Joh'Vonnie Jackson: 'I feel dejected by my half-siblings'

Michael Jackson's secret sister JohVonnie reveals her pain at being shunned by half-siblings
Exclusive from Ryan Parry in Dallas 14/09/2009



Michael Jackson’s secret sister today tells of her heartache at being shunned by her famous family for 35 years.

JohVonnie Jackson, whose mum was a lover of Jacko’s dad Joe, is close to her father and amazingly gets on with family matriarch Katherine.

But almost all JohVonnie’s well-known brothers and sisters treat her as an outcast and she never got to meet Michael until she was 29.

She would even attend Jacko’s and Janet’s concerts but was not allowed to speak to them while La Toya would ignore her in shops.

Mum-of-one JohVonnie, 35, said: “I feel rejected by some of my family. It’s upsetting and hurtful.”




JohVonnie Jackson yesterday told how one of her biggest letdowns at the hands of her famous family came when she finally got to meet her brother Michael.

JohVonnie – who for years had been forced to admire him from afar – got the chance she had long dreamt of when the clan gathered at his Neverland ranch in 2003 and she was given a rare invite.

She was thrilled to come face-to-face with him for the first time at 29 but dismayed that Jacko showed no warmth towards her and was more interested in her eight-year-old daughter Yasmine.

JohVonnie, now 35, recalled: “It was a big moment for me. But Michael was looking at me and seemed cold. He just said, ‘Hi’ and then he saw my daughter Yasmine and was fascinated with her.”

Jacko said “Hi” to the youngster but had to be corrected when he mispronounced her name with a J.

JohVonnie went on: “He said, ‘OK, Yasmine with a Y’, and that was it. He never acknowledged that I was his sister, there was no hug or kiss, not even a handshake. No physical contact at all.

“I wanted to embrace him. I thought he would want to go some place quiet and sit and talk with me and ask me about my life and get to know me a little better.

“It was very hurtful. He was not interested at all.”

The King of Pop’s aloofness to her was in stark contrast to the warmth he showed his young niece.

She added: “With my daughter he was totally different. She got hugs and kisses, everything I didn’t get. I was a little jealous. But there was a bunch of people there and I never did get a chance to speak to Michael properly. Again, there was this theme that I felt shut out.”

JohVonnie spent the night at a nearby hotel rather than on the sprawling 2,700-acre California ranch.

When she returned to Neverland the next day, Yasmine was again made to feel at home, while her mother never got to see Michael.

She said: “Michael was in the main house. Yasmine and Paris were off playing for hours. Paris is such a sweet girl.”

JohVonnie instead chatted to brother Jermaine and sister Rebbie but added sadly: “None of my other siblings acknowledged me much.”

Family insiders claim Jacko’s coldness was because he believed Joe loved her more than the other children.

She was born in 1974 during a 25-year affair between Jackson family patriarch Joe and mum Cheryle Terrell.

Joe would visit them frequently and shower his love child with gifts.

In her early 20s JohVonnie even moved in with Joe in Las Vegas when he lived away from the family home.

His wife Katherine knew of the affair but her devotion to the Jehovah’s Witness faith led her to forgive him and accept JohVonnie.

La Toya Jackson claimed in her memoirs Growing Up In The Jackson Family that Katherine referred to JohVonnie as a “bastard child”. Yet JohVonnie found Katherine incredibly warm, even letting her and Yasmine stay in the family home in Encino, California.

And she ended up calling her “mother” like the rest of the clan.

JohVonnie explained: “I hung on to what La Toya had said.

“But then I met Katherine and I couldn’t even see her saying anything like that about me. She was really nice to me.

“I think she was very hurt at the time of the affair. That’s totally understandable. No woman likes for her husband to go cheating on her and produce a child. It was probably heart-breaking.

“But she had come out of that, she let me live in her home, me and my daughter, and I took care of her home when she was not there. We’ve cooked together and have had good conversations.”

JohVonnie says she is also “ very, very close” to Rebbie. However, her relationship with the rest of her famous brothers and sisters is very different. She said: “I met Janet when I was 15. I saw her that one time and it was clear she never wanted to have a relationship with me. I couldn’t really understand why.

“She was staring at me and checking me out and as soon as she heard me call Joseph ‘Daddy’, she switched off, turned her back and never spoke to me again.”

Things were just as difficult with La Toya. She said: “I would be shopping in a department store and would see La Toya.

“But I couldn’t go to talk with her because I didn’t feel she wanted to talk to me.”

As a youngster, school bullies had taunted JohVonnie because she was Michael Jackson’s sister – even though he wanted nothing to do with her. She recalled: “I got beat up every single day because I was JohVonnie Jackson.

“I had the hardest childhood. It was just as blue as Michael’s and just as blue as my other brothers and sisters.

“But then I grow up and found they don’t want to have anything to do with me.

“I got so irritated with my parents because I didn’t ask to be here.”

For years JohVonnie looked up to her famous siblings and even went to dozens of Janet and Michael’s shows – but could never talk to them.

She said: “Through Daddy I would get tickets to all the concerts. I was amazed at Michael’s talent. I remember thinking as a little girl, ‘He looked at me, he saw me’.

“I would sometimes go to see them back stage but I could never get to talk to them. You could not get close at all. It was frustrating. I also didn’t have any access to telephone numbers.

“I didn’t want to go through my father’s things and it wasn’t really something that was talked about.”

Now she remains philosophical about the rift between her and the rest of the Jackson clan. She said: “It is what it is. I love my brothers and sisters no matter what they do, what is said about them, how they act, it’s unconditional for me.

“The door is always open and my phone is always there.

“They can always call me if they need me for something.

“But I don’t feel that that is extended for me. I feel rejected by some of the family. It’s upsetting and hurtful.”

stavdash wrote:Hmmm. Too bad for her she doesn't have Katherine's genes to temper Joe's.

FightSleep wrote:

Nystyle709 wrote:Well, she looks nothing like the Jacksons. You know they can't deny being each others sibling. That would make it was easier for them to reject her.