Following the first wave of Michael Jackson mania, pundits are now speculating whether his two older children will be returned to the custody of their Jewish mother, Debbie Rowe, which, by extension, makes son Prince Michael I, 12, and daughter Paris Michael Katherine, 11, also Jewish.
After his divorce from Lisa Marie Presley, Jackson married Rowe, his former nurse specializing in dermatological problems, in 1996, when she was six months pregnant.
They divorced in 1999 and Rowe gave up her custody rights, but according to the LA Times, legal experts believe that as the children’s biological mother, she can probably reclaim the two.
The mother of Jackson’s third child, Prince Michael II, has been kept a secret.
As Adam Wills reported in The Journal in January 2004, Rowe was upset that the children were being exposed to the influence of the Nation of Islam through their nanny and Jackson’s siblings.
Wills also quoted Rabbi Shmuley Boteach as saying, “I was shocked to hear that [Rowe] was Jewish, but since Prince and Paris are Jewish, I think they should be raised Jewish.”
