LESSONS FROM MY FATHER

To the world, he was the King of Pop, but to her, he was just Dad. A few days before her 23rd birthday, Paris Jackson opened up in a rare interview about life with her late father Michael Jackson. “My dad was really good about making sure we were cultured, making sure we were educated, and not just showing us, like, the glitz and glam, like hotel-hopping, five-star places,” she told Naomi Campbell on the supermodel’s “No Filter” YouTube series March 31. “We saw everything. We saw third-world countries. We saw every part of the spectrum.” Insisting that Michael, worth an estimated $236 million at the time of his 2009 death, taught his kids (Paris has brothers Prince Michael, 24, and “Bigi,” 19) the value of a dollar, she also recalled “earning” toys and treats. “If we wanted five toys from FAO Schwarz or Toys R Us, we had to read five books,” she explained. “It’s earning it, not just being entitled to certain things.” As a result, the actress/model, who released a folky album, Wilted, in November, said, “I’m also a full believer that I should earn everything. I need to go to auditions. I work hard. I study scripts. I do my thing.” She’s not the first of the troubled music legend’s kids to speak out recently. Prince also talked up his pop’s love of learning on “The Mix” not long ago. Says an insider, “Paris and Prince want the world to know their dad was a great parent.” And now that they’re older, fans can expect more. “The kids are wise enough to know they’ll always be synonymous with their dad,” says the insider. “They have two choices: Hide away from his legacy, or embrace it and emphasize the positive side of Michael.”