Mother of the Moment: Debbie Rowe

Mother of the Moment: Debbie Rowe

Posted on July 22nd, 2009 by Sean Cunningham

A 79-year-old woman is not the ideal guardian for three young children, particularly when she’s married to Joe Jackson. Yet Katherine Jackson gets the edge from most people over Debbie Rowe, just because Debbie has no biological connection to one of the children and no apparent interest in any of them, based on the fact in an email she poised the question to herself, “Do I want the kids?” and helpfully answered, “Hell no.” (Incidentally, may this serve as a reminder to all of us to ask, “Have I engaged in blatant self-incrimination in this email?” before hitting send.) With reports swirling that Debbie demanded the Jacksons give her an additional $4 million after deciding an initial settlement of a Beverly Hills mansion, a $5 million lump sum, and several annual payments of $900,000 weren’t enough compensation for what has already been a sensationally profitable uterus, the leaked emails reveal a new insight into Debbie: she’s a good friend.

Many people go through life friendless. Debbie Rowe has (well, had) a pair of keepers: Rebecca White and Michael Jackson. Of these two, she was closer to Michael. We know this because she described herself in the “Hell no” email as “Michael’s best friend.” This is the essence of friendship. It’s easy to be someone’s friend when times are good (for instance, when they’re alive and paying you millions); it’s much harder to remember that sacred obligation while using their grieving children as pawns in an alleged multi-million dollar shakedown scheme. Debbie, however, never lost sight of how much Michael’s friendship was worth to her: four million dollars, give or take court costs.

Sadly, not everyone can be as true blue as Debbie. While claiming to be Debbie’s friend, Rebecca showed her confidential emails to Extra. This is a shameful act: exploiting for money someone who’s in the process of exploiting someone else for money isn’t just deceitful, it’s ironic. Hopefully Debbie cuts the cord with this online Mata Hari, but I doubt she will. After all, this is the woman who wrote, “My lawyer is telling me I have to take some responsibility for the welfare of the children.” With such a well-defined sense of duty, it seems inevitable Debbie will be sending incredibly callous things to Rebecca again in no time and showing us all that friendship transcends everything except confidentiality agreements.

Matters of the Moment appears each Wednesday.