# How is it possible Michael Jackson had no will? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 30, 2009, 2:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-it-possible-michael-jackson-had-no-will/501430 "2009-06-30T02:03:22Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Swallowed\_My\_Cellphone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9d8465/32.png) [@Swallowed\_My\_Cellphone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Swallowed_My_Cellphone)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2009, 2:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-it-possible-michael-jackson-had-no-will/501430/21 "2009-06-30T14:33:45Z")
> [@caligulathegod](#): > > She signed away custodial rights but not parental rights. Apparently, according to California law a parent can reclaim a child regardless of any payoff that has been made. If it turns out to be a fact that Jackson had no literal claim to the children (he never adopted them and if he isn’t the biological father), then I don’t see how they can keep her from reclaiming the children. Classy lady that she is, she was already interviewed and basically said: “Ew! No, I don’t want them. I prefer my horses.” ---
**Author:** ![Huerta88](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/82dd89/32.png) [@Huerta88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Huerta88)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2009, 2:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-it-possible-michael-jackson-had-no-will/501430/22 "2009-06-30T14:51:28Z")
> [@Swallowed\_My\_Cellphone](#): > > Classy lady that she is, she was already interviewed and basically said: “Ew! No, I don’t want them. I prefer my horses.” (1) her lawyer denied that this interview was real. (2) if as it appears so far, she is not making a play for any money from the estate, she is certainly coming in a cut above many others who will crawl out from under rocks here. ---
**Author:** ![Markxxx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5daacb/32.png) [@Markxxx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Markxxx)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2009, 3:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-it-possible-michael-jackson-had-no-will/501430/23 "2009-06-30T15:06:00Z")
The thing about wills is again, they are contestable. Conrad Hilton is a a great example. He was always giving money to charities. Zsa Zsa Gabor even testified at her divorce trial from Conrad that he was constantly giving, what she termed “Guilty Money” to the nuns, at the expense of his family. After he died he left nominal amounts of money to family and the huge portion to set up a charity. His son Barron contested it and after 9 years of legal battles won and was able to renegotiate a settlement. It’s amazing how the Calfornia Court of Appeals basically rewrote the man’s will. Barron went from having what amounted to about $3,000,000 in cash and stock to close to $700,000,000 after it was all over. So I think Jackson’s will is going to be contested for sure. According to everything I read, MJ was basically supporting his whole family, except Janet. Which I haven’t found out if she was helping them as well. ---
**Author:** ![MeanOldLady](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/meanoldlady/32/10737_2.png) [@MeanOldLady](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MeanOldLady)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2009, 3:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-it-possible-michael-jackson-had-no-will/501430/24 "2009-06-30T15:09:10Z")
So the rumor is Joe Jackson is conspicuously missing from the will. What I need to know is: Is he going to give the Beatles catalogue to Paul McCartney, or what? ---
**Author:** ![SaharaTea](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9a140/32.png) [@SaharaTea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SaharaTea)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2009, 3:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-it-possible-michael-jackson-had-no-will/501430/25 "2009-06-30T15:13:52Z")
TMZ is reporting that Rowe was not a biological parent of the kids either. They were conceived in vitro with someone else’s eggs, and she was simply the surrogate. Just when you thought it couldn’t get weirder. ---
**Author:** ![Swallowed\_My\_Cellphone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9d8465/32.png) [@Swallowed\_My\_Cellphone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Swallowed_My_Cellphone)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2009, 3:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-it-possible-michael-jackson-had-no-will/501430/26 "2009-06-30T15:38:32Z")
> [@Huerta88](#): > > (1) her lawyer denied that this interview was real. Good to know it was fake. I can’t remember the source, but I do remember going :dubious: when I first read it, but then it was corroborated in a couple other sources, so I thought it had been substantiated. (Why do I always think the media will _check_ before reprinting crap?) ---
**Author:** ![Brandus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/898d66/32.png) [@Brandus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Brandus)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2009, 3:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-it-possible-michael-jackson-had-no-will/501430/27 "2009-06-30T15:50:20Z")
Another weird rumour is that Macaulay Culkin is the father of Paris. ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2009, 4:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-it-possible-michael-jackson-had-no-will/501430/28 "2009-06-30T16:12:14Z")
Reportedly, he left his kids a library of up to 200 unpublished songs which, all by itself, will guarantee them comfortable lives if they live to be five hundred. That was a very smart move, I think. It’s untouchable by creditors, and his death increased the value exponentially. I just hope somebody can protect the interests of those kids from all the parasitic family members. ---
**Author:** ![DiosaBellissima](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a8b319/32.png) [@DiosaBellissima](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DiosaBellissima)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2009, 4:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-it-possible-michael-jackson-had-no-will/501430/29 "2009-06-30T16:31:12Z")
How do we know he didn’t legally adopt the kids? Would that have been public record? I met someone once whose father was a Motown producer of a few big hits- two big J5 ones, actually. His royalties off of his father’s estate? $150k a year . . . for 100 years. So, if that guy could live comfortably off of his dad’s few credits, I’m certain MJ’s kids- regardless of his debt- will be set. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2009, 5:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-it-possible-michael-jackson-had-no-will/501430/30 "2009-06-30T17:19:31Z")
> [@Markxxx](#): > > The thing about wills is again, they are contestable. Conrad Hilton is a a great example. He was always giving money to charities. Zsa Zsa Gabor even testified at her divorce trial from Conrad that he was constantly giving, what she termed “Guilty Money” to the nuns, at the expense of his family. > > After he died he left nominal amounts of money to family and the huge portion to set up a charity. His son Barron contested it and after 9 years of legal battles won and was able to renegotiate a settlement. It’s amazing how the Calfornia Court of Appeals basically rewrote the man’s will. Barron went from having what amounted to about $3,000,000 in cash and stock to close to $700,000,000 after it was all over. Ironically, Zsa Zsa’s daughter Francesca Hilton, supposedly Conrad’s child\*, inherited only $100,000 from the estate and when she contested the same will she lost that. Barron must have had much better lawyers. \*I say supposedly because she was conceived after her parents separation and born after the divorce. While I don’t think Conrad himself spoke to the issue the family denied her paternity. Zsa Zsa claimed alternately that Francesca was conceived during a brief reconciliation, then later said it wasn’t a reconciliation so much as a rape, though maintains Hilton was the father. Zsa Zsa and her sisters were married a total of 20 times (she and her sister Magda both married George Sanders), but Francesca is the only child any of them had. ---
**Author:** ![AncientHumanoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ancienthumanoid/32/278_2.png) [@AncientHumanoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AncientHumanoid)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2009, 5:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-it-possible-michael-jackson-had-no-will/501430/31 "2009-06-30T17:42:03Z")
No will? You mean his thoughts and actions were being manipulated by an outside source? I blame Canada. ---
**Author:** ![Freudian\_Slit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5daacb/32.png) [@Freudian\_Slit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freudian_Slit)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2009, 5:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-it-possible-michael-jackson-had-no-will/501430/32 "2009-06-30T17:45:56Z")
> [@MeanOldLady](#): > > So the rumor is Joe Jackson is conspicuously missing from the will. What I need to know is: Is he going to give the Beatles catalogue to Paul McCartney, or what? I thought it was basically collateral for all the debts he was in at this point. ---
**Author:** ![Chimera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Chimera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chimera)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2009, 6:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-it-possible-michael-jackson-had-no-will/501430/33 "2009-06-30T18:12:02Z")
[Michael Jackson Voice] But all that plastic surgery and stuff made me immortal. I know it did! Don’t be ignorant! [/mjv] ---
**Author:** ![gonzomax](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e8c25b/32.png) [@gonzomax](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gonzomax)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2009, 6:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-it-possible-michael-jackson-had-no-will/501430/34 "2009-06-30T18:36:49Z")
> [@Huerta88](#): > > (1) her lawyer denied that this interview was real. > > (2) if as it appears so far, she is not making a play for any money from the estate, she is certainly coming in a cut above many others who will crawl out from under rocks here. I saw it on TV. It was real. She pretty much claimed to be an incubator. It was his dermatologists sperm and someone else’s eggs. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2009, 6:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-it-possible-michael-jackson-had-no-will/501430/35 "2009-06-30T18:58:44Z")
His mother, who has received custody of the children, is petitioning for control of the estate as well. Hopefully she’ll be denied; it’s not that I distrust her motives, but she’s almost 80 and simply isn’t qualified to oversee anything as nebulous as MJ’s estate, and her husband is another Brian Epstein/Pa Osmond/Pa Wilson [of _Beach Boys_ fame] in the bad management camp. No insult to Mrs. Jackson- there are decent accountants and tax attorneys who have been in the field 35 years probably aren’t qualified. This one needs an army to sort through it because my understanding is that it could go either way- majorly in the black or majorly in the red- depending on management. (The kids I’m sure are set for life either way.) And of course a permanent guardian for the children will need to be found since the grandparents are too old and technically they have no mothers. I wonder which of the brothers or sisters is most qualified (probably the ones not in the business). There _is_ talk about making Neverland a Graceland but, as someone from that area said in the other thread, 3 days after Jackson’s death they’re already meeting vocal resistance from county officials and other residents. ---
**Author:** ![Freudian\_Slit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5daacb/32.png) [@Freudian\_Slit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freudian_Slit)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2009, 7:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-it-possible-michael-jackson-had-no-will/501430/36 "2009-06-30T19:59:04Z")
> [@Sampiro](#): > > And of course a permanent guardian for the children will need to be found since the grandparents are too old and technically they have no mothers. I wonder which of the brothers or sisters is most qualified (probably the ones not in the business). People have been saying (well, on these threads, not like, people in charge) that Rebbe Jackson is pretty together/well-adjusted. ---
**Author:** ![cmkeller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmkeller/32/118_2.png) [@cmkeller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmkeller)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2009, 8:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-it-possible-michael-jackson-had-no-will/501430/37 "2009-06-30T20:07:41Z")
> [@](#): > > Rebbe Jackson So the kids would be raised as Hasidic Jews? ---
**Author:** ![Freudian\_Slit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5daacb/32.png) [@Freudian\_Slit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freudian_Slit)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2009, 8:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-it-possible-michael-jackson-had-no-will/501430/38 "2009-06-30T20:15:43Z")
> [@cmkeller](#): > > So the kids would be raised as Hasidic Jews? :smack: D’oh. ---
**Author:** ![Brandus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/898d66/32.png) [@Brandus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Brandus)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2009, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-it-possible-michael-jackson-had-no-will/501430/39 "2009-06-30T20:26:40Z")
It sounds like Katherine was only granted rights over bank accounts that have a 3rd party involved. She feared that they would take advantage of the situation to steal money which seems like a legitimate concern. ---
**Author:** ![alphaboi867](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alphaboi867/32/3898_2.png) [@alphaboi867](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alphaboi867)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2009, 9:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-it-possible-michael-jackson-had-no-will/501430/40 "2009-06-30T21:18:05Z")
> [@caligulathegod](#): > > …If it turns out to be a fact that Jackson had no literal claim to the children (he never adopted them and if he isn’t the biological father), then I don’t see how they can keep her from reclaiming the children. IANAL, but don’t think it matters if Jackson is the biological father or not (nor would he have needed to adopt them). A married woman’s husband is legally presumed to the the father of any children she bears. Do normal couples who use donor sperm/eggs (as opposed to a surogate) have any specially legal problems? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-it-possible-michael-jackson-had-no-will/501430.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-it-possible-michael-jackson-had-no-will/501430.md?page=3)