For years, “King of Pop” Michael Jackson's life played out under an intense public spotlight and scrutiny, and so did his passing.
However, he was quite particular about protecting his children’s privacy, making sure they got to spend their childhood away from the glare of the flashbulbs.
Now, 17 years after the artist’s demise, his daughter Paris Jackson, 28, has offered a rare glimpse into how she and her siblings, Prince and Bigi (formerly Blanket), were brought up.
Highlights
- Michael Jackson’s daughter, Paris, recently opened up about her childhood and that of her two brothers at Neverland Ranch.
- An insider previously claimed that Paris had grown close to the family that accused her father of child predation in recent years.
- Paris also opened up about her struggle with substance use, paparazzi exposure, and her breakup with Justin Long.
Paris, who has followed her father’s footsteps into the music industry, also explained why they used to wear face coverings when they stepped out with him as kids.
“Strict and structured upbringing, no wonder they’re grounded and respectful,” one netizen commented about her revelations.
Paris and her siblings lived a disciplined childhood at Neverland Ranch
Prince, Paris, and Bigi spent much of their childhood at Michael Jackson’s famous Neverland Ranch, named after the fictional island from Peter Pan, which he bought in 1988 for about $20-30 million.
He later installed an amusement park and a petting zoo in the estate, and frequently opened it up for youth groups and disadvantaged children.
Speaking on the August 12 episode of Alex Cooper’s Call Her Daddy podcast, Paris opened up about her father, whom she called her “best friend,” and being homeschooled at Neverland.
“I’d wake up, and I’d go to … the room that was our classroom, and we would go to school,” she said.
They were expected to do their chores and complete their homework on weekdays, and only then were they allowed to “have fun” on the weekends.
“It was the same thing with television,” she added. “We weren’t allowed to watch television or movies unless we were studying it for film with the sound off or on the weekends if we’d done everything we were supposed to.”
Paris continued that they were also not allowed to play in the amusement park.
“It was made very, very clear that all of the attractions there were not for us … that did not belong to us,” she continued. “That was for underprivileged children and children that were terminally ill that couldn’t go to, like, Disneyland.”
Paris Jackson reportedly believes her father’s alleged victims
After Jackson’s passing on June 25, 2009, due to a cardiac arrest stemming from substance intoxication, the three siblings were taken into the care of their grandmother, Katherine, and cousin, Tito Joe.
The pop icon’s demise was later ruled a homicide, and his personal physician, Dr. Conrad Murray, spent two years in jail for administering lethal doses of the anesthetic propofol and sedative lorazepam.
Paris, 11 at the time, spoke at Jackson’s televised memorial on July 7 and burst into tears after calling him the “best father” and saying that she loved him very much.
Revisiting the memory on Call Her Daddy, she said, “It kind of just happened in the moment. It was kind of like...it happened on stage.”
As for processing the grief on a personal level, Paris said she found it “rough,” and the transition was a “crash course in gaining social skills.”
Jackson’s last few years on earth were plagued by the infamous child predation charges, accused of violating four children of the Cascio family. He was acquitted in 2005.
Although Paris had previously labeled the allegations as “lies,” she has grown close to the family and believes the alleged victims, according to insiders.
“Paris has stayed in touch with the Cascio family, and she is especially close with their mother, Connie,” a Daily Mail insider said in 2026.
“There have been some very candid conversations over the years between Paris and the Cascio family and, based upon those, Paris knows exactly what her father did."
Paris also distanced herself from her father’s 2026 biopic, Michael, calling it a “dishonest” portrayal of the singer’s life.
Paris Jackson explained her feelings about being made to wear masks as a kid
Paris Jackson has long struggled with substance use, media overexposure, and self-hurting tendencies, and has allegedly attempted to take her life multiple times.
She shared in an interview with Willow Smith on Red Table Talk that she suffered from PTSD as a result of being followed by paparazzi.
On Call Her Daddy, Paris revealed that her later experiences helped explain why Jackson made her and her siblings wear masks in public.
“[We were told], If you do this now, you can go to Chuck E. Cheese and be normal because no one will know who you are,’” she explained, adding that it “made sense” and wasn’t “scary” at all.
She has also been open about her struggle with substance and drinking, including showing off her perforated septum caused by years of narcotics intake.
In January 2025, she celebrated five years of sobriety on Instagram, after hitting what she described as “rock bottom” during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The same year, she also ended her engagement to actor-comedian Justin Long.
“It was a choice that I needed to make to be happy,” Paris told Cooper on the podcast.
Paris Jackson has labeled herself as “Black” amid rumors about her parentage
Paris Jackson has often faced questions and criticisms about her light-skinned appearance, which she inherits from her mother, Debbie Rowe.
Similar comments were made after the Call Her Daddy episode was released as well.
“She is obviously 100% a white person,” one said. Another wrote, “There is no way that child is genetically his.”
She addressed the matter in a 2017 interview with Rolling Stone, where she identified as a woman of color.
“I consider myself Black,” she said, as she was taught to do by her father.
“He would look me in the eyes, and he’d point his finger at me, and he’d be like, ‘You’re Black. Be proud of your roots,’” she recalled.
“And I’d be like, ‘Okay, he’s my dad, why would he lie to me? So, I just believe what he told me, because to my knowledge, he has never lied to me.”
There have been rumors that Paris’ biological father was Dr. Arnold Klein, a Beverly Hills dermatologist and Rowe’s employer at the time.
"What a great parent." The internet reacted to how Michael Jackson brought up his three kids on Neverland Ranch
