In 1996, the world was left stunned when King of Pop Michael Jackson announced he was marrying dermatology assistant Debbie Rowe.
The unlikely pairing kept the media captivated as they revealed the bombshell news that Debbie was carrying Michael's first child.
But although they were married, news outlets later discovered that the pair had concocted an arrangement for Debbie to carry his children but nothing more.
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Following their divorce in 1999, mother of two Debbie has kept a fairly low profile but recently headlines again after making shocking revelations regarding Michael's death.
Daily Star has taken a look inside her life and what happened following Michael's tragic passing.
Blossoming relationship
Debbie first met Grammy award winner Michael while working as an assistant in Arnold Klein's dermatology office, where the singer was being treated for vitiligo.
Talking about their first encounter in a 2003 interview with ABC News, Debbi said: "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. It was just right away."
At the time Michael met Debbie, he was still married to Lisa Marie Presley but Lisa admitted that she wasn't worried about Michael's relationship with Debbie as she didn't believe she was glamorous enough for him.
After Michael's divorce from Lisa Marie in 1996, the singer seemed distraught that he may not become a father.
Rowe, a long-time Jackson fan, proposed to bear his children.
In the ABC interview, Debbie recalled: "I was trying to console him, because he was really upset. He was upset because he really wanted to be a dad. I said, 'So be a dad.' He looked at me puzzled.
"That is when I looked at him and said. 'Let me do this. I want to do this. You have been so good to me. You are such a great friend. Please let me do this. You need to be a dad, and I want you to be.
Marriage
In November 1996, only weeks after his divorce from Presley, Dirty Diana singer Michael married Lisa in a ceremony at the Sheraton on the Park Hotel in Sydney, Australia.
By this time, Lisa had already suffered a miscarriage which Michael consoled her through but became pregnant for the popstar again in 1996.
In 2003, Debbie told ABC News that she didn't want her children to be born out of wedlock.
She explained: "The kids were going to have it hard enough as it was, and they didn't need to have that label upon them like their father has had so many placed upon him, they shouldn't."
Children
In February 1997 Debbie and Micheal welcomed their son Michael Joseph Jackson Jr. They subsequently nicknamed Michael Jr, Prince.
The following year she gave birth to a daughter, Paris Jackson who was born April 3, 1998, at Spaulding Pain Medical Clinic in Beverly Hills in Los Angeles.
Debbie always insisted that she didn't want to have the children for herself and she gave birth to Prince and Paris solely for the pop sensation as she believed he would make a brilliant father.
Years later Debbie stated that she had been artificially inseminated and never had sex with Michael to conceive their two children.
Divorce
Debbie previously described herself as a private person and found being married to Michael overwhelming.
The couple divorced in April 2000, and Debbie gave full custody rights of the children to Jackson.
While in court, Debbie stated that she hadn't had much communication with Michael Jr or Paris and didn't want to be a part of their lives.
During her testimony, she said: "I did it for him to become a father, not for me to become a mother. You earn the title parent. I have done absolutely nothing to earn that title."
Hearing her confession, the lawyers asked Debbie if she had "ever considered the possibility if Michael should die, what would happen to the children?"
She replied: "I'm sure he has a wonderful person in mind to take care of them."
Following their settlement, Debbie received $8 million and a house in Beverly Hills, California.
Despite her initial reservations, in 2006 the mother of two applied to resume contact with her children and obtain visitation rights.
Michael and Debbie reached an agreement and Debbie started visiting with her children again.
When Michael passed away in 2009, Michael Jr and Paris went to live with his mom who then obtained custody but Debbie was granted visitation rights to see her children.
Cancer battle
In 2016, Debbie was sadly diagnosed with breast cancer.
But after receiving the medication, Debbie reached the end of her chemotherapy treatment the following year.
Daughter Paris helped Debbie throughout her cancer diagnosis and took to Instagram to share the goof news with her fans,
Debbie also spoke fondly of how Paris helped her throughout her turbulent time.
She told Entertainment Tonight: "She’s been with me the whole time. She was there. First phone call, [it] took her 30 seconds [to reach out] when she found out."
Self blame
In 2022, Debbie hit headlines again when she claimed that she believes she was partly to blame for Michael's death.
In a FOX documentary titled TMZ Investigates: Who Really Killed Michael Jackson, Debbie shed light on what happened to the singer on the night he passed away.
On June 25 2009, Michael died at the age of 50 from a drug-induced cardiac arrest which took place at his Los Angeles home.
Speaking in an interview for the documentary, Debbie said: "I should have done something and I didn't. There is a number of people that died from addictions and in some way I was part of it."
Net worth
Debbie's net worth is said to be $25 Million (£20,580,475).
According to Celebrity Net Worth, some of her wealth was accumulated from her $8 million settlement she received in October 1999 when she agreed that Michael Jackson would have full custody of the three children.
In addition to this, she also has owns real estate property.
According to Virtual Globetrotting, Debbie's Beverly Hills home, is 1,139 square feet and has four bathrooms and three bedrooms.
Debbie later decided to put the house on the market and it sold in November 2004. She received $1.5 million for the sell of the house, which also contributed to her high net worth.
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