Katherine, 81, managed to wrest guardianship of the children when Michael died in June 2009 after a bitter battle that pitted one branch of the Jackson family against the other. At stake was the children’s $300 million (£190 million) trust fund, plus their enormous potential future earnings on the stage as the rightful heirs to the Jackson dynasty.

One faction, made up of siblings Randy, Tito and Janet, argued that the children should be kept away from Katherine and her physically abusive husband Joe and, instead, be placed in the more stable care of Michael’s eldest sister Rebbie.

But a second faction, including siblings Jackie, Jermaine and LaToya, was set against giving the children to Rebbie, in part because her husband, Nathaniel, had publicly accused Michael of being a child molester.

When Michael was alive, the children were kept secluded from the world. When they went out in public, they wore face masks.
Even their births were shrouded in mystery. According to several sources, Prince and Paris were conceived using IVF. It has been claimed that the sperm came not from Michael but from his dermatologist, Dr Arnold Klein. Both bear a remarkable resemblance to Dr Klein.

As for their ‘mother’, Debbie Rowe, a nurse at Dr Klein’s Beverly Hills clinic, it is said that she did not donate her eggs (the donor is unknown) and that she was merely the surrogate.

After giving birth to Paris, Debbie, now 52, could no longer carry a child, and in 2002 Blanket was adopted under equally secretive circumstances.