**UPDATE** (7:36am PST): New of the World reports, “Mother of Michael Jackson’s children Debbie Rowe confesses he was not their father.”
Saturday night, Brian Oxman, former attorney to Michael Jackson told me that News of the World will report on Sunday that Debbie Rowe made claims just before Michael Jackson’s passing that he was not the father of her children and that she has made similar claims in the past.
Oxman explained that if Rowe has in fact made these claims that she is in violation of a confidentiality clause in an agreement that she signed which stated she would never talk about this issue.
“The contract says she would hold the birth of the children, the lineage, their parenting and how they were taken care of in confidence and not be disclosed in public to anyone,” said Oxman. “That agreement survives the death of Jackson. In other words, she’s still bound to keep all of these things confidential even though he’s passed away.”
Oxman, who handled the custody dispute between Jackson and Rowe said that Rowe has made conflicting statements about the lineage of her children.
“At one point she would say that Michael was the father, the next time she would say he was not the father. The number of contradictory statements coming from her was incomprehensible. I’d say Debbie, tell me straight is he the father and she’d say, yes he’s the father, and the next time she was upset she’d be yelling and screaming, he’s not the father!”
Oxman said Jackson’s story was always consistent, but to his knowledge DNA tests have never been done on the children.
“Michael always said he was the father,” Oxman said. “He never wavered at all on this issue.”
Jeffrey Scott Shapiro is a Washington, D.C. based investigative reporter and lawyer. He can be reached at jshapiro@ufl.edu.