Who Is The New Mystery Woman In The Michael Jackson Paternity Scandal?
Aug. 12 2009, Published 12:02 p.m. ET
A new woman’s name has surfaced the Michael Jackson paternity saga -- and like Billie Jean, she was not his lover.
Rather, a Mexican nurse named Helena was handpicked by the late King of Pop to act as surrogate mother to the late entertainer's 7-year-old boy, Blanket, the Daily Mirror reported Wednesday.
Blanket was conceived, according to the Web site, via IVF, using King of Pop's sperm. The child was born February 21, 2002 at the Sharp Grossmont Hospital in La Mesa, California; on his birth certificate, Jackson is listed as the father, while the mother’s name is left blank.
The Thriller singer's third son was born to Helena, a friend told the Web site, because the mother of his first two kids, Debbie Rowe, had health problems that interfered with any more pregnancies, sending Jackson on a hunt for his next surrogate mother. He reportedly paid the woman $20,000 for her services, and gave her an expense account and a staff of servants, at one point.
“He chose Helena because she had a Latino background but she was also a US citizen and had quite fair skin," a friend of Jackson’s told the Web site. “He liked her because she was very attractive and seemed stable and intelligent. She was a nurse or medical assistant, which he also liked. She was around 5ft 4ins, slim, aged around 30 and had long, dark, straight hair. He said she was strait-laced, almost a girl next door type. There were no dramas with her. She knew what she had to do and got on with it.”
Jackson died after suffering a sudden cardiac arrest June 25 in Los Angeles; results of an autopsy conducted on the pop icon have yet to be released, pending the conclusion of a police investigation.