Michael Jackson’s eldest son thought his father was joking around when he collapsed on the living-room floor — but soon stood “in a trance” as the King of Pop’s personal doctor frantically tried to revive him, a family confidant told The Post.
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“The horror of it all is that Prince thought his dad was just being his dad and clowning, but it was real, and he watched as they worked on him,” said Stacy Brown, a Jackson family biographer who has spoken extensively to the Gloved One’s relatives since he died Thursday.
“Prince was stunned — in a trance — just watching,” Brown said. “There was no movement, just looking around and not really processing what was really happening.”
Brown said he was told that when Jackson went into cardiac arrest, he was in the living room of the $100,000-per-month Los Angeles rental with the 12-year-old boy — whose full name is “Prince” Michael Joseph Jackson Jr.
Also there were the pop star’s personal physician, Dr. Conrad Murray, his longtime friend and one-time manager, Frank DiLeo, and a security guard named Tippy.
That morning, Jackson had been packing up his things in preparation to go to London for an upcoming series of 50 concerts there.
At around 11:30 a.m., Michael was given a shot of Demerol and soon collapsed on the living-room floor, Brown said.
“The guard and the doctor picked him up and put him on the bed from the living room, and that’s when they started CPR,” he said.
“The doctor said he was ‘very pale and cold to the touch,’ ” he added, citing what he was told by relatives.
As Murray worked on Jackson, Tippy first reached out for the pop singer’s father, Joseph, in Las Vegas, to tell him something was wrong.
“Joseph screamed at them to call for help,” he said. “A huge commotion ensued about why 911 wasn’t being called and why he wasn’t getting help.”
Brown says Tippy then called 911. According to the Los Angeles Fire Department, the call was received at 12:21 p.m.
Jackson was rushed to UCLA Medical Center, where doctors shocked his heart and inserted a breathing tube to try to revive him, but were unsuccessful. He was declared dead at 2:26 p.m. West Coast time.
Prince was picked up from the house by a Jackson cousin and taken to the hospital where his grandmother, Katherine, met him.
Jackson’s other children — Paris Michael Katherine Jackson, 11, and Prince Michael “Blanket” Jackson II, 7 — were home at the time of his collapse, but did not see their father die. They were taken to the grandparents’ compound in Encino, Calif.
Murray met with police late yesterday. DiLeo did not answer repeated phone calls to his cellphone and his voice-mail box was full.
Meanwhile, the Jackson family, who retained powerhouse lawyer L. Londell McMillian, gathered yesterday to make funeral arrangements. Brown said a private funeral was tentatively set for Wednesday. Moving vans were in front of the house where the King of Pop died amid reports Joe was placing his belongings in storage.
Although funeral details were not clear, Los Angeles police and fire officials were preparing for a massive turnout for Jackson’s memorial service.
The singer’s body was released early yesterday to the family and taken from the Los Angeles County Coroner’s Office.
Fox News reported that Jackson’s body had been kept in a special, private crypt at the morgue under lock and key so that no pictures would be leaked.
Autopsy results were not immediately conclusive, and officials were awaiting further tests before they could rule on a cause of death. It could take up to four to six more weeks, officials said.
The Rev. Jesse Jackson, who is close with the pop icon’s family, told CNN that relatives had arranged for a second, private autopsy.
“This thing has gone from inquiry to investigation,” he said. “Right now, there is no peace. We don’t know what happened and we need to know. Michael was not sick before [Wednesday] night. He was not frail.”
The procedure was reportedly performed last night but the results weren’t immediately known.
Grace Rwaramba, the former nanny for Jackson’s three kids told The Sunday Times of London that she “had to pump his stomach many times” from taking too many pills.
“There was one period that it was so bad that I didn’t let the children see him,” the 42-year-old Rwandan native, who once tried to stage an intervention with Jackson’s family, told the paper.
“He always ate too little and mixed too much.”
The Post reported yesterday that the 5-foot-10 Jackson weighed about 125 pounds when he died and was using a dangerous daily cocktail of powerful prescription drugs, including several highly addictive narcotics.
Spiritual teacher Deepak Chopra, a friend of Jackson’s, said yesterday he had been concerned since 2005 that Jackson was abusing prescription painkillers and had spoken to the pop star about drug use six months ago.
Others close to Jackson have said he had used prescription pain medication for decades.
Additional reporting by Georgett Roberts