UPDATE June 24:
After reports emerged that Joe Jackson had cancer and not much longer to live, the Jackson family patriarch appears to have commented on the matter himself.
"I have seen more sunsets than I have left to see," he tweeted Sunday with a photo of himself against a sunset. "The sun rises when the time comes and whether you like it or not the sun sets when the time comes."
ORIGINAL STORY, June 22:
Joe Jackson, the patriarch of the Jackson family, doesn’t have much longer to live, according to one of his sons, Jermaine Jackson.
According to the Daily Mail, Joe Jackson, 88, has an "undisclosed terminal illness" and his family members alleged that his handlers are not allowing them to see him. TMZ reported that he is in a hospital with terminal cancer.
"No one knew what was going on -- we shouldn't have to beg, plead, and argue to see our own father, especially at a time like this," Jermaine Jackson told the Daily Mail. "We have been hurting. We were not being told where he was and couldn't get the full picture. Even from the doctor. My mother was worried sick."
Jermaine Jackson said family members just want to be near their patriarch during this time.
“He’s very very frail. He doesn’t have long. The family needs to be by his bedside -- that’s our only intention in his final days,” he said.
Credit: Leon Bennett
Credit: Leon Bennett
According to the Daily Mail, Jackson family matriarch Katherine, her daughters Rebbie and Joh'Vonnie and Rebbie's daughter Yashi Brown were able to visit Joe Jackson in Las Vegas Tuesday. TMZ reported that Katherine Jackson and some children and grandchildren were able to come by for a hospital visit. It is not clear from the Daily Mail's report if family members visited Joe Jackson at his Las Vegas home, at the hospital or both.
The British tabloid claims that, according to a source close to Janet Jackson, she has also been denied access to her father.
No other members of the Jackson family have publicly commented on the reports.
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