Michael Jackson's ex-wife quits quiet life for custody battle

Debbie Rowe had chosen an anonymous bungalow on the edge of the Mojave Desert to escape her former life - and had pretty much succeeded until her ex-husband Michael Jackson took one painkiller too many a week ago.

His death has thrust Ms Rowe back into the spotlight. As the mother of two of the pop star's three children, she is now poised to wage a custody battle against the might of the Jackson clan, its public relations team and lawyers.

On one side is Ms Rowe, 50, the former nurse who effectively rented out her womb so Jackson could have children. On the other is the singer's 79-year-old mother, Katherine, her tyrannical husband Joe Jackson, 80, and Diana Ross, the pop star named as guardian should Mrs Jackson be deemed unfit.

In 2005, Ms Rowe disappeared to Palmdale, a town about 60 miles from Los Angeles, where she rises at 6am to tend the horses stabled on her four-acre farm. The three-bedroom home, said by locals to be worth no more than $450,000 (£274,000), is in contrast to the gated properties in which her children have been brought up: the Neverland ranch and latterly the rented home near Beverly Hills where Jackson died. Ms Rowe has described the foals on her farm as her "babies" and there is a statue of a horse in her garden and a lasso on the door. A sign declares: "Puppies welcome" and another states: "Never mind the dog, beware of owner."

Newly planted bushes afford no privacy from the media now camped outside. Over the past few days, police cars have pulled up every hour or so after a complaint by MsRowe. It is usually because a TV journalist has walked up her drive to request an interview.

"She loves her horses and she is just a local like us," said Candice Beatty, 27, who lives opposite. "She is Debbie Rowe our neighbour rather than Debbie Rowe, the mother of Michael Jackson's children. I think she would be a good mother to those children."

Another neighbour, Ed Frommer, 53, said: "She is just a very average Jane Doe. Perhaps a tad eccentric. She is a little reserved, nervous and cautious. But she is sociable and has invited my wife to a couple of parties during the holidays. She hasn't changed much since she was famous. Maybe she's filled out a little."

Palmdale is large and frankly ugly, but its townsfolk stand by their most famous citizen. "Leave her alone," one motorist shouted at the satellite television trucks. Another car almost hit a photographer, throwing up stones as it swerved away at the last moment.

Ms Rowe had largely gone unnoticed after Jackson's death. But a 90-minute telephone interview she gave to a local TV news channel yesterday changed all that. "I want my children," Ms Rowe said. "I am stepping up. I have to."

She spoke of plans for a restraining order to keep Joe Jackson away from Prince Michael, 12, and Paris, 11. Jackson's third child, Prince Michael II, is by an unknown surrogate.

According to the news channel, Ms Rowe said she was concerned about splitting up the children and hoped the court would grant her custody of Prince Michael II as well.

Lawyers say she has a strong case as Jackson is not thought to be the biological father of any of the children and reportedly never formally adopted them. Ms Rowe's ex-boss, dermatologist Dr Arnold Klein, has been named as the real father, but has declined to comment. When she divorced Jackson in 1999, after three years of marriage, Ms Rowe gave up her parental rights for as much as $8.5 million although she went back to court to get that overturned. The couple eventually settled out of court.

Last night Ms Rowe asked for a planned court hearing in LA on Monday to be postponed to give her more time to prepare. The judge rescheduled for 13 July. But her lawyer Eric George said: "The truth is that Debbie has not reached a final decision concerning the pending custody proceedings."

You can't help but think her children would be better brought up in this suburban backwater than carry on living in a Jackson wonderland. Time will tell if a LosAngeles judge agrees.