As the star-studded tribute to the King of Pop concluded, Michael Jackson’s own children, Prince Michael, 12, Paris Katherine, 11, and Prince Michael II (Blanket), 7, took the stage during a group performance of “Heal the World.”

After the song, Paris gave an impromptu speech from the stage surrounded by the Jackson family.

“I just want to say ever since I was born, Daddy has been the best father you can ever imagine,” she said through tears. “And I just want to say I love him so much.”

Her aunt Janet Jackson then took her into her arms for a hug before the entire Jackson family then left the stage, closing the service that lasted more than two hours.

The moving tribute was especially startling because it marked one of the first times Jackson’s daughter has ever been heard publicly.

Paris and her siblings are also the subject of an ongoing custody dispute. Currently, her grandmother Katherine Jackson has been granted temporary custody of the three children, but Debbie Rowe has parental rights over the eldest children which she may choose to exercise.

Blanket’s mother has not been identified.

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We’ve learned Michael Jackson’s body will not be going back to Forest Lawn.

The body will go somewhere else pending final burial — we don’t know where that is. If a casket goes to Forest Lawn, it’s a decoy.

We’ve learned the death certificate lists Forest Lawn as the responsible mortuary because the body was embalmed there — but the rest is being kept secret.

Source, Bauer-Griffin

Michael Jackson’s 12-year-old son Prince Michael attended his late father’s public memorial Tuesday at L.A.’s Staples Center (see photo, above). His other children, Paris, 11, and Prince Michael (Blanket), 7, also attended.

Prince Michael sat with his grandparents Joe and Katherine Jackson as a myriad of celebrities paid tribute to the King of Pop, who died at age 50 after suffering cardiac arrest June 25.

Katherine Jackson remains the children’s temporary guardian. A hearing is set for July 13. Debbie Rowe, mother of Jackson’s two eldest kids, has yet to announce if she will seek custody.

“Those three children will have the most incredible grandmother that God has put on this earth to take care of them,” said Magic Johnson at Tuesday’s memorial. “Michael’s three children will have incredible uncles and aunts to take care of them as well, and [plenty] of cousins!”

At the end of the memorial, Paris Jackson took the microphone and spoke of her father. That was the saddest part of the whole thing. Well, that and Brooke Shields giving an account of her memories of him.

What did you like about the memorial? What could you have done without?

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The event gets underway 10 a.m. at the Staples Center in Los Angeles. Kobe Bryant, Mariah Carey, Jennifer Hudson, Usher and Lionel Richie are among the celebrities who will participate. It is expected to run 6+ hours.

More than 1.5 million people entered a free draw for tickets and ticket holders began arriving in the early hours of Monday to collect their wrist bands for the six-hour show at the home of the LA Lakers.

Streets surrounding the stadium have been closed off by an army of 3,200 police officers.

Organizers expect upwards of one billion people to tune in via CBS & MTV in the US, BBC2 & Sky in the UK and on the web all round the world. Experts are saying the service is expected to be the biggest event in the history of the internet.

ICYDK will continue to cover the memorial all day – so check back here!

Brooke Shields says she “instantly became friends” with Michael Jackson after meeting him when she was 13.

“Nothing was jaded about him. I just was so impressed by his sweetness,” Shields tells Rolling Stone’s special commemorative issue on the King of Pop, on stands Friday.

He was thoughtful, sensitive, sweet, and had a funny sense of humor,” she goes on. “If you got to talk to him about music or about the future of technology, his voice would get deeper, he would start talking, and it was as if he was this genius.”

Sexuality didn’t play a role in their relationship, she explains.

“As he grew older and the more he started to change physically, the more asexual he became to me,” Shields says. “It was easy for him to be a friend to me, because I was the most celebrated virgin ever; it’s ridiculous, but I was America’s virgin.

“You saw women who were more sexual, who wanted to throw themselves at him and feel like they were going to teach him; we just found each other, and we didn’t have to deal with our sexuality. As I grew up and started having boyfriends, I would share with him, and he was like a little kid who talked about the bases- what first base was, what second base was, and it sounded very odd to the outside, I can imagine, but to the inside, to someone who’s never really left his bubble, you can understand how he would be curious.” Shields continues.

“There were times when he would ask me to marry him, and I would say, ‘You have me for the rest of your life, you don’t need to marry me, I’m going to go on and do my own life and have my own marriage and my own kids, and you’ll always have me.’ I think it made him relax. He didn’t want to lose things that meant something to him,” she adds.

She last saw Jackson at Elizabeth Taylor’s 1991 wedding.

“He seemed like his own funny self,” she says. “We snuck in and took pictures of ourselves next to her dress. We always seemed to revert to being little kids. It was a sanctuary for him, because he knew I never wanted anything from him but his happiness.”

Source, Bauer-Griffin

Corey Feldman showed up at Michael Jackson’s public memorial Tuesday at L.A.’s Staples Center dressed as the King of Pop.

He arrived at 10:19 a.m. dressed as the singer from his Dangerous era – wearing all black, a military-style jacket, a black fedora and sunglasses. He also had strands of his hair hanging in front of his face – a ‘do Jackson famously sported.

Feldman used a Kleenex to wipe tears from under his sunglasses.

John Mayer gave him a puzzled look.

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(All the Jackson brothers, who served as pallbearers, also wore sparkly silver gloves.)

Feldman befriended Jackson in the 1980s. The two had a rocky relationship during Feldman’s teen years and eventually drifted apart. They didn’t talk for several years before Jackson’s death.

After Jackson’s June 25 death Feldman wrote on his website: “I am trembling and shaking at the moment and it is very hard to type. I am filled with tremendous sadness and remorse. All I choose to remember from this point is the good times we shared and what an inspiration he was to me and the rest of the world. Nobody will ever be able to do what Michael Jackson has done in this industry, and he was so close to doing it all again. I am truly, and deeply sorry for all of the heartbroken fans and supporters worldwide. I think I am still in shock. So I must end this now.”

Source

The event gets underway 10 a.m. at the Staples Center in Los Angeles. Kobe Bryant, Mariah Carey, Jennifer Hudson, Usher and Lionel Richie are among the celebrities who will participate. It is expected to run 6+ hours.

More than 1.5 million people entered a free draw for tickets and ticket holders began arriving in the early hours of Monday to collect their wrist bands for the six-hour show at the home of the LA Lakers.

Streets surrounding the stadium have been closed off by an army of 3,200 police officers.

Organizers expect upwards of one billion people to tune in via CBS & MTV in the US, BBC2 & Sky in the UK and on the web all round the world. Experts are saying the service is expected to be the biggest event in the history of the internet.

ICYDK will continue to cover the memorial all day – so check back here!