Photos of the 44-year-old singer holding the barefoot, blue-clad baby beyond the fourth-floor balcony railing shocked fans worldwide Tuesday after German and U.S. television stations broadcast the footage from Jackson's brief hotel-window appearance.
A spokeswoman for the Bambi entertainment award ceremony, which Jackson is attending in Berlin, told AP the baby was the singer's third child, Prince Michael II.
PEOPLE reported in August that Jackson's youngest progeny was six months old. (Sources said the child was not adopted and was conceived "the natural way," but the mother's identity remains a mystery.) The former pop superstar also has two older children: a 5-year-old boy also named Prince Michael, and a 4-year-old girl, Paris. Jackson divorced the older children's mother, Debbie Rowe, in 1999.
In a statement the singer issued Tuesday, Jackson said he had gotten carried away when fans below the window asked to see the baby, AP reports. "I made a terrible mistake," he said. "I got caught up in the excitement of the moment. I would never intentionally endanger the lives of my children."
The red-shirted singer initially appeared alone at the window of the Hotel Adlon Tuesday, waving and smiling to greet fans, then disappeared and returned with the baby, holding him over the iron rail.
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