Debbie Rowe, the former wife of late pop superstar Michael Jackson, appeared almost unrecognizable during a rare public outing in Palmdale, California, on Monday.
According to photos obtained exclusively by the Daily Mail, Rowe was seen stopping at a local bank while running errands in the northern Los Angeles County city.
Now 67, Rowe looked markedly different from the woman who drew public attention during her 1996 marriage to Jackson.
Rowe and Jackson, who died in 2009 at the age of 50, had two children together: Prince, 29, and Paris, 28.
Throughout her time connected to Jackson, Rowe remained a mysterious figure to many fans, with ongoing public speculation surrounding both the nature of their relationship and the biological parentage of the singer’s children.
Her latest appearance comes 26 years after her divorce from Jackson brought her short-lived time in the public eye to a close, and as renewed interest surrounds the upcoming biopic Michael.
Debbie Rowe, the ex-wife of the late Michael Jackson, looked nearly unrecognizable when she was spotted on a rare outing in Palmdale, California, on Monday; pictured together in 1996
At 67, Rowe looked strikingly different from how she did when she was regularly in the spotlight around the time of her 1996 marriage to Jackson, who died in 2009 at 50; she’s pictured in 2005
Now see Jackson’s ex-wife as she looks today, 26 years after her divorce from Jackson ended her brief stint in the spotlight and on the heels of the blockbuster release of the biopic Michael
Rowe – who was spotted a decade after she battled breast cancer – looked noticeably gaunt and thinner than she had in previous years when she was spotted leaving a bank branch on Monday.
She was dressed for a casual day out in a humorous graphic T-shirt reading ‘Horses make me feel less murdery,’ along with a pair of flared cargo jeans, a luxury wristwatch and beige moccasins.
Rowe’s shoulder-length hair, while still blond, was now flecked with gray, and she wore minimal makeup for the low-key outing.
She originally came into her future husband’s orbit in the 1980s when she began working as a nurse for Jackson’s dermatologist, Dr. Arnold Klein.
Rowe said in the 2003 television documentary The Michael Jackson Interview: The Footage You Were Never Meant To See – which took a pro-Jackson slant to counter Martin Bashir’s prosecutorial documentary Living With Michael Jackson – that she and the pop star had become particularly close following his 1996 divorce from his first wife, Lisa Marie Presley.
‘I said, “Let me do this. I want to do this. You’ve been so good to me,”‘ she said. ‘I could do something for him and this is what I could do.’
Jackson’s ex-wife, Presley, later alleged in a 2003 Playboy interview that the singer had known Rowe had a ‘crush’ on him during his first marriage and was eager to bear his children.
Although Rowe – who had previously been married in the 1980s – and Jackson didn’t indicate that they had any kind of romance prior to the revelation of their relationship, the two went on to tie the knot in a ceremony held in Australia in November 1996, after his divorce was finalized earlier in the year.
In photos exclusively obtained by the Daily Mail, Rowe was pictured dropping by a bank branch as she took care of errands around the city in northern Los Angeles County
She and the pop music icon – who died in 2009 at just 50 – went on to welcome two children together, 29-year-old Prince and 28-year-old Paris
Rowe was always an enigma in Jackson’s orbit, as fans wondered about the state of her relationship with the Thriller singer and spread rumors about the biological parentage of his children
Rowe looked noticeably gaunt and thinner than she had in previous years when she was spotted leaving a bank branch on Monday
She was dressed for a casual day out in a humorous graphic T-shirt reading ‘Horses make me feel less murdery,’ along with a pair of flared cargo jeans, a luxury wristwatch and beige moccasins
Rowe’s shoulder-length hair, while still blond, was now flecked with gray, and she wore minimal makeup for the low-key outing
She originally came into her future husband’s orbit in the 1980s when she began working as a nurse for Jackson’s dermatologist, Dr. Arnold Klein
In February of 1997, Rowe gave birth to their first child, Michael Joseph Jackson Jr., who was later nicknamed Prince.
In April of the following year, she gave birth to their second child, daughter Paris Jackson.
But in October of 1999, Rowe filed for divorce, citing irreconcilable differences and dating their separation to July 15 of that year.
A spokesperson for Jackson said at the time that the couple had ‘mutually agreed to end their marriage,’ and they said that the two ‘remain[ed] friends.’
The divorce was finalized in 2000, and Rowe, who had signed a prenuptial agreement with Jackson, was paid around $8 million and given a house in Beverly Hills.
Then, in 2001, Rowe renounced her custody of Prince and Paris to Jackson.
During the court hearing, she clarified that the difficult decision was not made because she didn’t ‘love’ her children.
‘I do. I think they are adorable,’ she said in court, according to the Los Angeles Times. ‘They’re his kids. They’re his kids. They are not my kids.’
Rowe and Jackson tied the knot in a ceremony held in Australia in November 1996, after his divorce was finalized earlier in the year
In February of 1997, Rowe gave birth to their first child, Michael Joseph Jackson Jr., who was later nicknamed Prince. In April of the following year, she gave birth to their second child, daughter Paris Jackson
But in October of 1999, Rowe filed for divorce, citing irreconcilable differences and dating their separation to July 15 of that year
The divorce was finalized in 2000, and Rowe, who had signed a prenuptial agreement with Jackson, was paid around $8 million and given a house in Beverly Hills
Then, in 2001, Rowe renounced her custody of Prince and Paris to Jackson. During the court hearing, she clarified that the difficult decision was not made because she didn’t ‘love’ her children
However, after Jackson was hit with 10 counts of child abuse in 2003, Rowe went to court to have her parental rights restored
In 2013, Rowe reconnected with her daughter Paris
However, after Jackson was hit with 10 counts of child abuse in 2003, Rowe went to court to have her parental rights restored.
Jackson denied the charges and pleaded not guilty, and he was ultimately acquitted on all counts.
In the years since Jackson’s death, Rowe has occasionally been spotted catching up with her daughter.
Rowe reportedly first reconnected with her daughter beginning in 2013, and Paris has occasionally referenced their relationship on social media, including in a since-deleted Instagram post from February of this year.
In 2021, the rising singer–songwriter spoke about their unorthodox relationship and said that Rowe was more of a ‘friend’ to her than a traditional mother figure.
Paris later opened up about her and her mother’s ‘very chill’ bond and spoke about how her mega-famous dad’s death had an impact on her during an interview with Willow Smith on her family’s Red Table Talk show.
‘It’s just cool having her as a friend,’ Paris said of their relationship. ‘It’s very chill – which I love – it’s the perfect word to describe it.’
Paris added that she now realizes how ‘similar’ she and her mother are, and frequently bounces her musical ideas off of Rowe.
In 2021, the rising singer–songwriter spoke about their unorthodox relationship and said that Rowe was more of a ‘friend’ to her than a traditional mother figure
Paris later opened up about her and her mother’s ‘very chill’ bond and spoke about how her mega-famous dad’s death had an impact on her during an interview with Willow Smith on her family’s Red Table Talk show
However, Rowe hasn’t been spotted in the company of her son, and it’s unclear if she and Prince currently have any kind of relationship
‘It’s cool. I mean like, getting to know her, seeing how similar we are, getting into what kind of music she likes, and she really likes country and folk.
‘I send her some of the stuff that I’m working on that has banjos in them,’ she shared.
However, Rowe hasn’t been spotted in the company of her son, and it’s unclear if she and Prince currently have any kind of relationship.
Jackson would later welcome a third child, 24-year-old Prince Michael Jackson II, via a surrogate.
The pop star’s youngest son was first nicknamed Blanket, and he came to be associated with a disturbing incident in which Jackson dangled him over a balcony above overzealous fans and photographers.
Years after Jackson’s death, his youngest son opted to start going by the name Bigi after being teased for much of his life about his nickname.
After the Smooth Criminal singer died in 2009, Paris and Prince were raised by their grandmother, Katherine Jackson, but because Paris was only 12 at the time of his death, she confessed to Willow that she ‘didn’t really understand what was happening.’
‘I don’t know, it kind of just happened,’ she explained of his sudden death. ‘I was so young.’
Paris shared a sweet Instagram snapshot with her mom after a chemotherapy session in 2016
Prince and Paris also have a younger brother Bigi who was formerly known as ‘Blanket’ but he was not mothered by Debbie; Prince and Paris pictured 2019
‘I was just going through the motions and didn’t really understand what was happening, and so I just went with what I was told to do…I didn’t really have much guidance.’
In 2022, Jackson’s ex-wife broke down in tears as she revealed she feels partly to blame for the singer’s death.
Rowe wept as she admitted she regrets not doing more to help Jackson when he became addicted to painkillers. In a tearful interview for a documentary, Debbie said: ‘I should have done something and I didn’t.’
She said in the TMZ investigation, Who Really Killed Michael Jackson: ‘There are a number of people that died from addictions and in some way I was part of it.’
Jackson died aged 50 following drug-induced cardiac arrest in June 2009 at his home in Los Angeles, and his personal physician at the time, Dr. Conrad Murray, was convicted of involuntary manslaughter.
Rowe said that her former boss, Jackson’s dermatologist Arnold Klein, would give the singer strong painkillers and wrinkle-filling drugs like Botox and Restylane.
In the documentary, Rowe said: ‘I was basically as bad as him [Klein] and I am so sorry I participated in it.’
Those close to the case say that there are others – not just Dr. Murray – who should have been found guilty for allowing Jackson to reach the level of drug dependency he was at when he died.
Jackson died aged 50 following a drug-induced cardiac arrest in June 2009 at his home in Los Angeles; pictured in 1993
In recent years, Jackson’s name was back in the news amid the release of a documentary exploring pedophilia claims against him.
The first part of Leaving Neverland aired on HBO in 2019, focusing on Jackson’s accusers James Safechuck and Wade Robson, who say the singer molested them as children at his sprawling estate Neverland Ranch.
Jackson’s career was clouded by rumors of pedophilia from the 1990s onward, but after the allegations were taken to court, he was acquitted in 2005.
Those allegations were nowhere to be found in this year’s blockbuster biopic Michael, which conspicuously ends its story shortly before allegations against Jackson first broke in the early ’90s.
The film quickly became the highest-grossing biopic of all time.
