Whatever biology and genetics may or may not say, there is no disputing what the three children considered Michael Jackson.
"They called him, 'Daddy,'" Mike La Perruque, his long-time confidant and head of security, said Tuesday.
And, in La Perruque's experience, Jackson's primary goal was to be the very best daddy he could be in all the ways so much more important than any biological particulars.
"The kids were Michael's life," La Perruque said. "If there is anything that can be said about Michael, he was a very good father."
Jackson's father had been inordinately harsh, and he took this as a guide of how not to be.
"He thought a father should be what was opposite of what he received as a child," La Perruque said.
At the same time, Jackson understood that children need limits to help them find themselves and their place among others.
He guided them not with a stinging belt but with quiet words whose intent was always not to hurt but to help.
"Loving discipline," La Perruque said. "One thing he didn't want was to spoil the children."
La Perruque can recall moments such as when he was speaking with Jackson, and little Paris came running up to say something. Jackson paused and spoke as a daddy should, quiet and firm but warm.
"Paris, do you have an emergency?" Jackson asked.
"No," the child said.
"Do you see I'm talking to Mike?" Jackson asked. "You have to say 'excuse me' or wait unless you really need something."
La Perruque also remembered occasions when Jackson took his two older children along with the children of family friends to a toy store such as FAO Schwarz. "The other kids were going nuts, cartfuls of toys," La Perruque remembered. Jackson spoke to his children in that voice of loving discipline. "He would tell Paris and Prince, 'You're only allowed to have one toy and whatever it is, make sure it's one you really want,'" La Perruque remembered.
As the security chief from late 2001 to 2004 and then again from the summer of 2007 until the following spring, La Perruque assisted Jackson with another worry regarding the children. This was also born of Jackson's own childhood, when he was recognized and mobbed wherever he went.
"He did not want his kids growing up in the public eye," La Perruque said. "He wanted to minimize their exposure as much as he could, so his kids would not get the same public exposure he received when he was growing up."
The children were given masks when they went out until Jackson noted that the children of other celebrities were able to tolerate a certain amount of exposure.
"It was done just to protect the children," La Perruque said.
Jackson provided the children with someone very close to a mother in the person of their nanny, Grace Rwaramba. La Perruque can describe her with a single word. "Wonderful," he said. "I have only great things to say about Grace."
La Perruque has children of his own who are slightly older and he had long daddy-to-daddy talks with Jackson about the love and attention and guidance kids need as they progress through the stages growing up.
The oldest of Jackson's children was still two years from becoming a teen when La Perruque last saw them about a month ago at a family birthday party hosted by Janet Jackson at a Beverly Hills restaurant.
The three sat with their daddy, who was thinner than La Perruque had ever seen him. The children themselves seemed as unspoiled as ever.
"They were not the type of kids who run around crazy and do whatever they wanted to do," La Perruque said.
More than anything, all three seemed to be what any daddy wants most.
"Happy," La Perruque said. "They always seemed happy."
A month later, that happiness has become a measure of their heartbreak. They are out of public view in the family compound as the world buzzes about biological and genetic paternity.
The indisputable certainty is how rightly they called Michael Jackson daddy.
mdaly@nydailynews.com
http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/m..._didnt_get.html
