Jackson Ex-Wife Says Her Praise Was Real

In a blow to prosecutors, Michael Jackson’s ex-wife testified tearfully Wednesday about her hopes to renew the couple’s friendship and said her flattering statements about the pop star in a 2003 television program were voluntary and unscripted.

The testimony of Deborah Rowe, the mother of two of Jackson’s three children, was not as Santa Barbara County Dist. Atty. Tom Sneddon advertised in his opening statement.

Sneddon had told the jury that Rowe would say that her televised statements in response to a damaging British documentary were scripted and heavily rehearsed. Those statements would have matched testimony from the mother of the boy Jackson is accused of molesting.

Instead, Rowe said, she agreed to appear in the video because she wanted to help Jackson and that her answers were spontaneous, although not entirely truthful.

“As Mr. Jackson knows, no one can tell me what to say. I speak my own mind,” she said. “It was a cold interview, and I wanted to keep it that way.”

That answer brought a hint of a smile from Jackson, who otherwise sat expressionless at the defense table as his wife of two years -- from 1997 to 1999 -- told jurors, and the world, about their relationship.

Rowe said the couple did not live together during their marriage.

“We never shared a home. We never shared an apartment,” she said.

She also said she hasn’t seen Jackson since the couple divorced and that she wants to renew their friendship. She wept and became emotional at several points in her testimony, including when she was asked why she appeared in the 2003 rebuttal program to the documentary “Living With Michael Jackson.”

“I promised to always be there for him and the children,” she replied, her voice trembling.

Asked why she wanted to restore her relationship with Jackson, she said tearfully, “He’s my friend.” Then she paused and wiped her eyes with a tissue.

She said Jackson contacted her in 2003 shortly before the British documentary appeared on television to millions of viewers around the world. Jackson admitted in the documentary to having nonsexual sleepovers with boys and was seen holding hands with the teenage cancer survivor who’s now accusing him of molestation.

Jackson asked her to appear in a rebuttal video that aired a few weeks later on the Fox network, and she agreed. At the time, Rowe had given up her parental rights to the couple’s two children.

“I asked how he was. I asked how the children were. I asked if I could see them when everything settled down. He said, ‘Yes,’ ” Rowe said.

On the video, “The Michael Jackson Interview: The Footage You Were Never Meant to See,” Rowe said that her children were naturally conceived and that Jackson is a good father.

“I believe there are people who should be parents, and he’s one of them,” she said on the program.

Under questioning from Santa Barbara County Senior Deputy Dist. Atty. Ronald Zonen, Rowe conceded that not all of the statements she made in the video were true. She didn’t specify which ones were deceptive.

Asked why she didn’t tell the truth, Rowe said: “My personal life is my personal life and no one’s business.”

But she testified that her positive statements about Jackson’s role with children were based on experience.

“I’ve seen him with kids the whole time I’ve known him,” she said.

Rowe said that Jackson instructed her to deal with three of his assistants -- Ronald Konitzer, Dieter Wiesner and Marc Schaffel -- in making the rebuttal video.

That testimony could help the prosecution, because it was the first to directly link Jackson to the three assistants with whom he is accused of conspiring to imprison his teenage accuser and the boy’s family.

After Jackson’s arrest in November 2003, Rowe successfully petitioned a court to restore her parental rights. A court has been asked to resolve a dispute over her visitation rights, but records in the case are sealed.

Jackson, free on $3-million bail, is charged with four counts of child molestation, four counts of providing his underage victim with alcohol in order to molest him, attempted child molestation and conspiracy to falsely imprison the boy and his family. If the 46-year-old singer is convicted on all counts, he could face more than 20 years in prison.

The boy’s mother testified that she was also asked to appear on the rebuttal video and that she was given a script to follow during taping. The mother and three of her children, including the boy Jackson allegedly molested, made glowing statements about Jackson during their taping, but their comments were not included in the program that aired on Fox.

Rowe is scheduled to continue her testimony this morning.

Jackson declined to answer questions after the day’s testimony, smiling at a pack of reporters and saying “no comment” before heading to a black SUV waiting to take him back to his Santa Ynez Valley ranch, Neverland.

Times staff writer Evelyn Larrubia contributed to this report.