Jacko 'is not the father'

Michael Jackson may lose custody of two of his children after his ex-wife claimed yesterday that he is not their true father.

The singer's son Prince Michael Jnr, aged six, and daughter Paris, five, were born after Debbie Rowe was artificially inseminated with anonymously donated sperm, she says.

The claim is in a legal dossier to be filed in California within two weeks as Ms Rowe battles to win custody of her children by saying Jackson is an unfit father.

The lawsuit comes after Jackson, 45, was charged with sexually abusing a teenage cancer sufferer at his Neverland ranch.

The singer, who denies the abuse claim, and Ms Rowe were said to

have entered a surrogacy agreement in 1996, nine months before they wed. Jackson was so obsessed with controlling the creation of each child he reportedly imposed a sixmonth sex ban on Ms Rowe before insemination.

Ms Rowe, 41, said she received a £6million pay-off, a £1.6million Beverly Hills home, a car, clothes, furs and jewels. Jackson still pays her £35,000 a month.

In the surrogacy agreement, Ms Rowe agreed to 'knowingly and voluntarily waive my right to contest Michael's paternity of either child' and 'consent to Michael being declared the father'.

After giving birth to Prince Michael Jnr, Ms Rowe was inseminated again four months later and Paris was born in April 1998.

By October the following year, the couple were divorced.

Jackson went on to have a third child, Prince Michael II, with a different woman, who has yet to be identified.

Ms Rowe, who worked in a Beverly Hills dermatology clinic visited by Jackson, said she was prepared to take custody of Prince Michael II.