This Article is From Jun 28, 2009

MJ's ex-wife bows out of custody battle

MJ's ex-wife bows out of custody battle

AP image

London:

Debbie Rowe, the mother of late 'King Of Pop' Michael Jackson's two eldest children, will not fight for their custody, wanting instead increased access to the two.

The 50-year-old Australian nurse who had given full custody of the two children, Prince Michael, 12 and Paris Katherine, 11 to Jackson in 1999 will not take the star's family to court to regain her parental rights, reported Sunday Timesonline.

The stars family had threatened to fight her "tooth and nail" if she resisted plans by his mother, Katherine Jackson, 79, to look after them.

Sources close to Rowe said on Saturday that she did not want to add to the distress of her son and daughter with a custody battle. Instead she just wants a "peaceful settlement" allowing her to spend more time with them.

Earlier reports had suggested that the two children had expressed their desire to stay with their grand mother.

Rowe married the star in 1996 and received a large settlement when they divorced three years later.

The two children and their seven-year-old brother Prince Michael II, also known as Blanket, who was conceived with a European surrogate mother, were in the house when their father collapsed and died on Thursday after a suspected cardiac arrest.

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