Report: Rowe won't attend Jackson memorial

LOS ANGELES, July 6 (UPI) -- Debbie Rowe, mother of two of Michael Jackson's children, after first saying she would go now says she won't attend his Tuesday memorial in Los Angeles.

People.com reported her attorney, Marta Almli, said the "onslaught of media attention has made it clear her attendance would be an unnecessary distraction to an event that should focus exclusively on Michael's legacy."

Rowe, is the biological mother of Paris, 11, and Prince Michael I, 12, but has not been clear about whether she will seek custody, People.com said. Jackson's mother Katherine has temporary custody and says she wants permanent custody.

Jackson died last month at the age of 50 of a suspected prescription drug overdose.

Rowe gave birth to the singer's two elder children during their three-year marriage. The mother of Jackson's youngest child, 7-year-old Prince Michael II, has not been publicly identified.

Stuart Backerman, who said he represented Jackson from 2002 to 2004, told The Daily Telegraph he "didn't believe" the two older children knew Rowe as their mother during that time.

"The understanding in the Jackson camp was that she wasn't known as the mother," Backerman told the newspaper. "Debbie was known as a close friend or relative. It might have been a relative, or someone who was close but not related."

The report did not say whether Backerman thought Jackson's sons and daughter had been told who their mothers were after he left Jackson's employ.

Michael Jackson's will reportedly stipulated his children should be raised by his mother or by singer Diana Ross if his mother is unable to care for the kids.