Long before Michael Jackson became a father, people around him said he talked openly about wanting a very large family. Former Neverland employee Adrian McManus recently recalled Michael once telling her, “I want 13 kids.” It was an unusually ambitious dream, even for someone whose own childhood had been spent surrounded by eight siblings in the Jackson family home.
Michael himself gave slightly different numbers at different times. In recorded conversations with Rabbi Shmuley Boteach, he said his dream was to have nine or ten children. The exact number may have changed, but one thing remained consistent: Michael desperately wanted to become a father and imagined himself surrounded by a large family.
Michael Jackson and Lisa Marie Presley Discuss Having Children
That dream became an important part of Michael’s marriage to Lisa Marie Presley. During their famous 1995 interview with Diane Sawyer, the couple publicly confirmed they wanted children, although they refused to say when. Michael described it as something ultimately “in the hands of the heavens.” Contemporary reporting confirmed that starting a family was something they were openly discussing.
There was reportedly another possibility too. McManus claimed Michael and Lisa Marie discussed adopting a child from Bucharest, Romania, although those plans never materialized. Michael’s longtime friend Frank Cascio later independently wrote that Michael had wanted to adopt a Romanian child with Lisa but that she was uncomfortable with the idea. Michael had visited Romanian children’s institutions during his 1992 Dangerous Tour and spoke emotionally about what he had witnessed there.
Michael and Lisa Marie never had children together and divorced in 1996. Later that year, Michael married Debbie Rowe. Their son Prince was born in February 1997 followed by daughter Paris in April 1998. Michael later welcomed his third child, Bigi, in 2002 through a surrogate.
Prince Jackson Talks About His Bond With Paris and Bigi
The second video gives the story a fitting ending because it shows what became of the family Michael eventually created. Prince has spoken warmly about the close relationship between himself, Paris and Bigi, saying that family was something their father raised them to value and rely upon.
Michael Jackson may never have reached the nine, ten or even 13 children he sometimes imagined. But fatherhood eventually became a major part of his private life. Away from Thriller, “Billie Jean,” stadium concerts and the King of Pop image, Michael finally had something he had been talking about for years: children of his own.
Watch Michael and Lisa Marie discuss their plans for a family in 1995, then hear Prince explain the bond Michael’s three children still share today.