First wife
Lisa Marie Presley
Married May 26, 1994 · divorced 1996
The daughter of Elvis Presley, she wed Michael in a private ceremony in the Dominican Republic. The union drew intense media scrutiny; the couple had no children together.
The Dynasty
The Family
Ten children in a two-bedroom house in Gary, Indiana — and out of it, one of the most famous families in entertainment history. The drive that made the Jackson 5 came at a cost Michael spent his life describing.
The Patriarch
Joseph “Joe” Jackson
July 26, 1928 – June 27, 2018
A Depression-era son of the Jim Crow South, Joe worked as an overhead crane operator in the steel industry and had played guitar in a local R&B band, The Falcons. When he caught his sons playing his instruments, he turned a hobby into a profession — drilling the brothers through relentless rehearsals and the talent-show circuit until Motown came calling.
Michael alleged — to Oprah Winfrey in 1993 and Martin Bashir in 2003 — that his father physically and emotionally abused the children during those years, describing Joe sitting “with a belt in his hand” at rehearsals and saying he grew so frightened he would sometimes feel sick at the sight of him. Joe acknowledged whipping his children with switches and a belt but rejected the word “beat,” and several of the brothers said the strictness simply kept the group disciplined. Michael said he ultimately forgave his father.
“I never beat him. I whipped him with a switch and a belt. You beat someone with a stick.”
Joe Jackson — to Louis Theroux, 2003
The Matriarch
Katherine Jackson
born May 4, 1930
Katherine was the family's emotional anchor and a counterweight to Joe's severity. Baptized a Jehovah's Witness in 1963, she raised all ten children in the faith — and it shaped Michael profoundly. Even at the height of his fame he went door-to-door witnessing, sometimes in disguise, and he remained in the faith until disassociating in 1987 amid tension over the occult imagery of the “Thriller” video.
Michael was exceptionally close to his mother throughout his life. After his death in 2009, she became the legal guardian of his three children.
Brothers & sisters
Nine who survived infancy — and a tenth who did not
Joe and Katherine had ten children. Michael was the eighth.
1st
Rebbie
2nd
Jackie
3rd
Tito
4th
Jermaine
5th
La Toya
6th
Marlon
—
Brandon
8th
Michael
9th
Randy
10th
Janet
For the record — La Toya
In her 1991 autobiography, La Toya alleged that their father had abused the children; then at a 1993 press conference she accused Michael of child sexual abuse. She later retracted the accusations against Michael, saying she had been coerced and threatened by her then-husband and manager, Jack Gordon, and she reconciled with the family in the late 1990s. Both the allegations and the retraction are part of the record.
The real family
The Jacksons, in pictures
Genuine, openly-licensed photographs — the family at the height of their fame, and Michael's own children.
Two marriages
Lisa Marie & Debbie
Second wife
Debbie Rowe
Married Nov 13, 1996 · divorced 1999
A dermatology nurse Michael met during treatment for vitiligo, and the mother of his two eldest children. She relinquished custody in the divorce and later reconciled with daughter Paris.
Three children
Prince, Paris & Bigi
Eldest
Prince
b. Feb 13, 1997
Michael Joseph “Prince” Jackson Jr. Mother: Debbie Rowe.
Daughter
Paris
b. Apr 3, 1998
Paris-Michael Katherine Jackson — her middle name honoring her grandmother. Now a singer, model and actress. Mother: Debbie Rowe.
Youngest
Bigi
b. Feb 21, 2002
Prince Michael Jackson II, nicknamed “Blanket,” born via surrogate. Around 2015 he asked to be called “Bigi.”
The Berlin balcony, November 19, 2002
Outside Berlin's Hotel Adlon, Michael briefly held nine-month-old Blanket over a fourth-floor balcony railing to show him to fans below. The footage drew global criticism; two days later Michael apologized, calling it a “terrible mistake” and saying he had “got caught up in the excitement of the moment.”
After June 2009
Who raised the children
All three children were minors when Michael died. In keeping with his will, his mother Katherine Jackson was confirmed as their permanent guardian in August 2009. After a 2012 family episode briefly disrupted the arrangement, the court established a co-guardianship with Michael's nephew TJ Jackson (Tito's son) alongside Katherine.