The youngest son of Michael Jackson has started a feud with his own grandmother this week, as its revealed that he wants to stop her spending estate funds in an ongoing legal battle over the potential sale of his father’s music catalogue.
According to TMZ, Blanket ‘Bigi’ Jackson, 22, filed paperwork with the US court earlier this week seeking to block his grandmother Katherine Jackson, 93, from using estate funds to pay for legal bills.
While the legal documents didn’t identify the direct issue of the unpaid legal bills, the Daily Mail reports that it is likely related to the ongoing music catalogue negotiations. Just last month, courts approved a partial sale of the estate to Sony for $600 million, which went against many of the family’s wishes.
This is why this most recent development comes as a surprise to many as, until now, Blanket and Katherine have remained on the same side in negotiations, stating their resistance to a proposed sale.
It is made even more surprising when taking into account Blanket’s relationship with Katherine, who raised him as his legal guardian after his father Michael Jackson died in 2009.
But Katherine’s interest in appealing a recent court ruling, which decreed that further sale negotiations may continue, appears to have prickled Blanket, who has moved to block Katherine from using the family estate to fund the legal bills of the appeal.
According to TMZ, attorneys for Blanket told the court that he thinks the appeal will be unsuccessful, and doesn't want to depreciate the value of the Jackson estate by racking up expensive legal bills.
The legal team then allegedly requested that the court “use its best judgment” in ruling for Katherine’s reimbursement for “reasonable attorney's fees” she had amassed prior to appealing the court's ruling.
Court documents reportedly also state Blanket’s wishes to keep this matter under wraps, but the revelation of the most recent filing has blown the negotiations wide open and sparked rumours of a bitter feud within the family.
Blanket’s lawyers attested that the 22-year-old is “a very private person” and “may have said nothing if he knew that his words or positions could become public.” They continued: “That, in turn, would have denied the trial court of the ability to hear and consider all aspects of the proposed action.”
The family’s stance in continued opposition to a sale was once explained by Katherine in an earlier court hearing, where she said that her son was very clear in stating that he never wanted his catalogue to be sold, as he felt it was his “lifeline”.
It is also not the first time a rift has been suspected between Katherine and Blanket. In 2017, when Blanket was 15 years old, Katherine resigned as his legal guardian, a position which she shared with Blanket’s cousin T.J. Jackson, making T.J the sole carer.
"Katherine is no longer needed to fulfill the duties that were necessary when joint-guardians were appointed on September 14, 2012," read a court document at the time. "Given her own age and the fact that [Blanket] is now 15 years old, Katherine feels that T.J. is able to assume all necessary responsibilities the guardianship."
A source told Radar Online that the dynamic had switched, and that Blanket was allegedly having to take care of his grandmother, not the other way around. “TJ has been a father figure to those kids since Michael’s death and he always puts their needs before his own,” the source told Radar Online. “The current situation that Blanket has been in is not working for anyone, and they needed to get a different situation going stat.”
