‘MY DAD SUPPORTED MY CHOICES’
Paris Jackson reveals
It’s been 11 years since an 11-year-old Paris stood on stage at Michael Jackson’s memorial service grieving the loss of her father. Since then, the now 22-year-old has been through many ups and downs, including attempting suicide “many times”. “I’ve been through hell,” Jackson confesses in her new Facebook Watch Original docuseries, Unfiltered: Paris Jackson and Gabriel Glenn (new episodes every Tuesday at 8pm).
For the first time, fans are getting an insight into what life is like for the aspiring folk indie singer and actress. In the docuseries, Jackson opens up about her behind-the-scenes battles, dealing with her sexuality and losing a loved one so young.
“Whether it was him passing or all the s**t that’s happened to me in my life,” she explains, “if I don’t talk about it, or if I don’t put it in my music, it’s gonna completely ruin my life, and it’s gonna own me.”
Baring all, Jackson admits she struggled to come to terms with her sexuality at such a young age. “My first thoughts and experiences, I didn’t even know it was a thing, so I was a little conflicted about it,” she explains. “All I’d ever seen were women and men on TV together, so these thoughts didn’t really make sense to me.”
However, Jackson says her famous father “caught on pretty quick”. “I think he just felt the energy and he would tease me the same way he would tease my brothers. ‘Oh, you’ve got yourself a girlfriend,’ if I were staring at a magazine of a woman too hard,” she tells. “I was very lucky to have that, especially so young. I think I was like 8 or 9, because not many children have that experience.”
But after her dad’s death, Jackson went to live with her Jehovah’s Witness grandmother, Katherine Jackson, and didn’t feel able to express herself. “Homosexuality in general is very taboo in the black community. So that on top of the religious aspect, it was something that I felt I had to withhold for a while,” she explains. “The first time I came out to a family
“Homosexuality is very taboo in the black community”
member, they didn’t believe me.”
In the docuseries, Jackson also reveals she considers herself gay. “I’ve dated more women than men,” she shares. “I wouldn’t consider myself bisexual because I’ve dated more than just men and women, I’ve dated a man that had a vagina. It has nothing to do with what’s in your pants, it’s literally like, what are you like as a person?”
But despite admitting she never thought she’d “end up with a dude”, Jackson has found love with beau Gabriel Glenn – with the pair meeting two years ago and “vibing” straight away. Within a week, Jackson was living with Glenn in his van.
“She kept saying to me, ‘When you get sick of me just, like, tell me to go and I’ll go. No hard feelings’,” Glenn shares. “I just ended up telling her that I didn’t want her to leave, I didn’t want her to go anywhere. I wanted to spend every day with her and every night with her.”
Living in the van was no issue for the 22-year-old – who’s estimated to be worth a whopping $145 million – with Jackson admitting she’s always grown up “nomadically”. “We were always on the move, couch surfing and hotel hopping; always travelling,” she explains.
Glenn provided the perfect escape for Jackson to be able to do things on her own terms. “When you grow up in this family, there’s a curiosity to what normal life is like, or to what struggle is like,” reveals cousin and former guardian TJ Jackson. “And she just wanted to really experience life without pillows and stuff around her.”
Almost two years on, Jackson and Glenn are closer than ever – with the duo recently debuting their first album as the Soundflowers. “It is nice to finally have a home base, which is something I’ve never really had before,” Jackson says. “The only home I ever had before was my dad and now I have Gabe, so I’m very lucky.”
It’s the happily ever after many have wished for the young star all her life. And while Jackson is in a much better place these days, she’s still got a long way to go. “I’m not even close to loving myself,” she admits. “I have a lot of insecurities.”