controversial celebrity News

Joe Jackson

Joe Jackson has always been a controversial and outspoken figure, qualities he put to good use while guiding his children’s careers over the course of forty years. In the weeks since his son Michael’s death it has become clear that the bond – or some might say hold – he had with the King of Pop had faded long before the singer died on June 25^th. Michael Jackson’s legal will was dated in 2002, and even seven years ago the singer chose not to include a provision in it that might benefit his father, leaving his entire estate in trust for his mother and his three children. According to lawyers the only other beneficiaries were a few as yet unnamed charities.

So statements Joe Jackson made to a TV One reporter Smokey Fontaine that Omer Bhatti, the 25 year old Norwegian rapper who was seated with the Jackson family at Michael’s memorial service, is indeed the singer’s biological son may be eyed with more than a little suspicion. In the interview Jackson Sr told the young reporter that the family had always known that Omer was Michael’s child and that his was welcomed into their clan.

In an interview on CNN for his part Smokey Fontaine said he believed that Joe Jackson was telling him the truth. He told anchor Campbell Brown that the question about Bhatti came at the end of a two interview during which Joe had been very frank and open on a number of issues that Fontaine had expected he might avoid. He went on to say that the man he met with was a grieving father, not a man looking for a controversial sound bite, and that he found all of his responses to uncomfortable questions to be perfectly genuine.

Omer Bhatti is known to have spent many years with Michael Jackson, both at his Neverland Ranch and on various trips around the world. There are photographs of him with the singer, dressed in identical clothing and some pictures he certainly does seem to bear a striking resemblance to him. He has also been seen since the memorial at the Jackson family compound playing with Michael’s acknowledged children, Prince Michael Jr, Paris and Prince II (or Blanket as his Uncle Tito referred to him on television.)In the past Bhatti has denied any blood connection to Michael Jackson, but reporters now say that his publicist has stopped returning calls since the Joe Jackson interview.

Whether or not he is Michael Jackson’s son may eventually become a matter for the courts to decide, but in the TV One interview Joe Jackson seemed pretty convinced saying that “the kid looks like a Jackson, he can dance like a Jackson. The kid is a fantastic dancer- matter of fact he teaches dance”.

Nobody doubts that Omer Bhatti shared a connection with Michael Jackson, but whether or not that connection was actually biological is just another unanswered question in the mystery that was the King of Pop.