THE THREE CHILDREN of late popstar Michael Jackson have told Oprah Winfrey their dad was a ‘good father’ – but have admitted they are still learning how to cope with his death.

Prince Michael (13), Paris Michael (12) and Prince Michael II (8) – the latter being better known as ‘Blanket’ – told Winfrey that “no one understands what a good father he was,” explaining that they wore veils in public so that “when we went out without our dad, nobody would really recognise us.”

Entertainment blog Popeater said Paris added that she appreciated her father were merely trying to protect his children by keeping them out of the limelight in such a way.

The children were joined by Jackson’s mother Katherine, who has been caring for them since their father’s death, and who told Winfrey she believed her son had become addicted to plastic surgery, fuelled by insecurity about his own looks.

On one occasion, Katherine admitted, she had even asked the singer’s surgeon not to perform one work, but to tell the star he had, for fear his strange looks would become even more exaggerated.

Having become obsessed with his appearance after becoming a child star, she said, “one day made up his mind to get his nose done.” His surgeries had gone so far that at one point, she thought, it looked “like a toothpick”.

MTV adds that Joe Jackson – Kathleen’s husband, who reluctantly joined the interview for a period – was made to admit he had beaten his children when they were young, insisting that his discipline had worked because none of his nine children had ever been in jail.

Asked if he regretted how he had treated them, he replied with a firm denial. ABC reports that Winfrey herself admitted that she herself was beaten as a child because “that was the culture – that was the way we were raised”.

Jackson has returned to the news recently, with an album of previously unreleased material set for release in December. The first single from that album, ‘Breaking News’, has been made available on his website.