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Kids' nanny reveals grim routine

Last Updated 28 June 2009, 17:09 IST
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Los Angeles police had on Saturday confirmed news reports that Jackson had become “heavily addicted” to the powerful painkiller OxyContin and had received an injection of Demerol, another opiate, an hour before his death. Detectives are expected to interview Rwaramba about whether she helped administer the drugs.

The nanny said she once called in Jackson’s mother, Katherine, and sister, Janet, to attempt an “intervention” to persuade the singer to recognise his addiction to painkillers.
But she said Jackson accused her of betraying him: “He didn’t want to listen; that was one of the times he let me go.”

Rwaramba worked for Jackson for more than a decade, first as an office assistant and then as the nanny to his children, Michael Jr, known as Prince, 12, Paris, 11, and Prince Michael II, seven, nicknamed Blanket.

Rwaramba, who flew from London to Los Angeles on Sunday in the hope of being reunited with the children, gave the Sunday Times a grim account of the singer’s final months.

Lavish spending
She said the singer’s lavish spending was out of control, and that he led an increasingly nomadic lifestyle, moving from country to country and hotel to hotel.

Rwaramba was dismissed for a final time last December but still visited the children.
One theory behind Jackson’s massive drug regimen is that he was taking them to combat the stress of his forthcoming 50 shows at the O2 arena in London. The nanny said: “Fifty performances! I told him ... what are you doing? He said, ‘I signed only for 10.’ He didn’t know what he was signing. He never did.” Rwaramba also claims the Nation of Islam gained a growing influence over the singer’s financial and personal affairs. She says the sect told the singer it cost $100,000 (£60,000) a month to rent the mansion he was living in until his death, but she believes similar properties were on the market for no more than $25,000 a month.

“Michael had no idea about money,” Rwaramba said.
Whatever money Jackson had he would hide in black rubbish bags and under the carpets at the Los Angeles house, according to Rwaramba. She said Katherine Jackson rang her in London at 7am on Friday to ask where the money was, possibly to stop it being stolen.

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(Published 28 June 2009, 17:09 IST)

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