On a hot, lazy Las Vegas day, Michael
Jackson’s eyes were glued to a catalog as he shopped from his hotel room
for mundane but expensive trinkets such as Rolex watches, Barbie dolls
and artwork.
The 2002 shopping spree continued until Jacko
exhausted his line of credit with the hotel. Frustrated, he reached in a
duffel bag and handed his 4- and 3-year-old kids a stack of bills
totaling $20,000 and ordered their nanny to “take them out and buy them
whatever they wanted.”
“He said, ‘Go out and entertain yourselves’,”
recalled former pal Marc Schaffel, who’s poised to marry the late
singer’s ex-wife Debbie Rowe later this year.
Today, five years after Jacko’s death, the
spending spree continues, with his three kids — now 17, 16 and 12 —
enjoying a whopping $8 million allowance a year.
And that money — up from the $5 million
stipend they used to split, thanks to the estate’s growing earnings — is
separate from the $1 million-plus (up from $700,000) grandmother
Katherine receives to watch over Prince, Paris and Blanket.
Among the expenses: Prince’s $30,000 yearly
tuition at a private school and the six-figure yearly payout to house,
educate and treat Paris at a therapeutic boarding school in Utah
following her 2013 suicide attempt.
Prince, who’s already shown himself a ladies
man, has showered more than $50,000 in custom-made jewelry and other
gifts on at least three different girlfriends, a family insider said.
That’s $10,000 more than he plunked down for a new Ford pickup truck.
Paris Jackson and Justin Bieber at the
MICHAEL JACKSON HAND & FOOTPRINT CEREMONY CELEBRATING THE KING OF
POP, January 26, 2012 at the Grauman’s Chinese Theater, Hollywood,
California. (Photo Credit: Sue Schneider/MGP Agency)
Three vacations a year to destinations
including Hawaii and Vegas annually set the kids back about $350,000 —
after payments for bodyguards, relatives tagging along, chauffeurs,
first-class airfare and plenty of luxuries.
In Hawaii, the family usually surfs the
secluded beach and roams the Kahala Hotel & Resort in Honolulu. They
relax in the $5,500-per-night Signature Suite.
At school, Paris buys gifts such as footwear
and athletic gear for her friends. In Vegas, the kids have often enjoyed
the 2,000-square-foot Penthouse Suite at the Bellagio, which runs from
$4,000 to $5,000 nightly, not including the cost of the concierge they
regularly use and access to the fitness center and the room-service tabs
that have run as high as the cost of the room itself.
Blanket regularly dips into his inheritance, paying $200 an hour for karate lessons and more for a personal trainer.
Blanket Jackson and body guard pictured at the Karate Dawn in Encino on May 2013
While he enjoys the personal chef at the
Jackson family’s $26,500-a-month rented mansion in Calabasas, Calif., he
regularly dials his cousins and treats them to dinner at trendy
restaurants before taking in a movie. The tab: usually about $500 plus
tips.
“These things that they’re doing they are
mostly paying for themselves, with their own money. Look, they also get
$15,000 to $20,000 every month just in walking-around money. No one else
has that kind of dough around here,” one source said.
“This is why you have had so much of the
fighting going on in the family. But the battles have calmed since their
uncles have finally found consistent work and everyone has pretty much
left [Katherine] alone about money.”
Still, family members believe the children are a lot more frugal than their father was with his.
Prince Jackson and friend (middle) and Blanket Jackson (right)
“They’re not [as bad] as their father… They
also seem to have more of a sense as to when they may be going
overboard,” the source said.
Jacko famously paid his pals Elizabeth Taylor
and Marlon Brando $1 million each to appear at his 30th anniversary
concert in New York. He also regularly lavished Taylor with diamonds and
other jewelry and perfume that easily cost him millions.
“There were times he and Liz would be sitting
at her house or at Neverland, and she’d be looking through a catalog of
jewels and she’d just point out the ones she liked,” another insider
said.
“Once, when she pointed out the jewels,
instead of ordering them, Michael hired a private jet and sent two
security guys to Switzerland to buy the jewelry and he made sure that
they came back right away so that he could give it to Liz before she
would leave the ranch,” he said.
The Jackson children pictured with their aunt Latoya Jackson at the launch of the Pink drink
Jacko once dropped $4 million on a life-size
bronze statue of a child and bought two $75,000 bottles of perfume
because the flask was made of gold and diamonds.
He also spent $90,000 “wooing” child star Macaulay Culkin at a Hawaiian resort in 1991.
A spokeswoman for Culkin declined comment.“It
was the damnedest thing, he paid for a radio advertisement to announce a
false ceremony that he was supposed to attend and he thought that it
would impress Mac, so that the child would find it cool to hang with
him. Then, he takes him on this expensive gondola-like ride along the
ocean and buys Mac’s caretaker an expensive necklace and sends her
shopping just so he could spend time with him,” the insider recalled.
Two other close family sources said that
despite his spending, Prince has a goal: to buy back Jacko’s Neverland
Ranch, which has been in the control of creditors for more than a
decade.
Prince Jackson pictured leaving a cafe
“The asking price right now is somewhere
around $35 million, but the kid is already thinking about bargains,” one
of the sources said, noting the price was more than $50 million before
all of the exotic animals and amusement rides were removed. “Prince
wants it back, and he wants it restored.”
Prince plans to put away as much cash as he
can now but he stands to gain a windfall at age 33, when Jacko’s will
grants the kids equal shares of half of the estate, whose value has
already ballooned to $2 billion.
When each child turns 40, they inherit the rest.
Blanket Jackson and brother Prince Jackson signing autographs in Gary, Indiana hometown of their father, Michael Jackson
The teen even has the backing of at least one
of his uncles, Jermaine, who still wants Jacko’s remains buried at the
fabled estate.
“Jermaine definitely is in favor of this and
he thinks it’s a great idea for Michael’s kids to have the place and do
whatever it is that they wish,” the source continued. “He hopes that if
the family does win control of Neverland, they can eventually put his
brother’s remains there.”
From Left: Paris Jackson, Latoya Jackson,
Prince Jackson, and Blanket Jackson at the unveiling of the artwork from
Michael on the 8th of August, 2011
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