Jackson family patriarch Joe Jackson has been hospitalized with terminal cancer, TMZ reports.
The 89-year-old is reportedly in the hospital with cancer that cannot be treated, according to sources. Jackson’s wife, Katherine, and some of his children and grandchildren have reportedly visited him.
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Sources say Jackson has been battling the illness for some time and is “at the end stages.” Doctors have reportedly spoken to his family.
Jackson is the father of the late Michael Jackson as well as singer Janet Jackson and nine other children.
Sources told the Daily Mail that Jackson has been sick for months but recently “took a turn for the worse.”
“He’s very very frail, he doesn’t have long,” Joe’s son Jermaine Jackson told the outlet. “The family needs to be by his bedside – that’s our only intention in his final days.”
During this time, Joe has reportedly been at the center of a controversy involving visitation by his family, with his handlers reportedly stopping senior members of the family from visiting him. After a Jackson family meeting and requests to Joe’s manager, Charles Coupet, family members were granted access on Thursday night.
“No one knew what was going on – we shouldn’t have to beg, plead, and argue to see our own father, especially at a time like this,” Jermaine said. “We have been hurting. We were not being told where he was and couldn’t get the full picture. Even from the doctor. My mother was worried sick.”
He added, “It’s what any family would want, but some people around him think they know better…and they don’t.”
Joe reportedly gave verbal instructions stating that he did not want his family or any visitors to see him or his medical records, with the instructions existing on a phone recording.
“If it’s true there was verbal instructions from Joseph, we’d like to know how that instruction was obtained,” one family member said.
A source close to Janet Jackson said that the star had also been denied access to her father. Joe’s daughter Joh’Vonnie Jackson, his sole child not with Katherine, has also reportedly not been allowed to see her father despite their close relationship.
Katherine and Joe’s daughter Rebbie Jackson reportedly last visited the patriarch at his home in Las Vegas last week.
“The people around Joe Jackson are the people who have been there for him in his everyday life,” one source said. “They are acting in his interests and no one else’s.”
“The Jackson family doesn’t have the capacity to deal with this on its own, so certain people are taking charge of the situation. It’s delicate… and not as black and white as people are making out,” the source added. “The Jacksons are now in dialogue with the people looking after Joe, and they are being kept informed.”
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