Joe Jackson, the patriarch of the Jackson family, has died from Stage 4 pancreatic cancer, aged 89.
Tributes from his family have come through on social media, including his Michael’s son Prince and grandson Taj Jackson, who confirmed the death on Twitter asking for privacy. However, the father of 11 was famously estranged from many members, including his wife Katherine, with many allegations that Joe abused his children.
Trigger warning: This post references physical and sexual abuse.
Joe and his wife Katherine with their family in 1971.
In the 1960s and ’70s, Joe was the driving force behind the iconic band, the Jackson 5, which consisted of his sons Jermaine, Jackie, Tito, Marlon and Michael. From there, Michael’s music career took off, though the King of Pop revealed later in life that he and his siblings endured long, arduous rehearsals and were punished for their mistakes physically.
“If you messed up during rehearsal, you got hit,” Michael said in J Randy Taraborrelli’s biography.
“Once he ripped the wire cord off the refrigerator and whopped me with it … I would fight back and my father would kill me, just tear me up.”
At the time of Michael’s death, the two were estranged and Michael left nothing in his will to his father.
Recently, Joe suffered from serious health problems including several strokes in 2013 and in 2015, he had a pacemaker installed after suffering from another stroke and three heart attacks.
Michael had a tense relationship with his father.
In 1991, Joe’s daughter La Toya said her father molested her as a child.
“When your father gets out of bed with your mother and gets into bed with his daughter and you hear the mother saying, ‘No, Joe, not tonight. Let her rest. Leave her alone, she’s tired’, that makes you crazy,” she wrote in her memoir.
Joe is survived by his wife, children and more than two dozen grandchildren.
