La Toya Jackson almost ruined fiance's big proposal

Singer La Toya Jackson almost botched her business manager's attempt to whisk her away to Hawaii for a marriage proposal last year (13), because she was not interested in taking a vacation.

Michael Jackson's 58-year-old sister became engaged to Jeffre Phillips last August (13), but she only went public with the news in June (14).

Now the bride-to-be admits it took a little extra persuading from her father Joe Jackson, who had granted Phillips' request for her hand in marriage, for her to jet off on a two-day holiday with her beau.

She explains, "Before he proposed to me... he went to (Las) Vegas and he asked my father for my hand (in marriage). It was great.

"Right after that, I had dinner with my father and my father was desperately trying to tell me that Jeffre has a surprise in Hawaii, that, 'You need to go to Hawaii'. I didn't wanna go to Hawaii, I wanted to go to New York to do the play that I was getting ready to do (Off Broadway show Newsical the Musical). I had two days to rehearse... and Jeffre kept convincing me, 'Toya, you need two days off, you need downtime.'"

She finally agreed and she was blown away one night when Phillips transformed their luxury hotel suite into an all-white affair with flowers everywhere as they sat down for a lavish six-course dinner.

She recalls, "I go, 'Oh my God, what is this?' And he goes, 'We're having dinner, (a) special dinner.'"

She continues, "When it got to dessert... he gets on his knee and he asks, he says... 'Toy, will you marry me?' I got so nervous... He said, 'I didn't get you a ring.' I said, 'Don't even worry about that, that's not important' and then I get my dessert, I lift the dome (cover) up and there's the ring in the dome."

However, Jackson admits she has already suffered from cold feet over the nuptials.

She adds, "Your friends get so excited for you and they were just pushing me and rushing me (into wedding planning)... and I started getting really nervous, I started thinking, 'Wow, this is really real...' I got a little bit of cold feet."

The star was previously married to her manager Jack Gordon for seven years before they divorced in 1997. She alleged he had been abusive throughout the union.