In the new documentary titled TMZ Investigates: Who Really Killed Michael Jackson, Debbie Rowe, 63, partly blames herself for the King of Pop’s death in 2009.
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She details how she once worked for famed Hollywood dermatologist Dr Arnold Klein, who gave the pop king Demerol – an addictive and powerful opioid.
The ex-wife tearfully told reporters that she wishes she “could have done more” to stop Jackson’s painkiller addiction.
She said, “I should have tried harder. A lot of people die from addictions and I feel like I contributed to it in some way by not doing more for patients like him.”
According to The Sun, members of Michael Jackson’s family are “confused” by Debbie Rowe’s assertion that she stood by as a doctor illegitimately handed the singer dangerous painkillers. Katherine, 92, and Randy, 66, Michael’s elderly mother and brother are particularly distressed by her remarks.
“Debbie’s decision to talk about what she knew regarding Dr. Klein baffles some of the older Jackson relatives,” a Sun source claims. “Debbie hasn’t been this open with several of the brothers, so her appearance on television is perplexing.”
How did Debbie Rowe and Michael Jackson meet?
The two met when Jackson was seeking treatment for vitiligo at a dermatology office in Beverly Hills, California, where Rowe worked at.
In 2003, Rowe talked about their meeting to ABC News. “‘I go ‘Hi.’ And he goes ‘Hi,’ and I said, ‘You know what? Nobody does what you do better, and nobody does what I do better. Let’s get this over with.’ And he laughed, and we just became friends,” she told the outlet of their first encounter.
Jackson was married to Lisa Marie Presley when he met Rowe. Reportedly, Presley wasn’t concerned about the relationship because she didn’t think Rowe was glamorous enough for Jackson.
They divorced only 19 months after they were married in 1996, and then Jackson turned to Rowe.
“I was trying to comfort him because he was devastated. He was furious because he wanted to be a father.” “I told him, ‘So be a dad,’ and he looked at me perplexed. That’s when I looked at him and said, ‘Let me handle this.’ I want to do it,” she added. “You’ve been so wonderful to me; you’re such a wonderful friend; please allow me to attempt this.”
Within weeks of his divorce from Presley, Jackson married Rowe in a small ceremony at the Sheraton on the Park Hotel in Sydney, Australia.
Rowe said that she knew Jackson wanted to be a father figure and she wanted to give him that opportunity.
“I believe there are people who should be parents, and he’s one of them,” she told the outlet. “And he is such a fabulous man and such a good friend. He’s always been there for me.”
Who are their children?
Rowe was pregnant with Michael Jr, their first child, when she and Jackson married, explaining that it was important to ensure that their son wasn’t born out of wedlock. “The kids were going to have enough trouble as it is; they didn’t need the added stigma of having been labeled as such because of their father’s constant stream of judgments,” said Rowe to ABC News.
On July 25, 1997, Rowe gave birth to her second daughter, Paris Michael Katherine Jackson. On April 3, 1998, Paris was born as the couple’s second child. The pair divorced in 1999, and Rowe released custody and full parental rights of their two children.
Rowe told the court that she had little interaction with Jr. or Paris and wanted to keep it that way, saying “You earn the title parent. I have done absolutely nothing to earn that title.”
The lawyers asked Rowe if she thought about what would happen to her children should something happen to Michael.
In the divorce, Rowe was awarded $ 10 million, while Jackson took complete custody of their children. In 2006, however, she requested to resume contact with her youngsters and regain visiting rights. They reached an agreement and Rowe began seeing her kids once again, and when Michael died in 2009, his son Michael Jr. and Paris went to live with his mother, who then regained custody. A new deal was agreed upon after which Rowe was given visitation rights while her children lived with their grandmother.