Michael Jackson spent some more time away from the rehearsal studio for his upcoming 50 date concert residency at the O2 Arena in London, England (which gets underway in just a little over a month from now) to take his children — unmasked — to a recording studio in SoCal this week. Jacko, with only Prince Michael Joseph and Paris Michael Katherine in tow (Prince Michael Joseph II was not allowed to come along presumably because he got to go to the medical center with Jacko by himself earlier this week), did force his kids to wear masks for part of the day …

… but eventually allowed his kiddies to show their faces, completely unmasked:

Since Michael Jackson’s children were first unveiled from their masked existence a year ago, they haven’t been seen since without their face covered. But yesterday Prince Michael I, 12, and Paris Michael, 11, were seen enjoying the fresh air with their faces revealed to the world as they joined their famous father at a Los Angeles recording studio. Not realising they could be seen from the street, Prince and Paris looked like regular pre-teens as they strolled through the car park. It was only when they left the studio two hours later, they were wearing masks again. Also joining the Jacksons at the building was High School Musical director Kenny Ortega, who is creative director of the star’s This Is It UK tour. Michael has been hard at work in recent weeks preparing for his 50-date residency at London’s O2 Arena, which kicks off on July 13. He recently upset fans when he postponed the first four dates by a week, meaning many are frantically trying to rearrange travel plans. The Thriller singer has kept his children’s lives shrouded in mystery since he first became a father in 1997. As well as fathering Prince and Paris with ex-wife Debbie Rowe, Michael also has a seven-year-old Prince Michael II, aka Blanket. While the physical similarities between the elder Prince and Paris is striking, Blanket is much darker than his older siblings in skin tone and hair colour. Blanket was the child famously dangled off a hotel balcony in Germany in November 2002. In an interview last year, former nurse Debbie insisted it was her choice to have the children’s faces covered. She said: “The veils were my idea, not Michael’s. I had kidnap threats when they were babies. I did not want them to be recognised.” Despite widespread belief the children are not biologically his, Michael insists he is the father of all three. During his infamous 2003 interview with Martin Bashir, he said: “I used a surrogate mother (for Blanket) and my own sperm cells. I had my own sperm cells in my other two children. They are all my children but I used a surrogate mother and she doesn’t know me, I don’t know her.” Debbie reiterated in 2008: “Of course it was artificial insemination. Paris was conceived in Paris, that’s how she got her name. I turned out two pretty good-looking kids. For that I am proud.”

Previously, we’ve gotten to see glimpses of the children’s faces sans masks but these new photos how the clearest view of what Michael Jackson‘s eldest children look like when they are not waring Mardi Gras feather masks. After the jump, check ‘em out …

Okay, I have to admit … Jacko‘s eldest son does look a lot like him. Without the mask, I can see how Prince Michael Joseph looks very much like Michael Jackson. Of course, he’s got Jacko‘s old nose but the resemblance is striking. It also appears that Paris Michael looks a lot like her mother Debbie Rowe. I suppose it’s pretty safe to say that the kiddies (at least these two) are really his after all. I still contend that the Jackson kids live very odd and potentially scarring lives but, going by resemblance alone, it appears that the kids are Jacko‘s and he is free to raise them as he wishes. Poor dears.

[Photo credit: Splash News; Source]