As the funeral took shape, legal battlelines were drawn over the King of Pop’s legacy and the fate of his offspring, with ex-wife Debbie Rowe declaring she planned to seek custody of the star’s two eldest children.
A court hearing is scheduled next Monday to determine who will administer Jackson’s estate, and another hearing is set for July 13 to discuss the guardianship of the singer’s three children.
Rowe, who has remained largely silent since Jackson died from an apparent cardiac arrest on June 25, told NBC television in Los Angeles that she would seek custody of Prince Michael, 12, and Paris, 11.
Rowe, who was married to Jackson between 1996 and 1999, was omitted from a 2002 will filed in the Los Angeles Superior Court on Wednesday in which Jackson named his 79-year-old mother Katherine Jackson as guardian.
Jackson’s mother was on Monday appointed temporary guardian of the two children and their seven-year-old sibling, Prince Michael II or “Blanket,†who was born to an unidentified surrogate mother.
Rowe filed a petition in 2001 to give up her parental rights but later reversed her decision and secured visitation rights.
Rowe’s lawyer Eric George later told reporters in a conference call Thursday no final decision had been made.
