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Michael Jackson, “The King of Pop”, was married twice during his life
He was married to Lisa Marie Presley for two years and to Debbie Rowe for three years
Michael welcomed two children with Debbie Rowe
Michael Jackson was one of the biggest stars in the world and is remembered as a pop legend. With 13 Grammys to his name and an award in his honor (the Michael Jackson Video Vanguard Award given at the MTV Video Music Awards), he truly embodies his nickname as “The King of Pop”. Unfortunately, his personal life was far less successful.
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Michael was married twice in his life; once to the late Lisa Marie Presley and once to Debbie Rowe. Both marriages lasted three years or less. Read on to learn about both of Michael Jackson’s marriages.
Michael Jackson And Lisa Marie Presley
Michael Jackson and Lisa Marie Presley were married from 1994 to 1996 (Photo: Jim Ruymen/UPI/Shutterstock)
Talk about music royalty. Michael Jackson and the one daughter of Elvis Presley, Lisa Marie Presley, walked down the aisle in a private ceremony on May 26, 1994 in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. The couple was very public about their relationship and was photographed jet-setting around Europe following their special day. They made headlines in Sept. 1994 after they locked lips at the 1994 MTV Video Music Awards.
“I’m very happy to be here. Just to think, nobody thought this would last,” he smiled before planting a passionate kiss on his wife at the event. “He knew I didn’t love that,” Lisa recalled in a candid interview with Oprah Winfrey following Michael’s tragic death in 2009. “I would be there, uncomfortably. And his hand was blue after we got off that stage. … I had squeezed it so hard.”
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There were rumors surrounding their relationship almost as soon as they were married. When asked by journalist Diane Sawyer if they had a sex life, Lisa Marie responded enthusiastically, seemingly denying the rumors. “Do we have sex? Yes! Yes! Yes!” she replied, per The Washington Post.
However, by Sept. 1995, they were through. “Michael Jackson and Lisa Marie Presley have mutually agreed to go their separate ways. However, they remain good friends,” the “Thriller” hitmaker’s publicist, Lee Solters, told The Washington Post in Jan. 1996. Their divorce was finalized in Aug. 1996. In her sit-down with Oprah, Lisa confessed that she left the marriage because she saw “drugs and the doctors coming in,” which “scared” her.
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During her Oprah sit-down, Lisa spoke about the highs and lows of her complicated and short marriage to the pop sensation. “I loved taking care of him,” she remembered. “It was one of the highest points in my life when things were going really well, and he and I were united. It was a very profound time of my life.”
She also addressed the rumors that her marriage was staged. At times, she thought it actually may have been. Describing her concern, she noted that Michael was always “creating and puppeteering” for the media, but she later learned that was simply what he did to make it in the industry. “I always confused that manipulation thinking that it meant he didn’t love me,” she admitted. “But I understand it better now. The manipulation was a survival tactic for him.”
Lisa and Michael never had kids, but it’s something he wanted with her. Sadly, it became a sour point in their relationship. “I did want to [have kids], but I just wanted to make sure. I was looking into the future and thinking, ‘I don’t ever want to get into a custody battle with him,” she recalled.
According to Lisa, Michael already had his eyes on his second wife, Debbie Rowe, during their marriage and even threatened her saying he would impregnate her. “She was there the whole time telling him that she would [have his child],” she claimed. “He would tell me, ‘Debbie said she’ll do it.’ That’s how he knew to handle it, ‘If you’re not going to do it, this person will.’”
Michael Jackson And Debbie Rowe
Michael Jackson and Debbie Rowe were married between 1996 and 1999 (Photo: Balkis Press/ABACA/Shutterstock)
Just months after Michael and Lisa’s divorce, in Oct.1996, the news of Debbie Rowe and Michael’s pregnancy was announced. They married in Australia on Nov. 13, before welcoming their son, Michael Joseph Jackson Jr., also known as Prince, on Feb. 13, 1997 in Los Angeles. They went on to welcome a daughter, Paris, on April 3, 1998. Sadly, they split in 1999, and the “Beat It” singer was awarded custody of their children.
In a 2003 interview obtained by ABC News, Debbie admitted that she decided to have Michael’s kids on a whim. “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,’” she recalled. “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.’”
“We were very excited. Michael was definitely more excited than I was,” she added. Once she went into labor, Michael stayed by her side the entire time. “He was so excited when we had a contraction, and he was there,” she gushed. “He was there the whole time. Held my hand, stroked my head.”
She went on to paint Michael as a father who did it all: He got up in the middle of the night to console a crying infant, changed diapers, and completed all the difficult parenting work. That’s why Debbie said she relinquished parental rights following their divorce. “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,” she stated during their custody hearing. She filed to reverse that decision in 2004.
As of 2021, Paris, 24, and Debbie have a relationship. It is unclear if Prince, 25, is close with Debbie. Michael, of course, had a third child, a son named Bigi Jackson (born Prince Michael Jackson). He was born via surrogate in 2002.
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