左がパリスちゃんで右がマーク・レスターの娘ハリエットちゃん。まるで瓜二つ。

私の大好きな映画の一つでもある『小さな恋のメロディ』（1971年）で、子役スターの地位を手にいれたマーク・レスターが６月に死亡したマイケル・ジャクソンさんの追悼コンサートでむせび泣きながら父親に別れを告げたパリスちゃんについて、自分が友人として親しくしていたマイケルに精子を提供し、その結果生まれたのがパリスちゃんである可能性が高いと告白していた。このニュースは、今年の8月頃に報じられていたんだけど、すっかり見逃していた。

下の動画は、マーク・レスターが8月9日付のイギリス大衆紙「ニューズ・オブ・ザ・ワールド」にパリスちゃんの父親は自分であることを告白したもの。マーク・レスターというと、金髪で巻き毛のイメージがあったけど、大人になったら、すっかり顔つきまで変わっちゃったみたい。



レスター氏は、９６年にジャクソンさんに頼まれて精子を提供し、その２年後にマイケルの長女パリスちゃんが誕生した。自分の娘ハリエットちゃんとそっくりな顔の骨格や青い目の特徴があることから、「自分の娘に違いない」と話している。別にだから、彼女を引き取りたいとかそういった考えは全くなく、マイケルの娘としてこれからも定期的に会ったり、電話で話したりなどして、面倒をみていきたいと語っている。



ただ、特にパリスちゃんが「エホバの証人」の経典を持った写真を見たときに、親権を持つ祖母のキャサリンさんの指導で、『エホバの神』の宗教に入信させられそうになっていることに困惑し、どんな宗教を信仰するのも個人の自由だが、マイケルが知ったら嫌がるだろうし、子供にとって決して健康的であるとはいえないと心配している。


マーク・レスターがトレーシー・ハイドと共に一世を風靡した『小さな恋のメロディ』（1971年）。



二人が学校をサボって海に行く場面。ダニエル（マーク・レスター）がメロディ（トレーシー・ハイド）にプロポーズするシーン。きゃ、可愛すぎ～。

【More・・・】

I'm real father of Michael Jackson's girl, claims Mark Lester
News of the World By Guy Basnett, 09/08/2009

WHO'S the daddy? Michael Jackson's dearest friend Mark Lester looks at the King of Pop's daughter Paris and is convinced HE is.

In an astonishing interview, Jacko's long term pal confessed to the News of the World that he secretly donated sperm to help the singer have children.

Until two weeks ago the child star of Oscar- winning classic Oliver! had not told ANYONE his story - not even his wife. Even now he has only shared it with his closest family members.

But today Mark, 51, is speaking out, convinced by the uncanny and growing likeness of 11-year-old Paris to his 15-year-old daughter Harriet (pictured above). He is certain he fathered them BOTH. And he has pledged to take a paternity test to PROVE it.

You can see Mark speaking on video below on this page.

"It's been a secret for so long," said Mark. "In 1996 Michael asked me if I would give him my sperm and I said yes. It was a gift to him, no money was paid, it was something I was honoured to do. He wanted children so badly."

And Mark, now an osteopath and acupuncture specialist, is only speaking out now because after Jacko's death he fears he will be manouevred out of the lives of his Godchildren - Paris, 12-year-old Prince and Blanket, seven.

Battle

"With Michael's mother Katherine now their legal guardian it's like the kids are being isolated," he said. "Up until Michael's memorial I was in touch with them on a weekly basis.

"I'm the Godparent to them and Michael was Godparent to all my four kids. Our two families spent a lot of time together, and had a lot fun together. Now I'm not able to have any communication with the children. My repeated phone calls aren't returned and emails go unanswered.

"This isn't what Michael would have wanted. I feel I have to come forward, as my only way of saying, 'Please don't shut me out!'"

Mark said he has spoken to lawyers to establish his rights to contact the children. He then revealed in detail how Jackson:

HATCHED the sperm donor plan because he was scared to have normal SEX.
JOKED about making donor babies using a TURKEY BASTER.
BOOKED Mark into a special London clinic for the procedure, and
SHARED countless holidays and intimate moments with the Lester family.
The plan for Mark to donate sperm to Jackson - whose hits include The Girl Is Mine-came in a series of incredibly candid phone calls. The pair had been the closest of friends after immediately bonding when Jackson first invited Mark to his room in London's Montcalm Hotel for a meeting in 1981.

Both had been thrust into the public spotlight at an early age - Mark in the title role of 1968 smash hit Oliver! and Jackson from his days as fresh-faced star of the Jackson Five.

But by January 1996 - with both men then aged 37 - Michael confessed his desperation to be a dad. At that stage Mark already had three young daughters of his own, Lucy, Harriet, and Olivia.

But Jackson was worried he would never father his own kids because his crippling shyness, and fear of the scary groupies who came on to him, meant he would not have sex with anyone.

"Michael found it very difficult to have relationships with women," said Mark. "He found the sexual act something he couldn't do. When he was about 16 or 17 he had a very famous female child star who basically jumped on him, naked in his hotel room, and tried to seduce him.

"He became very scared, and found it so disturbing he couldn't perform. Michael wasn't gay. But I'd say he was asexual.

"He was very conscious of his own body. He had vitiligo (a skin lightening condition). Believe me, it wasn't just his face that was white, he had it all over.

"Then in one of our regular phone conversations he said he realised having kids was a natural thing but that he just couldn't do it.

"I mentioned the fact there are alternative ways of going about it. We even joked that you can use a turkey baster, referring to artificial insemination. "I think he'd already tried using his own sperm but it hadn't worked for him, so I made an off-the-cuff comment saying: 'Try mine!'

"He'd already asked me how many times I'd had to try in producing my three girls. And I'd said that I didn't need to worry, because it seemed that I couldn't STOP having kids.

"So after I said 'Try mine' there was this silence on the phone for a moment. Then Michael said, 'Did you mean that?'

"Around a month or so later we had another chat about it and he said 'You know you were talking about the sperm donation, would you do it?' I ummed a bit but then said 'Yeah.' I half expected it not to happen.

"Michael was prone to say things that might not then happen. For instance, Richard Branson was launching plans for his new shuttle into space, and Michael called me saying he wanted me to come with him on a trip to the moon.

Aura

"He said he wanted to moonwalk on the moon, and wanted me there to be his buddy.

"I didn't expect it to happen, but I accepted. He had an incredible aura about him. Whatever he said, however short notice, you'd go along with it.

"Sperm donation was the same. It's something I wouldn't do for anyone else. But I wanted to do it for him. I didn't know if it would happen. But I was honoured to do it." Mark, who now lives in Cheltenham with second wife Lisa and the four children from his first marriage - Harriet, Lucy 18, Olivia, 14, and Felix, 10 - was told to expect a phone call.

That conversation was shortly after Jackson split from his first wife, Elvis Presley's daughter Lisa Marie, in January 1996.

And around a month later, in March, an employee at a confidential private clinic in London's Harley Street, rang Mark to set up an appointment.

Mark, who had given up acting, was working in London on a course at the British School of Acupuncture in Holborn, just a few stops away on the Underground.

Mark said: "The talk with Michael about had at first been light-hearted. It was all a bit of a giggle. There was nothing that serious until I got the call from the clinic.

"I arranged to to in one lunchtime and they said I mustn't have sex for three or four days before."

Over the next four weeks he was asked to give three samples of sperm.

Before his first donation there was a blood test. Then he was shown to a room and given a small plastic cup to keep his side of the arrangement.

"I went in a bit sheepishly and came out a like a teenage boy leaving a porn film," recalled Mark.

"I'm not sure if the clinic knew that it was anything to do with Michael Jackson. I don't think they knew where the sperm was going or who it was for. I just did it and walked away from it.

"I think they separate some of the fluid and freeze it. From then on it can be transported anywhere quite easily."

Jealousy

Incredibly Mark didn't tell his then-wife Jane what he'd done for his old pal.

He said: "She'd have knocked it on the head. She had an animosity to Michael, maybe because of our closeness. There was a jealousy thing going on so I didn't discuss it with ANYONE. I just did it, and put it out of my mind. I didn't even know if I was the only person Michael asked." In fact the donation was never mentioned again even between the two men, despite the closest of relationships that endured right up to Jackson's sudden death in Los Angeles six weeks ago.

Eight months after the donor procedures, in November 1996, Jackson announced he had married skin-clinic worker Debbie Rowe.

And three months after that the couple revealed the birth of their first child Prince.

Paris followed just over a year later, on April 3, 1998. And Rowe has admitted being artificially inseminated using anonymous sperm.

Mark told us: "Michael never mentioned who the artificial insemination would be with. I later assumed it would be his wife. We just never spoke about it again."

But as time went on Mark noticed a growing similarity between Paris and his own daughter Harriet, born around four years earlier in December 1993.

Their pictures clearly show both share the same facial bone structure that also made Mark a child star when he first hit the big screen as Dickens' cherubic street urchin.

Mark said: "Paris is very pale, with blue eyes. All my daughters, apart from my eldest, are fair with blue eyes. So many people have commented on how alike Harriet and Paris look. Our families often holidayed together and staff, especially nannies, watching the children play together would say how similar the two girls looked."

Jackson turned to Mark for support during the most difficult periods of his life, and the Lesters made countless trips, including stays at Neverland ranch, to be with him and his family.

Mark was with Jacko in a Miami hotel when he watched the Martin Bashir documentary which led to his 2005 trial for sex abuse.

And he joined the star in Bahrain after he was cleared of all charges.

He was also in Berlin's Adlon Hotel in 2002 when Jackson hit the headlines dangling Blanket from a fourth floor balcony.

And the pals had made plans for their families to spend this summer together at rented houses in England.

Relaxed

The trust between the two men was so great that during Jackson's visit to London in March, to launch his Docklands comeback concerts, Mark took the singer's children to London's West End shops and the circus.

That was the last time Mark saw Jackson. They travelled together in the car to the press conference at the O2 arena. And the whole Lester family spent the weekend with Jacko at the five-star Lanesborough Hotel.

Mark said: "Michael was really relaxed. He wasn't unfit and showed no sign of being unwell."

In his last few months Jackson was ringing Mark at home every Sunday. They last spoke five days before the singer's death.

"We were on the phone for about an hour," said Mark. "Michael wanted to speak to all the children, one by one. We were talking about the show. He wouldn't tell me what was in it. He wanted it to be a surprise."

The last time Mark spoke to Michael's children was at the memorial service. He was walking past the convoy of family cars when Paris spotted him and called him over.

Hugged

"The children were in the back of a car with Katherine (their grandmother)," said Mark. "I didn't want to intrude too much. But Paris wound down the window and we hugged.

"She said they had presents for us all back at the house, gifts they were planning to bring to England this summer. I was telling her please not to worry about it. I've been very worried about how the children would react to everything.

"But I spoke to them a day after Michael died and was amazed at how strong they were being. I was in bits on the phone and Paris said, 'Daddy is with the angels.'

"I do feel a definite bonding with Paris and I think there's a definite possibility that she's part of me.

"I want to have contact with her, Prince and Blanket regardless of whether any or all of them are mine. I think it's cruel that I've now been excluded from them."

Mark is also concerned about the kids being pushed into becoming Jehovah's Witnesses, the strict religion favoured by granny Katherine. His worry grew after spotting a photograph of Paris clutching a Witness book.

"Michael would have hated it," he said. "I respect their beliefs but in my opinion it's not going to be very healthy for the kids."

Speaking from his French holiday villa near Cannes he added: "I'd like regular contact with the children. It feels like they're being isolated. They need to be interacting with other kids, getting back a normal life, and being with friends.

"I've tried to get in touch, spoken to the Jackson household, left messages. But no one's called me back. And they know damn well that I've been a part of those kids' lives for years." Now Mark - whose videoed interview can be seen here - has spoken to lawyers about being able to see the children in future.

He added: "I'll push all the way for contact with her, Prince and Blanket.

"I feel it's important. I love those kids so much. We've had great times together. I don't know if I'm doing the right thing speaking out. But I'm not trying to make any claim on anything. Even if it's proven Paris is biologically mine I wouldn't see her as anything other than Michael's daughter. He raised her.

"Michael was a brilliant, brilliant dad. Those kids are Michael's children. He was their father. End of story. But I just want to make sure they're happy."

No-risk babies

By Hilary Jones, News of the World GP

DONATED sperm is screened for certain medical conditions and quarantined for six months. This helps ensure babies born are healthy and there are no risks to the recipient.

The clinic then takes a sample and removes any abnormal sperm, leaving about 15 per cent of the original sample.

That sperm is treated with cryo-preservative to protect it at low temperatures and then frozen to -190°c with liquid nitrogen.

It is stored in a sealed container and a medical courier transports it overseas. Frozen sperm can be stored for many years.

It is common for men to donate to close friends without going through legal or formal agreement.

In such cases, the donor is usually asked to sign a consent form forgoing any kind of legal obligation towards the child.

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