After Omer Bhatti attended Michael Jackson’s Staples Center Memorial Service, sitting in the front row with the Jackson family, old rumors resurfaced that Omer Bhatti might be Michael Jackson’s oldest son. The rumors might have started with Michael Jackson himself. Media sources claim that Michael Jackson called Omer Bhatti his son, and created a fantastical story behind it.

As we await the answer to Bhatti’s alleged request for a DNA test, we can certainly conclude that he’s not the child from the long debated lyrics in Thriller’s Billie Jean. Omer Bhatti was born in Norway in 1984, two years after the song’s release. When the rumors swelled that there was a boy hanging around Neverland that looked exactly like the King of Pop, “fair and balanced” Fox News reported in 2004 that it wasn’t true. It is true that Omer Bhatti bears a resemblance to Michael Jackson, and Jackson reportedly told close associates that Omer was born out of a 1987 fling with a Norwegian woman. Jackson supposedly claimed that he’d sent caretakers to the woman’s home to look after Omer, and Omer understood that he had to keep his paternity a secret.

When Omer’s constant presence at Neverland gained public attention due to the raid on Neverland Ranch in 2004, Fox News sources sought answers. They learned from their associates in the Jackson camp that Omer is not Michael Jackson’s son, and Michael Jackson had never known Omer Bhatti prior to their publicized meeting in 1996. The sources said that Jackson had only claimed the boy out of pressure over his appearance at Neverland. Witnesses stated that Michael Jackson met Omer Bhatti for the first time in the lobby of an Oslo hotel, where the boy performed his Michael Jackson impersonation for the star. Jackson became instantly fond of the boy, and he moved the entire Bhatti family, including his mother Pia and father Riz, to Neverland. Pia accepted a job as Prince’s nanny and Riz became one of Jackson’s drivers.

Omer has visited and lived at Neverland Ranch off and on until the time that Jackson vacated the estate. He also reportedly visited Michael Jackson during his detox in Colorado, making him the only nonrelative allowed access. Omer Bhatti grew up to mimic Jackson’s dance moves, and obtain a recording contract under the name O-Bee, with Jackson’s help.

If Michael Jackson actually did claim Omer Bhatti as his son, his reasons for doing so remain unclear. However, during the Jackson molestation trial, it was reported that the accuser called Michael Jackson “Daddy.” It’s possible that Michael Jackson allowed this because Gavin Arizo hadn’t had a stable family. Omer’s family history hasn’t been divulged, but Michael could have claimed Omer for the same reason. Michael was also never allowed to call his father, Joe Jackson, “Daddy,” so he could have longed for that type of connection before his own children were born. I, personally, allow my nieces and nephews’ friends to call me aunt, and I’ve heard my nieces call a close friend of their parents uncle once.

 My conclusion is that Omer Bhatti is not Michael Jackson’s son for a couple of practical reasons. First, Omer Bhatti wasn’t mentioned in Michael Jackson’s will. It’s incredible to believe that Jackson would have left his oldest son out of the will, especially if they had been so close. Second, from personal experience, whenever I see black and white mixed children, they always have curly or kinky hair. Black people have curly hair, so tight sometimes it looks like coils. Our thick, curly hair seems to be a dominant trait, even when mixed with other races. Omer’s hair appears to be bone strait. Granted, it could have been permed, but even in the funeral pictures, with his buzz cut, Omer’s hair doesn’t look like a mixed person’s hair. Third, someone’s story doesn’t jive chronologically, because Bhatti couldn’t have been born in 1984, and also in 1987. Lastly, Omer Bhatti apparently already has a father, Riz Bhatti.