Two years have not tempered the feelings of five of Michael Jackson’s siblings there were excluded from the late superstar’s will. In fact, this Jackson 5 seems more determined than ever to make its case.
“Fake, flawed and fraudulent” is how Janet, Jermaine, Randy, Tito and Rebbie Jackson described the will in a scathing letter to Michael Jackson’s lawyers. And now they want lawyers Jonh McClain and John Branca to resiign as executors of the deceased King of Pop’s estate.
“Our brother told us, in no uncertain terms and without hesitation in the months prior to his death, that he despised both of you and he did not want either of you to have anything to do with his life or estate for that matter,” the siblings wrote.
The disenchanted siblings claim that it has proof that Michael Jackson was in New York, and not in Los Angeles, on the day he supposedly signed his will on the West Coast. They also claim that Branca and McClain lied to get family matriarch Katherine Jackson, 82, to agree to increase their percentage of the gross income from their brother’s estate.
“Your actions are affecting her health, and on top of that, we’ve just found out she recently had a mini-stroke,” the Jacksons wrote. “Please understand, she’s not equipped to handle the stress load you are putting on her.”
In his will, Jackson named only his mother and children as beneficiaries of his estate. None of Jackson’s three children, nor his parents, signed the letter to the lawyers. Neither did siblings LaToya, Jackie and Marlon. Katherine Jackson is raising Paris, 14, and her brothers, Prince, 15, and Blanket, 10.
On Twitter, Paris challengeed her letter-writing aunts and uncles. “I will defend my beloved family members with all I have, even if it means from other family members,” she tweeted. “I am going to clarify right now that what has been said about my grandmother is a rumor. … She is completely fine.”
She directly took her uncle Randy to task, adding, “I don’t appreciate you telling everyone things that aren’t true. Maybe he should have respect for his mother.” P aris Jackson later deleted that tweetBranca and McClain denied any wrongdoing and called the accusations by Jackson’s siblings baseless.
“Any doubts about the validity of Michael’s will and his selection of executors were thoroughly and completely debunked two years ago when a challenge [by the siblings] was rejected by the Los Angeles County Superior Court, the California Court of Appeals and, finally, the California Supreme Court,” the lawyers said in a statement Thursday.
“We are saddened that false and defamatory accusations grounded in stale Internet conspiracy theories are now being made by certain members of Michael’s family whom he chose to leave out of his will,” the lawyers said.
