What Michael Jackson's Ex-Wife Debbie Rowe Looks Like These Days As She Embraces Aging Naturally
Debbie Rowe, the ex-wife of Michael Jackson, hasn't been seen much in the media, especially since her highly publicized divorce from the King of Pop back in 1999. Rowe made headlines on a few rare occasions afterwards, notably in 2016 when she revealed her breast cancer diagnosis, and later in 2022, appearing in the TMZ documentary, "Who Really Killed Michael Jackson," when she admitted she felt "partly to blame" for Jackson's death. Then in early 2026, the former nurse resurfaced online in a handful of unexpected social media snaps, courtesy of her once-estranged daughter Paris Jackson.
Rowe was again spotted during a June 2026 outing in her Palmdale, California neighborhood, looking almost unrecognizable. Dressed casually in a T-shirt and jeans, the now 60-something appeared noticeably older as she was seen leaving a local bank branch in footage obtained by the Daily Mail UK. Her signature blond hair was tinged with gray highlights, while her face — seemingly untouched by any cosmetic tweaks — suggests she's embracing aging the natural way.
While there has long been speculation doubting whether Michael Jackson was the biological father of any of his three children, Paris Jackson says she has no doubt that Rowe is her real mother because of their uncanny resemblance. "We look a lot alike," she told Red Table Talk in 2021. Then later, in a 2026 Mother's Day post, Jackson, who has had a head turning transformation over the years, affectionately celebrated her mother as "the lady they used for my template during the cloning process" alongside photos of the two posing together.
What is Debbie Rowe up to these days?
Rowe sold the million-dollar Beverly Hills home that she was awarded in her divorce settlement from Michael Jackson (along with $8 million dollars). The house had been her refuge, with Rowe telling CBS News in 2005, "Everybody needs a safe place, and it should be their home."
For Rowe she opted to find her next "safe place" on a ranch in Palmdale, California, where she reportedly lives with her partner, music producer Marc Schaffel. The ranch is also where she went to pursue her longtime dream of working with horses. According to the New York Post, Rowe is widely known in the horse community for breeding and training quarter horses for reining competitions. "She works with some of the best trainers in the country," Heidi Allyn, of the LA Equestrian Center in Burbank, told the outlet. Rowe boards her horses at the center, and Allyn describes her as someone who "keeps herself to herself, but is very nice and normal. She is very pleasant to everyone she meets."
However, according to reining expert Tom Foran, the respected horse breeder has never actually ridden any of the horses herself. "In the beginning, she expressed a desire to ride and to do reining, but I was never really able to get her in the saddle," Foran recalled to the New York Post. "Reining isn't for everyone. There's a lot of sweat involved in learning how to do it well." Adding, "I think she enjoys the breeding best and watching the horses in competition."