(Fox News) – Joe Jackson, the patriarch of the Jackson family music group and father of pop icon Michael, died Wednesday following reports of a cancer diagnosis, according to TMZ. He was 89.
The famous patriarch was best known for his reported complicated relationship with late son Michael Jackson.
The pop star, who died on June 25, 2009, released a shocking tell-all in 1988, which was edited by former first lady Jackie Kennedy Onassis, according to The New York Daily News.
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,” wrote the King of Pop. “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.”
