Singer’s mother opens up about how kids are coping with their loss

Jun 21, 2010 13:15 GMT  ·  By
“They don’t have any friends,” grandma Katherine Jackson says of Michael’s three children
   “They don’t have any friends,” grandma Katherine Jackson says of Michael’s three children

For the first time since the death of her son, King of Pop Michael Jackson, Katherine Jackson is speaking to the media about how his three children, who are entrusted to her, are coping with their loss. Right now, Mrs. Jackson tells the Daily Mirror, the three have no friends and still pine for their father, but all that will change in the fall, when they’ll go to a private school.

Paris, Prince and Blanket remain marked by the passing of their father, and would do anything to know that he’s somewhere out there, looking down on them and feeling proud. Paris, for instance, has turned her bedroom into some sort of “shrine,” Katherine says, decorated with Michael’s photographs. The singer’s two sons, Prince and Blanket, also remember him fondly and often speak of how they want to make him proud – and then they lapse into silence.

“They don’t have any friends. They don’t go to school, they have private lessons at home – but that will change in September, when they are due to enroll at private college. But they have their cousins and aunts and uncles around them constantly, and that’s helped them immensely. To them, it’s normal, it’s the life they have known. They have a certain time to go to bed, then they get up and get dressed for lessons. They practice karate and swim, which they love,” Katherine says for the publication.

“I wanted to hang pictures of flowers or ballerinas in Paris’ room, the sort of things I expected a girl would like. But she went into a closet and she brought out seven or eight pictures of Michael, and she told me, ‘No, I want daddy hanging in my room.’ So she goes to bed looking at him and wakes up looking at him. She said, ‘I always want to be able to see him.’ Paris has that lovely way, just like him, and I see his talent in her. Whatever she does, she is very good at it. She’s a good artist, she plays the piano and she wants to be an actress. Prince is serious about a lot of things. He wants to be a camera-man or produce movies,” Mrs. Jackson further says.

All three children have very prominent features of Michael, Katherine explains. Dealing with his death – June 25 marks one year since his tragic demise – has been an ongoing, never-ending battle that they fought every single day. After one year, they can finally see a glimpse at the end of the tunnel, Katherine further says.