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Michael Jackson’s Ex-Wife Worried Doctors Were Giving Him Too Many Drugs

Debbie Rowe
Michael Jackson's ex-wife Debbie Rowe worried that his doctors were giving him too many drugs

Michael Jackson, who often seemed larger than life, was deathly afraid of pain, according to Debbie Rowe.

Rowe, Jackson's former wife and the mother of his children Prince and Paris, testified about her ex as part of the civil lawsuit that the entertainer's mother, Katherine Jackson, and his children have brought against concert promoter AEG Live. The Jackson family has alleged that the company is responsible for Jackson's 2009 death, because it negligently hired and supervised Dr. Conrad Murray, the physician convicted in his death in 2011.

Rowe, who was married to the King of Pop from 1996 to 1999, explained that she met Jackson in the early '80s when she was working for his dermatologist, Dr. Arnold Klein, and spoke with the singer regularly — at first just as friends — until they were divorced.

During that time, Rowe saw Jackson taking prescription drugs from multiple doctors for pain following the 1984 incident in which he was burned and his lupus diagnosis. He respected doctors, she said, and believed that they wouldn't do anything harmful.

"Michael had a very low pain tolerance and his fear of pain was incredible," the medical assistant told the court. "I think the doctors took advantage of him that way."

Rowe, who broke down in tears during her testimony, said the high-profile client caused doctors Klein and Dr. Steven Hoefflin, an L.A.-based plastic surgeon, to try and outdo each other. They weren't even the "Thriller" crooner's only doctors.

"Those idiots were going back and forth the whole time," Rowe said.

She was concerned, she added, that the two were giving Jackson too many drugs.

"The only physician who ever did anything, the only physician who cared for Michael was Allan Metzger," she noted, referring to Jackson's former private physician.

The judge has told jurors in the trial that it could last until late September.

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