Uri Geller says Oliver! star is Paris Jackson's father

Published on Sunday 9 August 2009 21:59

FORMER child star Mark Lester is the biological father of Michael Jackson's daughter Paris, the late pop star's close friend, Uri Geller, claimed yesterday.

Lester, who shot to fame in the musical Oliver! and was a close friend of Jackson, said yesterday: "I gave Michael my sperm so he could have kids – and I believe Paris is my daughter."

Lester, 51, said he was willing to take a paternity test to find out the truth. He is godfather to Paris, 11, and Jackson's two other children, 12-year-old Prince and Blanket, seven.

"It's a been a secret for so long. In 1996 Michael asked me if I would give him my sperm, and I said yes. It was a gift to him, no money was paid, it was something I was honoured to do. He wanted children so badly."

Lester added: "I do feel a definite bonding with Paris, and I think there's a definite possibility that she's part of me.

"I want to have contact with her, Prince and Blanket regardless of whether any or all of them are mine. I think it's cruel that I've been excluded from them."

The father of four, who played Oliver Twist in the hit Sixties film of the musical Oliver!, said the resemblance between his daughter Harriet, 15, and Paris has been noted.

"Paris is very pale, with blue eyes," he said. "All my daughters, apart from my eldest, are fair with blue eyes. So many people have commented on how alike Harriet and Paris look."

Geller claimed he had known "all along" about the paternity issue, because Jackson had told him. He said: "As a close friend of Mark, I respect his own situation to reveal this information at this time. I knew it all along simply because Michael told me.

"Mark has his own reasons. I really have to respect them."

Geller declined to go into details of exactly what he knew, but said he had spoken to Lester. "I am with him on this because of the information he told me," he added.