Jackson's kids to Oprah: He was the best dad ever

story by CNN

More than a year after his passing, Michael Jackson’s parents and children appeared on Monday’s episode of “The Oprah Winfrey Show,” sharing personal memories of the late pop star.

During the pre-taped program, Katherine Jackson spoke on topics ranging from her son’s childhood to what she describes as the worst day of her life, his death on June 25, 2009.

In August, 2009, it was determined that Jackson died from an overdose of the powerful anesthetic Propofol. Mrs. Jackson told Winfrey that she spoke to her son only once about drugs, which he denied using.

“He kept saying, ‘My own mother don’t believe me,’” Mrs. Jackson recalled. “I was telling him I didn’t want to hear one day that he had overdosed because it would break my heart.”

Conrad Murray, who was Jackson's personal physician, is headed back to court in January facing a charge of involuntary manslaughter in Jackson's death. When asked what she would like to say to Dr. Murray, Mrs. Jackson replied, “Why didn’t he take care of my child? Why did he give that to him?”

As an adolescent, Mrs. Jackson said, Michael thought of himself as “ugly.” "He would say, ‘I’m just so ugly I don’t want to go out there.’ One day he just made up his mind ... he went down and got his nose done,” she recalled.

Mrs. Jackson said she believes her son was addicted to plastic surgery, and was too embarrassed to admit the amount of surgeries he underwent. At one point, she said, Michael’s nose looked “like a toothpick.”

During the course of the interview conducted at the family’s Encino, California home, Joe Jackson weighed in on Michael’s development as well.

“I never beat Michael like the media tried to say,” he said. After Mrs. Jackson revealed that her husband disciplined the children using a strap, Joe Jackson told Winfrey that he doesn’t regret his disciplinary style. “It kept them out of jail and raised them right,” he said.

Michael’s kids, meanwhile, reminisced about their favorite memories with their dad, such as the fact that he was a great cook.

“He tried to raise us without [us] knowing who he was, but that didn’t go too well,” Paris explained to Winfrey. “He was just a normal dad, well, except for he was the best dad ever.”

Since his passing, Mrs. Jackson said, “I think of my son all through the day, all the time. I think of the things he used to do when he was a little boy, the jokes he used to tell. I have a lot of good memories. That’s one thing they can’t take away from me.”

More of her memories can be found in her book, entitled “Never Can Say Goodbye: The Katherine Jackson Story” filled with 150 pages of never-before-seen photos. Mrs. Jackson told Winfrey, “I wanted to do (the book) for his fans and for the people that misunderstood him.”