The development comes days after his son, Jermaine Jackson described his father as “very, very frail.”He had been on his death bed for days and worried family members surrounded him in hospital since he was admitted earlier this month.

Joe began working with his sons, Jackie, Tito and Jermaine on their musical group back in the 1960’s. Younger sons Marlon and Michael then joined in with backing vocals until they became The Jackson 5. In 1969 the siblings were signed to Motown Records in Detroit with their first four singles selling a world record breaking 10 million copies in 10 months.

While Joe became one of the most successful celebrity managers to have ever broken into the industry, his child-rearing techniques were frequently slammed for being abusive. His children documented how Joe would beat and abuse them to work harder, subject them to long and intense rehearsals and even brutalise them with a strap.

But he claimed in a tell-all interview with Oprah Winfrey that while his methods could be cruel, he wasn’t sorry because they made his kids successful and kept them on the straight and narrow.