The Hype

The Jacksons

The Jackson family's dispute over Michael's estate has exploded in the last few weeks into an extremely ugly public battle. Michael's siblings were reportedly furious that they've been left out of a cut of the massive estate, all of which was left to Michael's three children Prince, Paris and Blanket and his mother Katherine. Randy Jackson has claimed that the will is a fake and that the executors are conspiring to isolate Katherine Jackson, who was named as the children's guardian, from the rest of the Jackson family. At stake is the $86,000 a month that is paid to the children's guardian to look after them, and hundreds of millions more that forms the bulk of the estate's assets. Claims that Katherine Jackson had been 'kidnapped' by family members and taken to Arizona, fuelled by tweets made by Paris Jackson claiming that they had been unable to contact their grandmother for 9 days saw Katherine's guardianship suspended - with Tito Jackson's son T.J. replacing her. The estate's executors released a statement that they were concerned to protect the children from "undue influences, bullying and greed."

Photo by Getty Images Jul 31, 2012