From OK! Magazine - By Paul Reaney

As Janet Jackson is approached to become the new Gossard girl and Michael Jackson prepares to be a dad again, their elder sister Rebbie is ready to bask in the family limelight. She reveals her plans to emerge as a star in her own right...

Rebbie Jackson often feels like the forgotten sister of the Jackson clan. But if it wasnt for her, headline makers Michael and Janet would not have had a babysitter when mother Katherine and father Joe were busy striking deals with record companies - starting what was to become a family show business phenomenon.
And if wasnt for level headed Rebbie (pronounced Reebie) , the infamous clan from Gary, Indiana, would not have have stuck so firmly together in the face of family feuds, controversial plastic surgery reports, and even allegations of Michael's child abuse.

"Bad press comes with the territory" she concedes . "It is something all Jacksons are born into and learn to live with. As the eldest, I probably have had more experience."

Home for Rebbie is a surprisingly modest four - bedroom property in the celebrity enclave of Agoura Hills near Malibu. The only trappings of a superstar are a maid and swimming pool, but the "lived in" family house , filled with photos of the family is nothing on the scale of her brother Michael's paradise of Neverland.

"My son (Austin who's 11) and I are regulars, looking at the animals, and going on the funfair rides... Michael's secretary even knows my son's voice!" Rebbie has never gone into great detail about the family's secrets but, at the age of 47, she's eager to step out of the shadows of her famous brothers and sisters and take centre stage for a change. After her last hit, 1984's Centipede- written for her by brother Michael - the self confessed chatterbox of the family is ready to let her music, not her surname, do the talking, "My son wasn't even born the first time I did all the recording and dance routines, so it's a big novelty for him to see his mom up there" she says, realising she'll be competing with the likes of the Spice Girls, whose producer Eliot Kennedy helped Rebbie on the new album, Yours Faithfully. which was released at the end of March.

But she knows she has the genes in her favour- music runs in every vein of her body, and her youthful looks, which often lead her to be mistaken for her sister Janet, who's is 16 years her junior."I can't even go into a supermarket or gas station without someone coming up to me for Janet's autograph or to tell me that I am not doing a bad job of impersonating her. Janet was my side once when this fan was adamant I was Janet, and she was just a pal."

Despite being the eldest of the Jackson children. Rebbie was reluctant to submit to what her heart was telling her to do. "I guess I tried to suppress my vocation at first, fearing criticis of, "Oh no, here comes another all dancing, all singing Jackson", but that's ridiculous. God gave me a gift", she says.

And at 25 she started using her gift when Rebbie held LaToya and Janet's hands as they joined The Jackson Five - brothers Michael, Marlon, Jackie, Jermaine and Tito on stage at the MGM , Las Vegas, in 1975. "I was so nervous I didnt want to let my family down. Michael taught me dance moves for a routine with Marlon and him," she recalls. "Michael was supposed to shoot fire from his hands in a stunt, except when the stunt went wrong, and I was left standing there staring at all these faces."

Sparks did fly, however, in Rebbie's love life from an early age, meeting her future husband Nathaniel Brown, a family friend and fellow Jehovah's Witness, at the age of 11. The two were childhood sweethearts and at the age of 18, Rebbie eloped with him. "We have been married for 30 years now. And from the time I decided to join my brothers, and sisters in Las Vegas to releasing a new album now, he has been beside me" she says. Rebbie has had to rely on Nathaniel who doubles as her road mangager, in tough times, including Jordan Chandler abuse allegations against Michael. She has always been close to her brother- even when Thriller made him a superstar, he reportedly donned disguises and went preaching with her, door to door- and what his accusers tried to portray was not the Michael she knows and loves.

"My son was coming home from school in tears because he was getting in fights defending his uncle," she recalls. "And in my youngest daughter Yashi's high school, the other kids were talking about it, not realising she was connected to the family, until she stood up with her voice trembling, and told them they were spreading lies."

One family member she has yet to to get the chance to accept is Michael's wife Debbie Rowe, the mother of his heir Prince Michael Jr. "I have never met Debbie, so I dont know what she's like," she explains. But one 'outsider' Rebbie is happy to befriend is Michael's first wife, Lisa Marie Presley. She says: "Her six year old son Benjamin is so in love with my two daughters - her flirts with them all the time when Lisa' s visiting my home!" When Rebbie's eldest daughter Stacee, 27 was looking for somewhere special to hold her wedding two years ago, Michael gave her the keys to Neverland. Stacee admits: "It's unbelieveable place and it was an unbelievable day. We had elephants with flower hats, and chimps in tuxedos. Our wedding pictures are unique. It was a shame Michael and my cousins - the band 3T - were on tour at the time. It was a quiet but grand Jackson reunion."

Rebbie was instrumental in another reunion - the Jackson Family Honours, a charity fundraiser, and she also helped produce a family album and TV movie, The Jacksons: An American Dream. On her new album, she teamed up with Michael on one of her favourite tracks, Fly Away. Rebbie recalls: "The first time Michael and I were in the studio together was for Centipede. He was dancing on the speakers to fire the energy in me."