Jacko ex: Don't bank on the kids being his

Daily News/January 24, 2004

London -- Michael Jackson may be the King of Pop, but he's not the biological pop of his two older children, his ex-wife says. Debbie Rowe, who is seeking temporary exclusive custody of Prince Michael Jr., 6, and Paris, 5, says she gave birth to the children after being artificially inseminated with anonymous donor sperm, according to legal papers quoted in The News of the World, a British tabloid.

Her lawyer and Jackson's spokesman could not be reached for comment last night.

When Jackson was interviewed for a British TV documentary, the singer insisted that the two children - who have white skin and light complexions - are biologically his.

In her legal papers, Rowe says she does not know the identity of the sperm donors, since a sperm bank was used. Before each insemination, she says, she agreed to refrain from sex for six months to avoid "any possibility of semen being introduced into my body other than by wayof surgical artificial insemination."

Dr. Hal Danzer, a Beverly Hills specialist, performed - in May 1996 - the insemination that produced Prince Michael Jr. and inseminated Rowe again in 1997, Rowe said. Paris was born in April 1998, and the couple got divorced the following year.

Rowe reveals she entered into a surrogacy agreement with Jackson in 1996, nine months before their marriage ceremony. She also agreed to "knowingly and voluntarily waive my right to contest Michael's paternity," the newspaper said.

Rowe says that in return for bearing the children, she got a payoff of more than $3 million, along with a home, car, clothes, furs and jewels. Jackson later had his third child, Prince Michael 2nd, with a second surrogate mother.

She had the right to see them once every 45 days, but later gave up the visits.

She also says "Michael's involvement with a cult, Nation of Islam, is horrifying to me." Rowe, who converted to Judaism in 1982 before marrying her first husband, says "our children are Jewish" and in her view Nation of Islam members "do not like Jews."

The brewing custody fight is just the latest legal battle to land on Jackson's plate. He is due back in a California court Feb. 13 to face charges that he molested a 13-year-old cancer patient who stayed at his Neverland Ranch.

Jackson has denied the allegations.