Like his siblings, Blanket Jackson made headlines when he was born. However, he wound up at the center of controversy as an infant. In November 2002, Michael Jackson and his children were staying at the Hotel Adlon in Berlin, when Jackson appeared from the window of his fourth-floor hotel room, about 60 feet above the sidewalk below. Responding to the fans who’d gathered on the street, Jackson held the baby in one arm, with his other hand holding a small facecloth atop the baby’s head to conceal his face. Jackson quickly dangled the squirming, kicking infant over the railing before whisking him back inside.
The moment was captured on video, greeted with shock, horror, and outrage that Jackson — who appeared to nearly lose his grip on the baby — would do something so reckless and foolhardy. As The Washington Post reported, Kevin O’Sullivan, editor of the British tabloid The Mirror, eviscerated Jackson in an editorial, headlined, “Mad Bad Dad,” writing, “The Berlin police should arrest this negligent father for reckless endangerment of his own child.”
The backlash was severe enough that Jackson quickly issued a statement to apologize for what he’d done. “I offer no excuses for what happened. I made a terrible mistake,” the singer said in a statement, as reported by the Post. “I got caught up in the excitement of the moment. I would never intentionally endanger the lives of my children.”
