Katherine Jackson became mother to her son, Michael Jackson’s children, when he died in 2009 at age 50. Paris, Prince Michael and “Blanket” have seemed to thrive under her watchful eye. (Here, Katherine is pictured with Royal Jackson, Blanket Jackson, Prince Jackson and Paris Jackson appear at the Michael Jackson Hand and Footprint ceremony at Grauman’s Chinese Theatre on January 26, 2012 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images)
Katherine Jackson (L) and Paris Jackson appear at the Michael Jackson Hand and Footprint ceremony at Grauman’s Chinese Theatre on January 26, 2012 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images)
Michael Jackson’s kids Prince Jackson, Blanket Jackson and Paris Jackson, Latoya Jackson and Katherine Jackson attend Children’s Hospital Los Angeles Receives Michael Jackson Artwork Donation ceremony on August 8, 2011 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Valerie Macon/Getty Images)
Kelly Griffin, LaToya Jackson, Stephen Hill, Katherine Jackson and Rebbie Jackson pose at the 2012 BET Music Matters Showcase held at the Creative Artists Agency on July 2, 2012 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Mark Davis/Getty Images For BET)
Singer Janet Jackson arrives at the 2012 amfAR’s Cinema Against AIDS during the 65th Annual Cannes Film Festival at Hotel Du Cap on May 24, 2012 in Cap D’Antibes, France. (Photo by Andreas Rentz/Getty Images)
Show musical designer Kevin Antunes, Katherine Jackson, Tito Jackson and Jackie Jackson appear at Michael Jackson Fan Fest prior to the Las Vegas premiere of Michael Jackson THE IMMORTAL World Tour by Cirque du Soleil at the Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino December 3, 2011 in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Photo by Isaac Brekken/Getty Images for Cirque du Soleil)
Joe Jackson and Katherine Jackson arrive at court for the Dr Conrad Murray trial verdict on November 7, 2011 in Los Angeles, California. Murray was convicted in the 2009 death of pop singer Michael Jackson from an overdose of the powerful anesthetic propofol. Sentencing will take place November 29. (Photo by Toby Canham/Getty Images)
Jermaine Jackson, Rebbie Jackson and Katherine Jackson leave court after the sentencing of Dr. Conrad Murray at the Los Angeles Superior Court on November 29, 2011 in Los Angeles, California. Judge Michael E. Pastor sentenced Murray to four years in the Los Angeles County Jail for the involuntary manslaughter of Jackson. A restitution hearing has been scheduled for January 23, 2012 to determine the amount of restitution to be paid to the Jackson family. (Photo by Toby Canham/Getty Images)
Is Michael Jackson’s will valid? It depends on who you ask. Janet, Randy, Rebbie, and Jermaine Jackson argue that the executors of their late brother’s estate falsified the will. Their primary argument centers on the discrepancy between the date of the will’s execution and Jackson’s location at that time it was signed. The will was executed on July 7, 2002 in Los Angeles, the same weekend that Michael Jackson was reportedly in New York City. Randy Jackson observed in an interview on Politics Nation with Al Sharpton on MSNBC that Michael “cannot be in two places at one time.”
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Even Al Sharpton attested to Michael’s location. “He was in fact in Harlem with me that weekend. That Saturday he was there,” Sharpton concurred on his show. “That Sunday we were out together, and that Monday, he was with Johnny Cochran and I.”
The siblings strongly argue that the conflict of Michael’s location and the stated place of execution proves that the will is false. They claim they are not interested in money, but rather in the proper administration of the estate. In his MSNBC interview, Randy Jackson said that the executors are “using the children to try and put pressure on my mom to try and come out and get her to say things in their favor to kind of clean up their image. They know that they’ve been caught. They know that they falsified a document. And they know that there are questions we want answered.”
Yet, executors John Branca and John McClain insist that their actions are in alignment with Michael’s testamentary intent and his children’s beneficiary interests. In other words, they are just doing their job to see that Michael Jackson’s will is carried out. They have a special duty to serve the interests of the people named in Michael Jackson’s will (which was accepted as valid by the courts): Katherine, Prince, Paris, and Blanket Jackson.
RELATED: LaToya Jackson urges her family to stop feuding in public
In many will contests, family members feel entitled to object to the distribution of the estate. Siblings, also known as collateral heirs, often object when disinherited. In reality, not even children are entitled to distribution, as the selection of beneficiaries is entirely left up to the testator. The only person entitled to a minimum share is a surviving spouse, which Jackson did not have. So, the Jackson siblings have no claim on Michael’s estate on the basis of kinship ties.
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