PARIS & her Pop!
HER CHILDHOOD WAS ‘DIFFICULT AND A BLESSING’
Michael Jackson was the King of Pop – and his daughter Paris says he was also the king of dads! In a rare interview, with supermodel Naomi Campbell, Paris has shared her special memories of the Thriller singer.
“My dad was really good about making sure we were cultured, educated, and not just showing us the glitz and glam, like hotelhopping five-star places. We saw everything. We saw third-world countries and every part of the spectrum,” tells Paris, who was 11 when Michael died of a heart attack following a prescription drug overdose in 2009.
Conceived in the French capital, “which is part of why I was named Paris”, the model, actress and singer says she was “kind of raised everywhere, like the East Coast, the South, UK, Europe, the Middle East. We grew up everywhere.
“It was difficult, a blessing and a privilege to be able to experience so much at a young age.”
Michael, who was worth an estimated $335 million at the time of his death, also taught Paris and her brothers Prince Michael, 24, and Bigi (formerly known as Blanket), 19, the value of a dollar.
“If we wanted five toys, we had to read five books,” explains Paris, 23. “It’s about earning it, not just being entitled to certain things or thinking, ‘Oh, I got this.’ It’s like, working for it, working hard for it. It’s an accomplishment.”
Michael was acquitted of sexually abusing a 13-year-old boy in 2005 and repeatedly denied wrongdoing during his lifetime. In 2019, in a widely televised documentary, two men accused the late superstar of sexually abusing them as children.
Paris says Michael doubted it would ever be possible for her to have a normal life due to his fame.
“He told us that when he was younger, he didn’t really have a childhood. He wanted us to have that.”