Jackson`s friend says he gave the popstar his sperm

London: Michael Jackson`s `closest friend`, former child star Mark Lester, today claimed he gave the `King of pop` his sperm in a special London clinic so that he could have children. "I gave Michael my sperm so that he could have kids -- and I believe Paris is my daughter," Mark told British tabloid the News of the World.

According to Mark, Jackson was worried he would never father his own kids because of his crippling shyness. The pop icon was, as Mark put it, "asexual". "Michael found it very difficult to have relationships with women. He found the sexual act something he couldn`t do. When he was about 16 to 17, he had a very famous female child star who basically jumped on him...tried to seduce him. He became very scared and found it so disturbing, he couldn`t perform. Michael wasn`t gay. But I`d say he was asexual." The `Thriller` star was also "very conscious" of his own body as he had vitiligo (a skin lightening condition) "all over," 51-year-old Mark said. "Then in one of our regular phone conversations he said he realised having kids was a natural thing but that he just couldn`t do it. "I mentioned the fact there are alternative ways of going about it. We even joked that you can use a turkey baster referring to artificial insemination. I think he`d already tried using his own sperm but it hadn`t worked for him, so I made an off-the-cuff comment saying: "Try mine". Mark, Godfather to all three of Jacko`s children, pointed to an "uncanny likeness" between 11-year-old Paris and his daughter Harriet, 15, the report said. The child star of 1960s` films like `Oliver` and `Run Wild, Run Free`, also declared that he is willing to take a paternity test to establish the truth. "It`s been a secret for so long," said Mark. "In 1996 Michael asked me if I would give him my sperm and I said yes. It was a gift to him, no money was paid. It was something I was honoured to do. He wanted children so badly." And Mark, now an osteopath and acupuncture specialist, says he is only speaking out now because after Jacko`s death he feared he will be manouevred out of the lives of his Godchildren -- Paris, 12-year-old Prince and Blanket, seven. "With Michael`s mother Katherine now their legal guardian it`s like the kids are being isolated," he said. "Up until Michael`s memorial I was in touch with them on a weekly basis. He said he was not being able to have any communication with the children as his phone calls are not returned and emails go unanswered. "I feel I have to come forward as my only way of saying, `Please don`t shut me out`." Mark said he has spoken to lawyers to establish his rights to contact the children. He also revealed how Jackson hatched the sperm donor plan because he was scared to have normal sex and booked Mark into a special London clinic for the procedure. Bureau Report