Joe Jackson, the patriarch of of the Jackson family and father of pop superstar Michael Jackson, died Wednesday at age 89, according to a TMZ report later verified by Fox News.
Best-known for his complicated relationship with his late son, Michael, Joe Jackson reportedly was battling cancer.
Monday marked the ninth anniversary of Michael Jackson’s 2009 death. Michael claimed his father beat him.
“My mother told me I would fight back even when I was very little, but I don’t remember that,” Michael Jackson wrote in a memoir. “I do remember running under tables to get away from him and him getting angrier.”
Michael alleged his father turned violent during rehearsals with The Jackson 5.
“If you messed up you got hit, sometimes with a switch, sometimes with a belt,” Jackson wrote. “Dad would make me so mad at him that I’d try to get back at him and get beaten all the more.”
“We had a turbulent relationship,” he admitted. “Most of the time we just rehearsed. We always rehearsed… He’s still a mystery man to me and he may always be one.”
