Family member hunts for cash hours after Michael Jackson's death
JACKO'S nanny told how she was stunned by his family's money-grabbing reaction to the star's death.
Grace Rwaramba, the woman closest to Jackson and his three children, was in London when news of the tragedy broke on Thursday.
As she prepared to board a plane to fly home and comfort the orphaned kids Grace got the call from one of the Jackson family which shocked her to the core.
She told interviewer Daphne Barak: "The relative said, 'Grace, you remember Michael used to hide cash at the house? I'm here. Where can it be?'
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"I told them to look in the garbage bags and under the carpets. But can you believe that? They just lost Michael a few hours ago and already one of them is calling me to know where the money is!
WATCH: Daphne Barak interviews Michael Jackson nanny Grace Rwaramba on video
"They also told me the children were crying and asking about me. They can't believe their father died."
This is the first time Grace, 42, has broken her silence on her 17 years with Jackson - five as his secretary and 12 as nanny.
In candid conversations she revealed sensational details of the pop king's secret life, how he:
- DOWNED so many drugs she had to pump his stomach on many occasions to prevent a fatal overdose.
- SPONGED off generous pals' handouts and loans.
- SPENT weeks living in the basement of a former employee's cramped home recently because he was BROKE.
- TERRIFIED his children who actually HATED the masks he forced them to wear in public.
Choking back tears, Grace spelled out her fears over the orphaned kids - Prince, 12, Paris, 11 and seven-year-old Prince Michael II, known to the family as Blanket - and admitted: "I'm really distraught for them. Michael hadn't been eating and the kids have been so scared for him.
"Now the youngest has been saying,'Why Daddy? God should have taken me not him.' "
I told them to look in the garbage bags and under the carpets
Uganda-born Grace, 42, revealed she fled America to join TV interviewer Barak at her Swiss holiday home after she was abruptly sacked by ailing Jackson just two months ago. And on Thursday she screamed with shock as she learned of his death.
Grace now finds herself at the centre of the billion-pound custody battle for the children - now being looked after by Jacko's mum Katherine, 79. The eldest two were born to Jackson's second wife, former nurse Debbie Rowe.
Grace told Daphne: "I took these babies in my arms on the first day of each of their lives. They are MY babies."
Grace claims she was sacked by Jackson because she was getting too close to the children but had fully expected to be reinstated soon.
She said he routinely fired her then begged her to return as he was unable to look after himself never mind the three children.
She told Daphne: "These poor babies. . . I was getting phone calls that they were being neglected. Nobody was cleaning the rooms because Michael didn't pay the housekeeper.
"I was getting calls telling me Michael was in such a bad shape. He wasn't clean. He hadn't shaved. He wasn't eating well. I used to do all this for him and they were trying to get me to go back."
Grace claimed that while she gave the children a loving and stable influence they had a cold, uneasy and sterile relationship with their oddball father, with whom she was at the centre of marriage rumours in 2006. She said: "I used to hug and laugh with them. But when Michael was around they froze. I really miss Blanket. He makes me laugh. Only recently, he decided to do a concert for me. He was so cute, singing Billy Jean and other songs by his father.
"I was laughing so hard. Prince and Paris were playing around. It was such a happy moment. Then suddenly Michael walked in and the kids just looked frightened. Michael was so angry."
As for the masks Jacko made the kids wear in public, Grace revealed: "They didn't like them. It wasn't my idea. I hated it as well. So whenever I had a chance I misplaced the masks or 'forgot' to pack them.
"Michael always got angry. But what was most shocking to me is that the children don't even have a teacher. They can't play with other children and don't have a teacher to help them learn about the world."
Grace also said Jackson had permitted the black religious movement the Nation of Islam to exert an influence over him and his children.
She said: "He allowed this woman from the Nation of Islam... she was so cold and didn't know how to hold them or how to hug them."
Last night Jacko's close pal Deepak Chopra confirmed: "The kids love Grace and kids called her mum. And she was the only person that told Michael the truth about his life."
Grace also revealed to Barak - who has interviewed Robert Mugabe and Amy Winehouse - how Jackson had overdosed on drugs before.
She had to step in quickly to save his life. Jacko was taking a deadly daily drug cocktail including up to three powerful narcotic pain relievers, including the potent Demerol.
Grace said: "I had to pump Michael's stomach out many times."
The nanny told how the 2005 child abuse case left Jackson with so little money he relied entirely on handouts and cash loans from friends.
Astonishingly she told Barak, who had recorded a series of TV inteviews with her, that even when he DID get money he preferred to blow it staying in strings of posh hotels rather than providing a stable home.
She said: "The truth is Michael didn't have money. One day out of the blue he received some cash but instead of buying a house somewhere so we didn't have to keep moving from one hotel to another or stay with friends, he told me, 'Go to Florence and buy antiques.'
"He asked me to spend £600,000. But we didn't even have a home so we had to put them all into storage."
Grace told how Jacko had so little understanding of financial matters that cash had to be paid into HER bank account, then drawn out and given to him like pocket money.
She said that after the 2005 child abuse case he was left skint and his brother Jermaine "connected him" to Sheikh Abdullah, son of the mega-wealthy King of Bahrain.
She said Abdullah "sponsored" Jackson - paying for lawyers and other huge expenses - because he thought the singer was going to create a charity and make a CD with him.
Grace said: "Abdullah called me one day and asked for my bank account to send money for Michael. It was just over £600,000, then another £21,000. Other Jackson relatives needed money too. So Michael told me to give them my ATM card. They were taking cash out of the machine every day."
Grace said that after Abdullah later sued Jacko, the singer at first denied ever getting money from him.
And the cash machine withdrawals by his relatives only stopped when she threatened to report them to the IRS, the US tax authorities.
But she added: "Michael just did not have a clue about have money.
"The Nation of Islam was telling him that the house we had in Los Angeles, after Neverland was sold, cost £60,750 a month.
"But I checked with many real estate agencies. To rent this house should not have cost more than £12,000-15,000.
"And once he got a £600,000 offer to make an appearance in Japan. But there were a lot of different business parties involved and I warned him that by the time everyone took their cut he would end up with a very small amount. He didn't want to hear. He flew to Japan and got £121,500.
"Then he got a second proposal to go to Japan and this time there was only £121,500 on the table.
"He went and then decided on the spur of the moment to attend the birthday party of the son of Sultan of Brunei. He spent all the money from Japan staying in a big expensive hotel."
Grace revealed how, shortly before his death, Jackson was forced to bed down in the New Jersey basement of one of his former employees.
"We were running out of friends," said Grace. "But we suddenly showed up at the home of Frank Tyson. Now Frank's family isn't rich. They have a small house. But we stayed there for weeks. I felt so bad."
Grace also feared the pressure of his forthcoming London O2 comeback tour had taken its toll on Jackson.
She believed he was in such a state that he did not even REALISE he had signed up for 50 dates.
The tour had been eagerly awaited as the King of Pop had not set foot on stage since a disastrous appearance at the World Music Awards in 2006, when he managed to sing only two lines of We Are The World.
Grace said: "Fifty performances! I said, 'What are you doing?' He said 'I signed only for 10'. He didn't know what he was signing. He never did."
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