By Roger Friedman

There’s a young man at Michael Jackson’s Neverland Ranch who looks just like
Michael, dances like Michael and — according to the King of Pop himself — is
Michael’s biological son.

Not so, my sources say.

The young man, Omer Bhatti, is currently staying at Neverland and has been
with the singer on and off for the last eight years.

Jackson has told several of his closest associates that he is the boy’s
father, and that Omer’s mother is a Norwegian fan with whom Jackson had a
one-night-stand around 1987.

According to Jackson’s story, because the fan was unable to take care of the
baby, she allowed Jackson to send two employees to Oslo to raise the baby as
their own. Omer, according to the story Michael offered, was told he was
Michael Jackson’s son, but that the fact had to remain a secret in order to
ensure his security and privacy.

However, Jackson only told my sources that the boy was his biological son
after questions arose about the boy’s constant presence at Neverland Valley
Ranch.

In fact, my sources tell me it’s not possible that Jackson is Bhatti’s
father, and that 1996 newspaper reports of Jackson’s first meeting the
family in front of a Tunis hotel are accurate.

One Jackson insider, who was with the singer when he met Bhatti, told me: “I
met the mother and the boy with Michael. We were afraid she was stalking him
in the hotel lobby. But then we met her, and the boy did his imitation of
Michael.”

Jackson, according to my sources, was so taken with the boy and his family
that he “adopted” them. He immediately moved them from their native Norway —
the father is Pakistani, the mother Norwegian — to Neverland.

Says another Jackson insider: “I’m not surprised Michael says he’s the
father. It’s a fantasy. But these people did not exist in Michael’s life
before 1996.”

Sources told me that the boy’s parents have long been on Jackson’s payroll.

“Michael hired Omer’s parents to work for him,” say two of my sources. “The
mother, Pia, became a nanny for Michael’s son, Prince, when he was born a
few months later. The father, Riz, became a driver for Michael.”

Omer, dressed like Jackson’s “mini-me,” has traveled the world with the
singer. There are photographs of him on tour with Jackson in places like
Japan and Poland. The pair, at least superficially, resemble each other.
Bhatti, even as a 12-year-old, had long flowing black hair, white-ish but
not exactly Caucasian skin, and an upturned nose. In a February 2003 NBC
“Dateline” special that showed home movies of Christmas 1998 at Neverland,
Bhatti is seen receiving gifts from Jackson and hugging him gratefully over
and over. A voice-over intones: “Here’s a boy who looks like Michael getting
gifts from him.”

Back in Norway, Omer has become a local celebrity thanks to his Jackson
connection. In 2001, Jackson dedicated his “Invincible” album to one of
Omer’s friends, an Afro-Norwegian boy named Benjamin Hermansen who was
killed by neo-Nazis. Bhatti has also picked up a following as something of a
Michael Jackson imitator, doing moonwalk-like steps to public acclaim.
Bhatti also made news when he announced that Jackson had agreed to let him
record some of his songs with a local rapper named Jae-R in Norway. Bhatti
subsequently signed a record deal to perform under the stage name O-Bee.

But more recently the relationship has put Omer in negative headlines. Last
November, he and two male friends made the newspapers in Norway, when the
parents of one of the pals complained that she had not heard from her son in
some time. This was the same time as the Nov. 18 police raid on Neverland,
where the boys turned up. Evidently the police did not ask who the three
young men were as they barreled through the singer’s ranch with search
warrants.

Last winter, Omer surfaced again when tabloid photographers shot pictures of
him with Jackson in Colorado during the singer’s self-proclaimed “detox”
vacation. Bhatti was cited by Norwegian newspapers as Jackson’s only
non-family visitor on the trip.

Last month, when I made queries about Bhatti and his status at Neverland and
with Jackson, several insiders insisted Jackson had told them recently that
Omer was his biological son. (Calls to Jackson’s brother Randy, his manager,
have not been returned.)

Among those who confirmed they had heard the story of Omer being Jackson’s
son are former Jackson employees Marc Schaffel and Stuart Backerman. Their
take on Omer will be included in a forthcoming book.

The question remains, then, why has Michael Jackson said that Omer Bhatti is
his son? Here’s one explanation: “Michael wants to have more children than
his father,” says a friend. “He’s very competitive with him.”

But how would he get away with it? According to the same friend: “Omer is
very beautiful. He looks like a child Michael could have had with a
Norwegian woman. But trust me. Omer is not his.”

Source: FOX News

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