Washington, July 4 (ANI): Late Michael Jackson named Diana Ross as the guardian of his three kids because she owed him a “favour”, says Jacko’s longtime pal John Randy Taraborrelli.

Jackson named Ross as the guardian of his three kids Prince Michael, 12, Paris, 11, and seven-year-old Prince Michael if anything happen to his mother Katherine Jackson, as she needed to repay him for the impact he had on her life.

He taught Diana what was really important in life when they lived together years ago.

“Perhaps Michael - by reminding her with his presence in her home of the important things in life - had inspired her as much as she had inspired him,” Contactmusic quoted Taraborrelli as having written in his book ‘Michael Jackson: The Magic And The Madness’.

“If so, it is a favour that, 40 years later, his will - naming Diana as the woman he wanted to bring up his children in the event of his mother’s death - puts her in a position to repay,” he added.

Michael’s friendship with the glamorous singer first developed when Michael moved into her Hollywood Hills home as a child, when the Jackson 5 were first discovered.

“Consumed by the demands of her own career, she probably wasn’t prepared for the role of surrogate mother. Still, she gave it everything she had, treated Michael like a son and became attached to him,” said Taraborrelli. (ANI)