I HOPE HE’S PROUD OF US
Michael Jackson’s son Prince and his siblings Bigi and Paris want to build on their father’s legacy
THEIR childhood was anything but ordinary. Home was a 1 100-hectare fantasy ranch complete with its own amusement park, zoo and movie theatre. As they grew older, they jetted around the globe with their father, their faces screened by veils to protect them from the phalanx of fans and photographers following their every move.
Yet Prince, Paris and Blanket knew no other world. Their father may have been Michael Jackson but to them he was just Dad. And when he died in 2009 aged 50, they were shattered.
His daughter Paris, especially, seemed to battle with the loss and ended up in rehab after trying to cut her wrists, her brothers by her side as she worked through her issues.
These days the siblings are tighter than ever, bound by the values their dad instilled in them. Public fascination in Michael’s kids has never waned – and recently new details emerged of what it was like growing up with the late, great, eccentric and controversial King of Pop.
In a rare interview, eldest son Prince (24) says his dad taught them many life lessons that are firmly embedded in their DNA. Family, fun and philanthropy were close to the superstar’s heart, but Michael valued education above all else.
“My father would say something along the lines of, ‘The minute you stop learning is the minute you’re going to start dying’,” Prince said on the Fox Soul YouTube channel. “That’s my guiding principle – you never stop learning.”
Life at Neverland may have been unconventional, but just like other kids they had to follow rules, go to school and respect one another. And though they grew up privileged, Michael made sure they never took things for granted, Paris (23) says.
“My dad was really good about making sure we were cultured, making sure we were educated, and not just showing us the glitz and glam, like hotel-hopping five-star places,” she recently told supermodel Naomi Campbell on her No Filter talk show on YouTube.
“We saw third-world countries and we saw every part of the spectrum.”
It was tough living in hotels when he was on tour, she admits, but Michael made sure they never felt alone. He spent time with them between rehearsals, cooking their favourite meal: chicken and sweet potato pie.
MJ was determined that his kids enjoy the childhood he didn’t have, and he wanted them to grow up as normal as possible. But of course, being his children meant they could never really have normal lives.
PRINCE, who was born Michael Joseph Jackson Jnr, is a music producer who graduated cum laude from Loyola Marymount University in 2019 with a business degree. In recent years he’s been spending time with the Heal Los Angeles Foundation, which helps the underprivileged youth of LA with educational initiatives and food.
He takes his position in life seriously. “I don’t want to say there’s pressure, but there’s this legacy that my father worked hard to build and to maintain and I feel it’s my place to expand on that legacy with everything I’ve been given,” he says.
“I hope he’d be proud of the work we’ve done so far.”
Paris, who was born Paris-Michael Katherine Jackson, is a musician, actress and model and recently worked with fashion designer Stella McCartney before releasing her debut album.
Constantly in the back of her mind is her father telling her she needs to work for what she wants, the Gringo actress says.
“Growing up, it was about earning stuff. If we wanted five toys from [toy stores] FAO Schwarz or Toys R Us, we had to read five books,” she told Naomi. “We weren’t simply entitled to certain things.”
Her album, Wilted, which dropped last year, was influenced by her dad’s musical taste, from classical and soft rock to jazz and Motown.
“I go to auditions, I work hard, I study scripts, I do my thing,” she says.
The boy once known as Blanket now goes by the name Bigi (19). He’s launched Film Family, a YouTube channel with big brother Prince and their cousin Taj (47) where they review blockbuster movies.
Prince and Paris are fiercely protective of their little brother and he remains pretty much out of the spotlight. But he did make headlines last year when he splashed $2,6 million (R36m) on his first home shortly after turning 18.
The sprawling property in Calabasas, California, has six bedrooms and seven and a half bathrooms.
Money is no object for the Jackson kids, who were left in the care of their grandmother Katherine (90) when Michael died.
MJ had a net worth of around $500m (then R3,7 billion) at the time of his death and his estate was split between his mother, his kids and charities. Prince, Paris and Bigi enjoy a cool $8m (R112m) allowance a year to use pretty much how they want.
Prince spends his on big-ticket toys such as Harley-Davidson motorbikes and can be seen at events and getaways with his girlfriend of four years, Molly Schirmang. His YouTube channel, Life on 2, is dedicated to his passion for biking.
MICHAEL may have dangled Bigi out of a window as a baby and insisted his kids shield their faces as he toted them around the world, but love was at the centre of everything he did, his brother Jermaine (66) says.
“He was an example of what fatherhood should be. Michael instilled in them the love our mother gave us, and he provided the kind of emotional fathering our father, through no fault of his own, couldn’t. Michael was father and mother rolled into one.”
Family patriarch Joe, who managed his sons as the Jackson 5 and died in 2018 aged 89, was notoriously hard on his kids. “But it was the opposite of how Michael chose to parent,” Jermaine says.
Michael had sole custody of Prince and Paris after he divorced their mother, Debbie Rowe (62), in 1999 after three years of marriage.
“I [had children] for him to become a father, not for me to become a mother,” Debbie said in 2003. “You earn the title ‘parent’ and I’ve done absolutely nothing to earn that title. I didn’t change diapers. I didn’t get up in the middle of the night, even when I was there. Michael did it all.”
Bigi – whose real name is Prince Michael Jackson – was born via a surrogate. His mother’s identity has never been made public, but there are claims she’s a Mexican nurse named Helena. He changed his name to Bigi in 2015 after enduring years of bullying because of the nickname Blanket, a term of endearment his dad used for him.
Paris, whose teenage years were marred by drug abuse and suicide attempts, recently told Rolling Stone magazine she was plagued by feelings of self-hatred following her father’s death.
“It was just low self-esteem, thinking I couldn’t do anything right, not thinking I was worthy of living anymore,” she said.
She now uses her hefty allowance to further her career and try to keep her father’s name alive. To the young woman, who reduced the world to tears when she paid tribute to her dad at his funeral, the loss of Michael will forever loom large.
“When we were kids I thought his name was Dad, Daddy,” she says. “We didn’t really know who he was. But he was our world. And we were his world.”
‘HE DIDN’T JUST SHOW US THE GLITZ AND GLAM’