The Michael Jackson Tapes (24 page)

We spoke for another half hour and I departed. I would later see Michael's mother again at her home in Encino when she invited me to meet her husband Joe to speak to him about reconnecting with Michael some months after my relationship with him was over.

DOES AN IDEAL WOMAN EXIST ?

Relationships and Wannabe Girlfriends

People seem obsessed with the question of Michael and women. Was he heterosexual? Were his marriages real? Were they consummated? I would never have dared ask him any of these questions. Nor would I ask them of anyone else. Everyone deserves some privacy. Indeed, in our relationship I limited my questions to areas where I thought I could bring improvement. Michael and I many times discussed his marriage to Debbie Rowe because I thought it horrible, not to mention untenable, that she should have no interaction with Paris and Prince, her two children. This was a permanent sore point between Michael and me. He basically told me that I did not understand the nature of his relationship with Debbie, and that it was better for Prince and Paris not to have a relationship with a mother they have never known. (For their part, when asked, Prince and Paris simply replied that they had no mother.) I responded that a relationship with one's mother is not a luxury that one could do without. It was an absolute necessity.

I further told Michael that time was running out for him, because once the children grew older, they would judge both him and Debbie harshly for not having had their mother in their life, especially when she lived just a few hours away. The kids would know they weren't hatched or delivered by a stork. They were going to ask for their mother. Of course, I never would have revealed any of this had Debbie Rowe herself not gone on television, in that strange Michael Jackson response video to Martin Bashir's documentary, and basically said that she had her children for Michael and that her decision to be excised from her children's life is nobody's business. One could make the argument that the well-being of children is everyone's business and
she should be strongly encouraged to involve herself in her beautiful children's life, no matter what kind of arrangement she had with Michael.

On the subject of romance and dating, I pushed Michael constantly to be in a relationship, telling him how essential it was that he have a woman in his life. I told him that a good woman would ground him, balance him, and anchor him. Interestingly, he never pulled me off the subject but rather said that it would have to be the right one. I related earlier that when I brought Katie Couric, whom I knew through appearances on the
Today Show
for my books, to meet Michael, he was so impressed that when she left he actually said to me, “You're always bugging me about dating. Now there's the kind of woman I would like to take out.” Well, the gauntlet had been thrown.

I have written in my books that the highest kindness one can perform for another is to end their loneliness. Even God served as matchmaker to Adam and Eve. So, while knowing that it might sound ridiculous, I called Katie at her home. “I know this is going to sound nuts to you,” I said, “but you did mention to me that you had been widowed, for which I am very sorry. At that meeting you had with Michael, well, he wants to know if you'd like to go out with him for coffee.” Katie laughed and said, “Well, Shmuley, I see you don't read the tabloids. I actually have a nice man in my life.” I became embarrassed. “Okay, Katie, well, as I take the foot out of my mouth, let me just tell you how happy I am for you that you have a good guy, and why don't we instead do this as a fivesome. You and your boyfriend, me and my wife, Debbie, and Michael, can all go out for coffee.” Katie said that would be wonderful and that was that.

But for those who wonder whether Michael has a real interest in women, all I can say is that when we discussed his need to marry, he certainly never said, “Stop being ridiculous.” If anything, he told me constantly that his concern was that women only wanted his money and that the ones he met were not very ladylike. Indeed, when Michael spoke at Carnegie Hall at an event we organized to promote parents spending time with children, he even remarked as part of his speech, “Shmuley has been trying to marry me off for some time now.” But while most of the conversations I had with Michael on the subject of romance
were off the record, there was one evening where he answered my questions on the subject for the purpose of this book.

Crushes and Puppy Love

The morning after I had taken Michael with me to songwriter Denise Rich's semiannual Angel Ball, a black-tie benefit for cancer research, where Michael was the cynosure of all eyes, we sat down to continue our conversation in his hotel suite.

I had read the same thing, that Princess Diana made her kids wait in line at Disneyworld. That is pretty amazing. I hate waiting in the lines at Disneyworld and if I could use clout to cut them, I probably would. That is a real sign of character and a sincere desire to raise humble rather than entitled kids.