Jackson’s children get new guardian

A US judge gave temporary guardianship of late singer Michael Jackson’s three children to his nephew TJ amid a bitter public dispute over the whereabouts of the family’s matriarch.

Katherine Jackson, the late singer’s mother, had custody of Paris, Prince Michael and Blanket but Judge Mitchell Beckloff suspended that arrangement because she had left the family home in Los Angeles.

“I want to reassure everyone ... that Mother is fine but is resting up in AZ on the orders of a doctor, not us,” the singer’s brother Jermaine tweeted.

Randy Jackson, another of the singer’s brothers, repeated that Katherine had left LA on her doctor’s orders, when speaking on ABC’s Good Morning America.

“Her doctor wanted her to go somewhere where she couldn’t be on the phone and just cut off from the outside world for a few days,” he said.

Katherine Jackson has now said she is “good and fine” and on her way home to California, according to excerpts of an interview with ABC News released by the network.

Katherine Jackson explained to ABC News: “One reason I didn’t call is I just gave up my phone and I didn’t want to have any phone calls while I was here.”

TJ Jackson said he spoke with Katherine on Tuesday and that she was acting strangely.

“I’ve never heard my grandmother talk like that,” he said in court. “I’d ask simple questions and she wasn’t sharp.”

Katherine Jackson said she was devastated about the change in the guardianship of her grandchildren, adding that the court ruling was “based on a bunch of lies”.

On July 17, five of the siblings accused the estate’s executors of forging Jackson’s signature on the 2002 will that excluded them.

In a letter posted online, Tito, Randy, Jermaine, Rebbie and Janet wrote: “The will, without question, it’s fake, flawed, and fraudulent.”