Joseph's Secret
Many people today think of Michael Jackson as an enigma. It's ironic that, twenty-some years ago, his father, Joseph, was thought of in exactly the same way – if not by the public, most certainly by his family and friends. ‘Sometimes, I think he leads a double life,’ Michael said of his father back then. ‘He is a very mysterious person.’ Of course, Joseph's other life involved the women with whom he had assignations outside of his marriage. But was there more? In 1980, office employees at Joseph Jackson Productions began to suspect that their boss was trying to hide more than just infidelity.
By early 1980, a nineteen-year-old employee named Gina Sprague had become particularly close to Joseph. Gina is of Mexican-English-Irish descent. At five feet five, one hundred pounds, with shoulder-length brown hair, she was vivacious, intelligent and gorgeous. Joseph was taken by her. However, she insists that she and Joseph were not having an affair, though many Jackson intimates do not believe her. They were, she says, just close friends. ‘He needed a friend,’ she said. ‘He was so estranged from his family. Sometimes, he would need to talk. I was there for him. I knew he had a reputation of being a womanizer, but that is not what our relationship was about.
‘If he believed in you, he gave you enough strength and courage to try and attain your goal, even if you didn't think you could do it. OnceI knew him, I could understand why the family had become superstars. I had to remind Joseph that he should be proud. I used to tell him, “Sure, Michael and the rest get all of the attention, but look at where they came from.”
‘“The kid hates my guts,” he said of Michael. I said, “Joseph, that's not true.” He said, “You haven't seen the way he looks at me.” There were tears in his eyes. “The kid hates me, Gina. Hates my guts. They all do.”
‘One thing that struck me very strange is that Michael and his brothers and sisters called him Joseph,’ she recalled. ‘The first time Janet came into my office she was about thirteen. She walked in and, in a very flip manner, said, “Hello. Where's Joseph?” Or Michael would call. “Hello, Gina, this is Michael. Is Joseph there?” And I would say, “Your
father
is in a meeting at the moment.”’
One day Gina, concerned about Joseph's recent mercurial behaviour and mysterious disappearances, asked him what was going on in his life. ‘I'm not gonna tell you,’ he said with some hesitation. ‘Instead, I'll show you.’
Joseph then drove Gina to a building in a suburban Los Angeles neighbourhood where he introduced Gina to Cheryl Terrell. Then, a small African-American child of about six years of age came bounding into the living room. ‘Daddy! Daddy!’ she exclaimed.
‘There she is,’ Joseph said with a big smile. ‘My little girl.’ He scooped the child up in his arms and hugged her tightly.
As he later explained it, Joe and Cheryl Terrell had an affair in 1973. The result of that relationship was a daughter, Joh'Vonnie, born in Los Angeles on 30 August 1974, the day after Michael's sixteenth birthday. Joseph Walter Jackson's name appears on the birth certificate. His occupation is listed as ‘entertainment manager’. His age was recorded as forty-six at the time of the baby's birth; the mother's age, twenty-six.
Joseph kept the secret for many years but by 1980 he had decided to tell his family about his daughter. He wanted to become more involved in her upbringing and wanted her to be recognized as a member of the family.
After breaking the ice with Gina, Joseph gathered his sons together in a dressing room after a performance to tell them that they had a half-sister. One can only wonder what he thought their reaction to such news might be – and why he decided to tell them the news
before
telling Katherine? Of course, they were all upset. The sons then told the daughters, who were also hurt and angry. The children then wrestled with the question of how to tell Katherine, or, if they even
should
tell her. What a burden it was for them to have this information. In the end, according to LaToya, one of the brothers – it's not known which one – told Katherine. Of course, she was overcome with understandable emotions.
After she and Joseph had it out, there was nothing to do but deal with the situation as it existed. As a practical woman committed to family values, Katherine put her feelings aside and agreed that Joseph had a responsibility to Joh'Vonnie and to her mother. As a way of providing for them, she and Joseph purchased a three-bedroom home in Van Nuys, a suburb of Los Angeles, for $169,000. As a trustee of his daughter's estate, Joseph then signed the property over to Joh'Vonnie. She and her mother then moved into the home. Katherine could do no more than that. Her nephew, Tim Whitehead (Tim's mother was Katherine's sister, Hattie, and his father is Joseph's stepbrother, Vernon), said, ‘Joseph wanted the child to be accepted into the family, but there was no way that was going to happen, I'm afraid. It was too painful for my aunt, and for the children. This was difficult, heartbreaking.’
According to Jerome Howard, Joseph's and Katherine's former finances manager, ‘Katherine told me she went into the grocery store one day and saw Joseph's girlfriend and the daughter. She said she just stood there, frozen. “Jerome, the girl looks
exactly
like Joseph,” she said.’
Though Katherine seemed to be acting in a logical and sensible manner, she was not as unfazed by the news of Joh'Vonnie's existence as she may have wanted people to believe. Michael would indicate later that it was at this time that he sensed an emotional transformation in his mother. She rarely smiled during these days. Her temper would flare over unimportant matters. She ever swore from time to time, which was unusual, and had called Joh'Vonnie a ‘bastard’. When Michael protested, she suggested that if he looked up the word in the dictionary, he would find that she was using it properly. Apparently, Joseph's indiscretions had worn her down, chipped away at her self-esteem, her pride. She now sometimes seemed bitter and angry.
Even though Katherine was going through an ordeal, and the family was being torn apart by the recent turn of events, the Jacksons had no choice but to continue to express a strong sense of unity to the media. Public relations was an important consideration. The family had been turning away from reality and toward image-making ever since they arrived in Los Angeles from Gary. However, for Michael, nothing would ever be the same. Joseph's actions had resulted in the ultimate betrayal of his mother, indeed his entire family, and Michael would have a difficult time dealing with his father on any level, for many years. Despite what people may have thought, Michael somehow expected more from his father.
Though Katherine was clearly angry, and had good reason to be, she was a religious woman who desperately wanted to be a forgiving Jehovah's Witness. She would not confide in anyone about her fury, would not discuss her hurt over what had happened with Cheryl Terrell and Joh'Vonnie. It was just a matter of time before her suppressed rage would erupt, especially when she heard rumours in the summer of 1980 that Joseph was having an affair with Gina Sprague, the woman in whom he had first confided about Joh'Vonnie. Some of her friends felt that Katherine Jackson was much like a time bomb, ticking, ticking, ticking… about to explode.