WTF! JOE JACKSON SAID HE DIDN'T BEAT HIS KIDS HE WHIPPED THEM WITH A STRAP! WHAT'S THE BIG FRIGGIN' DIFFERENCE?

Michael Jackson's dad reluctantly admitted yesterday that he beat the superstar and the rest of his musical brood - but insisted it was for their own good.
"It kept them out of jail and kept them right," Joe Jackson said.

The Jackson family patriarch fessed up on the Oprah Winfrey show after being prodded to do so by his wife, Katherine - and after first denying raising a hand to the Gloved One.

"I don't think he was afraid of me," he insisted. "I never beat him. That never happened."

Katherine Jackson wasn't having it.

"You might as well admit it, that's the way black people raised their children," she said. "He used a strap."

Katherine, Joe said, "is too easy with people...just like Michael."

Jackson died more than a year ago at age 51. In the one-hour pre-taped interview at the family's California compound, his parents and his kids lifted the veil some more about life with Michael.

Katherine Jackson said her most famous son was insecure about his looks and addicted to plastic surgery, saying his nose looked "like a toothpick at one time."

She also said he'd had his skin lightened to compensate for his vitiligo, a condition that causes the skin to lose pigment.
Jackson, she said, "didn't want to start looking like a spotted cow."

"I don't know what in the world he did to change that, but he did," she said.

Oprah also interviewed Jackson's children, Prince, 13, Paris, 12, and 8-year-old Blanket, who insisted their peculiar pop was a good dad and a wiz in the kitchen.

"I kinda felt like no one understands what a good father he was," Paris said. "I'd say he was the best cook ever. He was just a normal dad, except he was the best dad. He made the best French toast in the world."

Paris said she was less thrilled with the veils her dad made them wear to protect them from the paparazzi, but said she understood why he insisted on them.

"He tried to raise us without us knowing who he was, but that didn't really go so well," Paris said, a grin on her face.

Prince recalled how he and his father used to walk on the beach in Bahrain, eating candy. The kids insisted they were doing well at private school and that Blanket is being home schooled due to shyness.

The youngest of Jackson's kids barely spoke during the interview.

Wrapping up her interview, Winfrey asked the kids, "What do you miss most?"

"Everything," Paris replied.

Jackson's kids live with Katherine, who has served as their legal guardian since their father's death in June of 2009. She and Joe have been separated for years.

Long separated, Katherine and Joe denied reports that they have ever filed for divorce.

The Jackson Family interviewed aired ahead of the release of a new album of previously unheard Michael Jackson music.