--- description: LOS ANGELES: Some said it could never happen, but, in the end, Michael Jackson proved them wrong. The King of Pop became the father of... title: Dadstory image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- * [U.S.](/section/us/) # Dadstory by [Elizabeth Owen](/author/elizabeth-owen/) Feb 13, 1997 5:00 AM CUT by [Elizabeth Owen](/author/elizabeth-owen/) Feb 13, 1997 5:00 AM CUT LOS ANGELES: Some said it could never happen, but, in the end, Michael Jackson proved them wrong. The King of Pop became the father of a healthy baby boy at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center at 1 a.m. today. The New York Post reported that Jackson’s wife, Debbie Rowe Jackson, actually gave birth early yesterday evening while a surgical-robe-clad Jackson looked on, tenderly murmuring, “My beautiful little boy.” Other tabloids focused on what they said were the couple’s unusual financial arrangements. One said that Mrs. Jackson will receive $1.24 million for bearing her husband a child and will rake in $2.4 million for Jackson to receive custody if the couple ever divorce, while a London paper put the payout at a relatively modest $528,000 for Jackson Junior’s birth and said that the couple had used artificial insemination — two charges that Jackson heatedly denied. The Jacksons left the hospital, notable also as the birthplace of Madonna’s daughter, Lourdes, at about 8 a.m. Thursday morning, their destination unknown. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/archive/6929737/dadstory/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/archive/6929737/dadstory/"},"headline":"Dadstory","datePublished":"1997-02-13T05:00:00.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-22T07:26:00.261Z","description":"LOS ANGELES: Some said it could never happen, but, in the end, Michael Jackson proved them wrong. The King of Pop became the father of...","url":"https://time.com/archive/6929737/dadstory/","keywords":[],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Elizabeth Owen","url":"https://time.com/author/elizabeth-owen/"}],"articleSection":"U.S.","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/us/","name":"U.S."}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/archive/6929737/dadstory/","name":"Dadstory"}}]}] ```