Motown Meltdown Update: Katherine Appears on TV with Her Kid(napper)s; Marlon and Prince Enter the Fray
The big news Thursday is that Katherine Jackson is back in California after an extended vacation and/or kidnapping to Arizona.
The grandkids are happy because their grandma's home. Early this morning, Paris tweeted "grandma's here ! #thankyougod <33". The grownkids are happy because now it looks less like they kidnapped their octogenarian mother.
The second major development is that Michael's son, 15-year-old Prince, has officially moonwalked into the Motown Meltdown. He posted a statement Thursday condemning his family members for lying to his grandmother, and for denying him and his siblings access to her. Prince also implied his father did not altogether trust his own siblings, writing that Michael "repeatedly warned me of certain people and their ways."
As evidence of the claims made in the statement, Prince provided what he says is an image of a group text message between him and some family members, in which Aunt Janet explicitly attempts to deny him access to his grandmother.
On Wednesday night, Katherine Jackson went on ABC News to read a super weird prepared statement assuring people her children had not kidnapped her and endorsing the Arizona resort where she was definitely not being held captive ("I had a very good time here — and if anyone wants to rest I think they should come here.").
Katherine made the appearance surrounded by her closest family members: children Jermaine, Janet, and Rebbie Jackson, one of Rebbie's daughters, and the marketing director of the Miraval Resort & Spa.
An ABC News reporter present for the interview was not permitted to ask questions, reducing his role to that of a "spotter," really.
Other highlights from the interview:
- The cook, nanny, and housekeepers from the Jacksons' Calabasa home were all fired, but no one knows by whom. Katherine said "I don't know who [fired the staff] but they don't have that power and they shouldn't have done it."
Weirdly, her son (and alleged kidnapper), Randy, wrote on Twitter that he was on the phone with his mom when she fired the security staff (including her nephew Trent) who worked at the California home.
If you are reading this from inside the Jackson family home, pack your things and leave because you have probably been fired. - The grandkids are either starving to death or subsisting entirely on a diet of jellybeans. People were claiming, according to Katherine, that Paris, Prince, and Blanket had nothing to eat. (Were "people" claiming that?) Her response: "I am sure they have something to eat but it's probably not healthy because the cook is not there."
- Katherine claims that she told her grandson TJ he did not need to petition for temporary guardianship and that the court ruling temporarily transferring guardianship to him "was based on a bunch of lies, but I have a good idea who's doing that and who's behind that."
- She also said she hadn't called the three children in her care because she "just gave up my phone and I didn't want to have any phone calls while I was here." She said her assistant Janice Smith made regular phone calls home to check up on the Paris, Prince, and Blanket.
- On her time at Miraval: "We don't get much — we saw an electric show because it was lightning and we saw a rainbow." Is this code, you guys? Is it a beautiful poem bursting with emotion? What is it?
Meanwhile, on Twitter, Marlon appeared at first to come down on the side of the grandkids, expressing frustration that Janet, Randy, and Jermaine told him Wednesday he could not see his mother on a doctor's order, then appeared with her on television the very same night.
"But I see them on television with her. How come they could not call me so I could be with her as well."
He added that Katherine "didn't sound like herself" when he spoke with her Wednesday evening.
However, in a tweet posted two hours later, Marlon wrote that his mother, now home, looked and sounded "great."
Where do Marlon's loyalties lie?
When you play the Game of Thrones, you either win or you die.