New York ? Michael Jackson’s ex-wife says she bore him two children as a present and “if he called me tonight and said let’s have five more, I’d do it in a heartbeat.”

Taking the risk that it would make him appear even stranger, Jackson — television’s favorite “sweeps” character — opened up his life even more Thursday for a special to counter a damaging portrayal earlier this month on ABC.

Jackson made available tapes taken by his own employee of the interviews conducted by British journalist Martin Bashir. The singer also enticed former wife Debbie Rowe, his makeup artist, parents and brother Jermaine to give interviews to Fox.

Fox won a bidding war to air Thursday night’s two-hour “The Michael Jackson Interview: The Footage You Were Never Meant to See.”

“Bashirs will come and go,” said makeup artist Karen Faye, “but Michael will live forever in everyone’s hearts.”

Rowe said she and Jackson “have a nontraditional family and if it makes people feel uncomfortable, it’s a shame they’re not more open.”

She has little relationship with the children, Prince and Paris.

“My kids don’t call me mom because I don’t want them to,” she said. “These are Michael’s children.”

Much of the special, narrated by Maury Povich, seemed designed to call into question Bashir’s credibility by contrasting the journalist’s damaging statements about Jackson’s relationships with children to on-camera comments where he appeared to be buttering up his interview subject.

Bashir was not interviewed during the Fox special, and there was no mention of whether Fox offered him the opportunity.

The special briefly addressed Jackson’s revelation that he sometimes lets children sleep in his bed. In 1993, Jackson was accused of molesting a boy who had stayed at his home. He denied the allegations, and no charges were filed.

Jackson’s ex-wife said when she invited guests over, she sometimes had them lie on her bed and watch TV.

Rowe also said it was her, not Jackson, that was behind the decision not to let his children be seen in public without their faces covered by scarves. She and Jackson said they were scared about possible kidnapping.