Five years after his death, Michael Jackson is still a provider for his family

Since his untimely death at the age of 50, the pop megastar has continued to generate a massive income for his family.

Michael Jackson’s estate pays for his three children to have a chef as well as private education and security. Cliff Schiappa / AP Photo

It’s been five years since Michael Jackson died, yet his career is more alive than it had been in decades.

Just last month, the singer moonwalked across a Las Vegas stage in a nationally televised hologram performance. A new album recently debuted at No 2 in the charts. And a travelling Cirque du Soleil show based on Jackson’s songs has logged nearly 500 performances worldwide.

The result has been an estate that has earned more than US$600 million (Dh2.20 billion) since the King of Pop’s untimely death at age 50.

As would be expected, the past five years have brought their share of change and adjustment for Jackson’s children, known to the world as Prince, 17; Paris, 16; and Blanket, 12. They were at their father’s rented mansion on June 25, 2009, when he was given an overdose of the anaesthetic propofol in his upstairs bedroom, and the hospital several hours later when he was pronounced dead. It would take more than two years before Jackson’s doctor was convicted of involuntary manslaughter.

Prince testified about his father’s influence on the children, but Paris was hospitalised during the trial after authorities responded to a 911 call made because the teenager had cut herself with a knife and taken pills.

Lawyers and family members, including T J Jackson (a co-guardian of the singer’s three children), have said she is fine, but offered no further details. According to relatives, Paris took her father’s death the hardest.

The father who taught his children philanthropy, threw them lavish birthday parties and meticulously masked them from the paparazzi is gone. Michael Jackson, however, continues to provide.

Nearly $20m was spent to support Jackson’s children and his mother, Katherine, through 2012. Adulthood will bring a sizeable inheritance for each child.

In the meantime, lawyers have busily untangled Jackson’s finances. Among the more than $137m in disbursements between mid-2009 and the end of 2012, $45m was paid to the federal government for taxes.

Jackson’s children live with their grandmother in the celebrity enclave of Calabasas. The estate pays for private schools and tutors, a chef, private security and family holidays.

“Michael’s number one priority was his children, not wealth or fame,” said Tom Mesereau, the lawyer who successfully defended Jackson against child molestation charges and stays in touch with his family.

“He wanted them to get the best education possible,” Mesereau said. “He wanted them to be worldly.”