Michael Jackson: Tragic star holidayed in The Cotswolds

Jun 7 2009 Exclusive by Richard McComb, Sunday Mercury

Tragic pop icon Michael Jackson enjoyed a bizarre secret break at a remote Cotswolds hotel – and kept the curtains shut all week for fear of being spotted.

Wacko Jacko and his three kids booked in to Buckland Manor, near Broadway, and didn’t leave their luxury suites for a week.

The Sunday Mercury can reveal the four members of the Jackson family – with a playful Labrador pup in tow – arrived wearing veils and Arab clothing to hide their identities, even though they swooped up the discreet hotel’s gated driveway in the middle of the night.

During the stay, Jackson regularly phoned up for room service, ordering bowls of jelly and ice cream, using a dodgy Irish accent to disguise his distinctive voice.

The self-styled King of Pop also dispatched his detail of bodyguards to go on shopping missions.

They collected bagfuls of DVDs and the latest toys for his sons Prince Michael, now 10, and five-year-old Prince Michael II – known as Blanket – and their sister, Paris Katherine, aged nine.

The US star took over seven rooms at the hotel, a 13th century manor house boasting oak-panelled rooms, antique furniture and a private helicopter service.

Fellow guests had no idea he was staying because the rooms for his party, on the first floor, were screened off from prying eyes.