August 2009

Alvin Malnik – All Three Jackson Kids Should Be In The Same Place

Michael Jackson friend Al Malnik, the Ocean Ridge businessman who opened his $20 million-home to Jackson for months in 2002-03, said Monday he won’t attempt to gain custody of Jackson’s youngest son, Blanket, unless a custody battle erupts over the dead singer’s three children.

Malnik, 76, told Page2Live in an exclusive interview last week that Jackson asked him to be Blanket’s guardian should something happen to him. Malnik, who got special props from Jackson on his Greatest Hits CD, said the two signed a document in 2003 in which Malnik swears to raise the 6-year-old Blanket (Prince Michael II) as his own.

“If there’s a custody battle, then I’ll pull out the document and make it public,” Malnik said Monday. “It’ll be my legal responsibility to get involved. But as long as people are getting along, I will not budge. I don’t want to break up the kids. All three should be at the same place.”

Jackson’s two oldest, Paris and Prince Michael I, are his children with ex-wife Debbie Rowe, who has kept her parental rights. Blanket came from a surrogate who gave up those rights.

On Monday, a Los Angeles court granted the three kids’ custody to Katherine Jackson, their grandma. Another hearing in August could make the arrangement permanent although Rowe may seek to take her two kids.

Who should really have them?

“Clearly, the most qualified is (Jackson’s pop star sister) Janet,” Malnik said. “Michael loved Janet. He thought of her as the nicest, the most responsible, and he admired her tremendously.”

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Malnik, meanwhile, says he’s shocked by the attention heaped on him after Friday’s interview.

“It’s been bizarre,” he said. “A friend I went to high school with called to ask me for $200,000. Everybody has been calling.”

And then the Malnik’s personal photos with Jackson ended up being lifted off his wife Nancy’s supposedly private Facebook page.

Malnik speculated that a friend of Nancy’s stole the shots and sent them to the gossip site TMZ. (Click here for the pictures)

“It’s been a frenzy,” he said.