What happened with Michael Jackson and Debbie Rowe? Complicated history explored as ex-wife spotted in rare outing

Debbie Rowe, Michael Jackson’s ex-wife, was spotted in Palmdale, California, just a few weeks after Leaving Neverland 2: Surviving Michael Jackson was released. It’s a sight that pulls us back into the swirling rumors of her tangled past with the King of Pop.

A chance meeting at the dermatologist’s office sparked an unexpected friendship that later wedded itself to a whirlwind marriage, two kids, and a messy custody tangle.

In the 1980s, Rowe worked as an assistant for Dr. Arnold Klein, Michael Jackson’s long time dermatologist. Klein had been treating Jackson for his skin disease, vitiligo. Their working and personal relationship seems to have bloomed into a full blown romance after Jackson’s divorce from Lisa Marie Presley in 1996.

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Michael Jackson and Debbie Rowe

According to a 2003 documentary, The Michael Jackson Interview: The Footage You Were Never Meant to See, Rowe spoke about how she offered to have his children when she found out how he wanted to be a father.

“Michael was divorced, lonely and wanted children. I was the one who said to him, ‘I will have your babies. I offered him my womb, it was a gift. It was something I did to keep him happy.”

The couple married on November 13, 1996, in a private ceremony in Sydney, Australia.

Rowe was six months pregnant with their first child at the time of their marriage. Jackson got a blessing from Presley one day before the wedding, which raised eyebrows and made media question if the marriage was more of financial arrangement rather romance.

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Their marriage and the birth of Prince and Paris

In 1997, Michael Jackson and Debbie Rowe’s first child, Prince Michael Jackson Jr., was born, and in 1998, they had a second child, Paris-Michael Katherine Jackson. After the birth of Prince, there were claims that Jackson intended to raise the child single-handedly and that Rowe was mostly absent from active parenting.

Rowe herself acknowledged that she only met her son six weeks after his birth, as both the children were brought up by Jackson’s staff living at his Neverland Ranch.

In the documentary The Michael Jackson Interview: The Footage You Were Never Meant to See, she said,

“I did it for him to become a father, not for me to become a mother."

The couple had an untraditional family setup, but Rowe remained out of the public eye, seldom commenting on her relationship with Jackson or their kids. Paris, their daughter, was named after the city where she was allegedly conceived.

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Divorce and custody arrangement

Michael Jackson and Debbie Rowe wed in 1996, and they divorced in 1999. According to a July 30, 2009, publication by CNN on snippets of the court documents, Rowe also gave up custody of the children to Jackson, while she got $8.5 million in settlement.

Rowe attempted to permanently relinquish her parental rights in 2001, but when Jackson was charged with child abuse in 2004, Rowe sought to regain her parental rights, deeming it necessary to protect her children.

Custody of Jackson's children, Prince, Paris, and Jackson’s third child, who was born via surrogacy in 2002 and known as Blanket, was given to his mother, Katherine, following his death in June 2009. Jackson's mother and Rowe eventually reached a negotiation where she was granted visitation rights, and Jackson's kids slowly repaired the relationship over time.

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Where is Debbie Rowe now?

After Jackson died, Rowe pretty much faded from sight. In 2014, she got engaged to Marc Schaffel, a music producer who once worked with Jackson and later helped guide her through a tough breast cancer diagnosis and treatment in 2016.

She didn’t keep her struggle private either, speaking up in an interview with ET about what she went through. In 2017, her daughter Paris even tagged her as a “bad*ss” on Instagram (in a post that’s now long gone) to celebrate her recovery.

In 2021, Paris Jackson got real on the Red Table Talk about reconnecting with her mom when she was just 15. She said:

“It’s cool getting to know her, seeing how similar we are… it’s just cool having her as a friend.”

That remark added a surprisingly personal twist to their evolving bond.

Even though Rowe was involved in the 2019 documentary Leaving Neverland, she hasn’t offered any comments about the new sequel.