually buying her a $1.3 million home in the exclusive Franklin Canyon enclave of Beverly Hills, in the fall of 1997. He and Debbie would never live together.

'At the time that the story broke, Debbie was supposed to meet him in Australia,' said Tanya Boyd. 'She presumed that the trip would be off, that Michael would be so upset about what had happened that he would refuse to see her. She cried a lot that day.'

Debbie frantically attempted to locate Michael in Sydney to explain to him how she had been deceived by her 'friend'. However, before she could reach him, he was on the telephone, calling her. Contrary to what Debbie expected, as she recalled it, Michael could not have been more loving and understanding. She now says that it was during that telephone call that she realized that Michael was the man for her. 'Look, I can understand how this terrible thing happened,' Michael told Debbie. 'I've been tricked by the media before. Relax. It'll be okay, I promise.'

'Debbie so appreciated him,' said Tanya Boyd. 'Even though she had obviously created a huge jam, he didn't blame her for it. That went a long way toward making him a saint in her eyes. She was so relieved, she decided that she would be loyal to him, and once you have Debbie Rowe's loyalty, you have it for life unless you screw up, royally.'

'Focus, Debbie,' Michael told her. 'Keep your eye on the goal, which is that you and I have this baby. Of course, the press would find out about it, eventually. I expected it. They have made my life miserable for years.'