Michael Jackson ultimately did not have to make the dreaded trip to London to testify in court as a settlement was reached with the Arab sheikh who claimed breach of contract and sued the singer.

Legal teams for pop superstar Michael Jackson and Sheik Abdulla bin Hamad Al Khalifa, son of the King of Bahrain, apparent fan and friend of Jackson and amateur songwriter, reached a settlement over the breach of contract lawsuit filed by the latter against the King of Pop.

Al Khalifa claimed to be owed $7 million by Jackson, over a contract he said the two of them had, according to which the singer was to record an album and write an autobiography. Jackson claimed the money was a gift. The singer was due to appear at London’s High Court Monday to testify.

An attorney for Jackson initially said last week the 50-year-old artist was unable to travel to the UK because of an unspecified illness. He was seeking to obtain permission for Jackson to testify via video link from the United States. The attorney reported Friday that his client had been cleared by his physicians to leave the US and would testify Monday. Jackson was about to board a plane Monday when he was informed of the settlement.

Al Khalifa, who is the second son of Sheikh Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa, King of Bahrain, was seeking $7 million from Michael Jackson at London’s Royal Courts of Justice, a sum he claimed to have spent to cover Jackson’s travel expenses to Bahrain; the singer lived in Bahrain, following his acquittal in the child molestation trial, as the sheikh’s guest, for a year.  

The sheikh first talked with Jackson by telephone while the singer was still in California, in the midst of the trial. Al Khalifa wanted to help him rebuild his career – he had planned to collaborate with Jackson on the album and even built a recording studio where the two of them could work on the album that never materialized. Jackson apparently extracted himself from the arrangement in mid-2006 and has not seen the sheikh since.

The sheikh and the singer became friends and even lived in a palace which belonged to the sheikh.

Al Khalifa, who governs the country’s Southern Province, covered expenses for Jackson, his three children and his entourage, amounting to millions of dollars, he said; he paid for a European vacation for Jackson and his associates and flew Jackson’s hairdresser overseas, among other things.

Jackson was arrested in 2003 on child molestation charges at his famed Neverland Ranch in Santa Barbara, California and was eventually acquitted. Financial problems soon followed and have been plaguing him ever since. One consequence is the loss of Neverland. Earlier this month, he filed legal papers in California making the Sycamore Valley Ranch Company the new owner of Neverland Ranch.

Sycamore Valley Ranch Co. is a joint venture between Jackson and an affiliate of Colony Capital LLC, the company which bailed the singer out in March when he owed $24.5 million on the property. When Colony acquired the debt, Neverland was a mere week away from being auctioned off.