Michael Jackson's Ex-Wives Mourn His Passing

Less than three hours after Michael Jackson's death was announced yesterday, Lisa Marie Presley filed a statement published by DigitalSpy.com saying she was "so very sad and confused with every emotion possible." She said his children were "everything" to him and that she was "heartbroken" for their loss.  

Considering Lisa Marie's uber-loyalty to Michael since their split in 1996, the heartfelt statement comes as no suprise. She and Michael married in 1994 after a, well, odd courtship, decades after she first met him backstage at his concert when she was seven.  Their adult relationship progressed at lightning-fast speed, and after four months he reportedly proposed to her over the phone. She claimed their marriage was "sexually active" and stood by him through his reported drug addiction and the infamous accusations of his improper relationships with children, but 16 months after their wedding, Lisa Marie filed for divorce. All accounts suggest they remained pals after it was final.

Meanwhile, Debbie Rowe's reaction to news of the death of the father of her two children is that she was "inconsolable." Rowe is a co-animal lover and former dermatology nurse who met Michael during what she refers to as treatments for his skin disorders.  The two wed less than a year after MJ's divorce from Lisa Marie and just a few months after Debbie became pregnant with their artificially-inseminated son Prince Michael (now 12). They had daughter Paris Michael Katherine (named for the city in which she was conceived, also artificially), now 11, and divorced shortly after. (Jackson's third child Michael, 7, was mothered by an anonymous surrogate). Michael maintained full custody of the kids, but he and Debbie stayed friends. Adoption Or IVF: Do We Have To Decide?

Details of Rowe's role in the children's custody are breaking.

Update: Lisa Marie wrote a post on her MySpace blog about Michael.

Our relationship was not "a sham" as is being reported in the press. It was an unusual relationship yes, where two unusual people who did not live or know a "Normal life" found a connection, perhaps with some suspect timing on his part. Nonetheless, I do believe he loved me as much as he could love anyone and I loved him very much.

I wanted to "save him" I wanted to save him from the inevitable which is what has just happened.

His family and his loved ones also wanted to save him from this as well but didn't know how and this was 14 years ago. We all worried that this would be the outcome then.

At that time, In trying to save him, I almost lost myself.

He was an incredibly dynamic force and power that was not to be underestimated.

When he used it for something good, It was the best and when he used it for something bad, It was really, REALLY bad.

Mediocrity was not a concept that would even for a second enter Michael Jackson's being or actions.

 I became very ill and emotionally/ spiritually exhausted in my quest to save him from certain self-destructive behavior and from the awful vampires and leeches he would always manage to magnetize around him.

I was in over my head while trying.

I had my children to care for, I had to make a decision.

The hardest decision I have ever had to make, which was to walk away and let his fate have him, even though I desperately loved him and tried to stop or reverse it somehow.

After the Divorce, I spent a few years obsessing about him and what I could have done different, in regret.

Then I spent some angry years at the whole situation.

At some point, I truly became Indifferent, until now.

As I sit here overwhelmed with sadness, reflection and confusion at what was my biggest failure to date, watching on the news almost play by play The exact Scenario I saw happen on August 16th, 1977 happening again right now with Michael (A sight I never wanted to see again) just as he predicted, I am truly, truly gutted.

Any ill experience or words I have felt towards him in the past has just died inside of me along with him.