Michael Jackson's kids had lonely birthdays

Los Angeles - Michael Jackson's kids had lonely birthday parties.

The late King of Pop's former bodyguards Bill Whitfield and Javon Beard claim Michael threw his three children - Prince, 17, Paris, 16, and 12-year-old Blanket - lavish parties complete with clowns, magicians and sumptuous cakes, but they never had friends to share their glamorous events with because of the singer's protective nature.

In a new book, the security personnel, who looked after the Thriller star in the final two-and-a-half years of his life before his death in June 2009, have detailed the sheltered early years of Michael's kids, revealing he would have cinemas and toy shops closed so he could take them privately.

Javon said: "That's all they knew. They knew to cover up and call each other code names in public.

"He didn't have any internet in the house. The kids couldn't watch regular TV, so they never saw how he was portrayed."

Bill and Javon also claim the "eccentric" pop star always travelled with two briefcases - one containing two Oscars won by the 1939 film 'Gone with the Wind', which he paid more than £1m for, and another containing thousands of dollars in cash.

In their new book, Remember the Time: Protecting Michael Jackson in His Final Days, extracts of which appear in the Daily Mirror newspaper, Bill said: "He would go into a store and buy everything. When we stayed in hotels he would buy thousands of books. At one point, he bought a whole bookstore."