Katherine Tells Joseph to ‘Get Out!’
By the summer of 1982, Katherine Jackson simply couldn't take any more of Joseph's unkind behaviour. Whatever had happened with Gina Sprague, it had certainly been a nasty bit of business. Joseph wouldn't learn, however; either his appetite for women was insatiable or he simply couldn't fill whatever emptiness he felt in his heart. Looking back on it now, it seems he may have been inflicting his own pain on Katherine to make her identify with him, so lonely and marginalized did he feel in the family. Whatever his hidden motivation – and maybe even he didn't understand it – Katherine suspected he was having another affair.
One day, after a series of ‘hang-ups’ – when she answered the phone there would be no one on the other end – Katherine walked into the kitchen to tell Joseph that she was leaving the estate to go shopping. He kissed her goodbye, on the top of the head. As she walked down the driveway, the telephone rang again, just as she suspected it might. She calmly walked into the guest house and, once there, took a deep breath and picked up the extension. She listened in as Joseph spoke to the woman with whom he was apparently having a romantic relationship. He sounded sweet, happy. Katherine later recalled her heart tightening in her chest. She felt unsteady and breathless, as if she'd been punched in the stomach.
Once the conversation was over, Katherine's steps carried her down the driveway and back into the front door of her home. She found Joseph in the living room, his feet up on the couch, as if he hadn't a care in the world. Holding him with her eyes for a moment, she couldn't believe, as she would later tell it, that he would do this to her… again. She cleared her throat, loudly.
‘Oh. Hi, Kate. I thought you were gone,’ he said, springing to his feet.
‘I'll just bet you did,’ she responded. ‘I heard your conversation with your little
girlfriend
,’ she remarked, spitting out the words. ‘You bastard, you.’
Then, she let him have it. She pummelled him with her fists. She pulled his hair. She threw a vase at him. When he ducked, she lunged for him, again. There was no stopping her. ‘I don't want you any more, Joseph,’ she screamed at him. ‘I don't
need you,
any more. I want you out of this house. You're nothing to me, now.’
Joseph was floored, at least for a moment. ‘Okay, okay,’ he said, his hands up in defence. ‘Not even going to give me a chance to explain, huh?’ he asked. Now, his tone was even, well-controlled. It seemed as if he was trying to act unconcerned. How upsetting, Katherine would later say, for him to act as if he didn't have enough invested in the moment to even be troubled by it.
‘Doesn't anything ever get to you?’ she asked, angrily.
‘Of course,’ he said, sadly. ‘You did, Katie. When I first fell in love with you.’
‘Get out!’
As he turned to walk out of the room, a shaking Katherine Jackson grabbed a silver-framed photograph of the two of them from a table and hurled it to the floor with everything she had in her. She was filled with such contempt for Joseph, she didn't even know what she was doing. The glass smashed to smithereens, a fitting metaphor for her life.
The next day, 19 August 1982, Katherine quietly filed for divorce. Her action got practically no press coverage. She was discreet, not wanting to jeopardize the family's image with a public and volatile divorce. In her petition, she said:
‘Approximately one year ago, Joseph told me that we were running short of money. I asked him questions about the business and he told me to “stay out of the business”. I am informed and believe that within the last year, Joseph has spent in excess of $50,000 on a young woman and has purchased for her parcels of real property from our community funds. I am fearful that unless restrained by an order of this court, Joseph will continue to dissipate community funds and transfer community funds in jeopardy of my community property rights.’
Though Katherine had only a vague idea of exactly how much community property existed, she wanted to keep Joseph from transferring or otherwise disposing of any of it. The property she was aware of included her interest in the Encino home, furniture, furnishings, and other personal property, her interest in Joseph Jackson Productions and in various bank accounts. She made a list of the rest of the community assets: a 1979 Mercedes-Benz (colour not indicated in legal documents), a 1971 blue-grey Mercedes-Benz, a 1971 white Rolls-Royce, a 1978 brown Mercedes-Benz, a 1971 blue Rolls-Royce, a 1974 G.M.C. motor home, a 1981 Toyota truck, a 1980 white Cadillac limousine, a 1978 Ford van, two boats (day cruisers) with trailers, and a Keogh financial plan.
There was only one snag in Katherine's declaration of independence. Jerome Howard, who would become her business manager in 1988, recalled, ‘She told me that after she filed for divorce, she naturally expected Joseph to move out of the house. However, he refused to leave. So what could she do?’
‘This is my house, too,’ Joseph told Katherine, defiantly. ‘You're my wife, I love you, and it's going to stay that way.’
Michael could not remain neutral and uninvolved. ‘You have to kick him out,’ he told his mother. ‘Or call the police. Or get a restraining order. But he can't stay here just because he wants to.’
Katherine would not discuss the matter with Michael, or any of her children. This was her cross to bear, not theirs.
‘This is killing me,’ Michael told his oldest sister, Rebbie, according to her memory. ‘I will never get married. I will never trust a person in that way. I couldn't bear to go through this again.’
‘But, Michael, this is their life, not yours,’ she said in her most compassionate voice. ‘You will live your life differently. Trust me.’
‘But how do you know that?’ Michael asked, his eyes red from crying. ‘Mother never planned any of this for herself, did she?’
‘No, I'm sure she didn't,’ Rebbie said, embracing him. ‘I'm sure she didn't.’