From the moment she was born, Paris Jackson has lived in the shadow of the King of Pop himself: her father Michael Jackson.
While she grew up with immense privilege thanks to the late singer’s eye-watering fortune, the 26-year-old dealt with loss and public scrutiny at a young age, traumatizing her as a teen and changing the trajectory of her life forever.
Despite it all, she emerged victorious as a force of her own in the fashion, acting, and music world and has become a powerful voice for change. Determined to forge her own path in life apart from her father, Paris is redefining what it means to be a nepo baby.
Join HELLO! as we explore her journey from Michael’s daughter to star in her own right.
Paris has emerged as a force of her own in the fashion, acting, and music world
From Neverland to heartbreak: growing up with Michael
Paris is Michael’s second child with his ex-wife, Debbie Rowe; the pair met when Michael visited the dermatology clinic where she worked. They became fast friends, and when the singer divorced Lisa Marie Presley in 1996, they fell in love and married in 1997.
Paris’s older brother, Prince, was born in 1997, and Paris arrived a year later in April 1998. She was reportedly named for the city in which she was conceived.
After her parents split in 2000, Michael was granted full custody of the kids, and Debbie received an $8 million settlement. Paris and her brother grew up at Neverland Ranch in California and were extremely close to their father, with Prince even explaining that his sister is “who my dad is” to Rolling Stone in 2017. He revealed that Paris is Michael’s twin “in all of her strengths and almost all of her weaknesses, as well. She’s very passionate”.
Paris with her brothers Prince and Blanket
When Michael passed away on 25 June 2009, at 50 years old, his kids were heartbroken. Famously, at the memorial service for her father, Paris bravely took to the stage to send Michael off with these parting words: “I just wanted to say, ever since I was born, Daddy has been the best father you could ever imagine.”
“And I just wanted to say I love him so much,” the 11-year-old sobbed before being comforted by her aunt, Janet Jackson. Since her father’s death, Paris has endured many trials and tribulations and still managed to come out the other side stronger than ever.
“I just wanted to say, ever since I was born, Daddy has been the best father you could ever imagine,” Paris said at Michael’s memorial service
A turbulent teen: battling addiction and abuse
After growing up in the spotlight and losing her father at such a young age, Paris had an understandably difficult adolescence. She was addicted to drugs by 15 years old, and had attempted suicide before being sent to a notoriously abusive school for troubled teens in Utah, attended by the likes of Paris Hilton.
After the hotel heiress’s documentary This Is Paris exposed the trauma inflicted at the school, Paris revealed in an Instagram post that she also suffered at the hands of the staff, writing: “I stand with @ParisHilton & all the survivors… As a girl who also went to a behavior modification’ boarding school’ for almost two years as a teenager, and has since been diagnosed with PTSD because of it, and continue to have nightmares and trust issues, I stand with @ParisHilton and the other survivors.
“The other girls I’m still friends with to this day that went to the boarding school with me all have the same symptoms of PTSD and nightmares and trust issues. This is child abuse…Let’s start with Provo and keep going from there.”
Paris Hilton and Paris Jackson both attended a notoriously abusive school for troubled teens in Utah
She explained on Red Table Talk in 2021 what drove her to have suicidal thoughts before she had even turned 15. “I think a lot of it was just not knowing who I was, being a young girl and going through puberty, and probably a lot of just my situation and a lot of pressure,” she said. “It was really hard, and people would tell me to kill myself every day, and I was depressed.”
The 26-year-old was not close to her mother growing up and lacked her support during these troubled times. Despite their complicated relationship, she opened up on Red Table Talk about “getting to know” her mother after all these years.
“It’s cool, getting to know her, seeing how similar we are, getting into what kind of music she really likes. She really likes country and folk, so I sent her some of the stuff I’m working on.”
Triple threat: Paris’s rising star
Paris is a triple threat, and she’s here to stay. She signed a modelling contract with IMG in 2017, landing covers with Vogue Australia and Harper’s Bazaar, and is the face of KVD Beauty. She made her acting debut in the same year with an appearance on the TV series Star.
Since then, she’s graced our screens in Gringo, American Horror Stories, Habit and Swarm, to name just a few. “[Acting is] just one of my creative outlets,” she explained to Vogue Australia. “It’s fun, the people I work with are amazing and I’ve always just loved the aspect of storytelling and getting my head into a new space, experiencing the shoes of another person/character, and suspending reality for a moment.”
Paris has modelled for the likes of Messika, Vivienne Tam, and Jean-Paul Gaultier
As if modelling and acting weren’t enough, Paris also has some serious pipes and started a band with her boyfriend at the time, Gabriel Glenn. The Soundflowers, as they were called, released an EP in 2020 before sadly splitting when Paris and Gabriel broke up. She went on to release a solo album, wilted, in 2020.
She may be Michael Jackson’s daughter, but that doesn’t mean she had life handed to her on a platter, as she expressed on No Filter with Naomi Campbell in 2021. “I’m also a full believer that I should earn everything,” she said. “I go to auditions, I work hard, I study scripts, I do my thing… even growing up, it was about earning stuff.”
Beyond the legacy: her fight for justice
Paris is stepping out of her superstar father’s shadow and forging her own path, particularly at the intersection of activism, modelling and fashion. She explained to Vogue Australia that her dream is to “leave a positive imprint in the fashion world” and to use her platform for good.
She continued that she wants to create change “mostly regarding the media and the stereotypical beauty standard that is blasted all over every magazine you see, every article that pops up on your phone screen, every billboard you see while you’re driving down the street”.
“I already have many young girls looking up to me, and I want to be something their parents are OK with them looking up to.”
“I realized it would be a shame to waste the platform I was given,” Paris has said
Her platform as the daughter of one of pop music’s all-time greats is not lost on the young star. “I realized it would be a shame to waste the platform I was given,” she told People in 2017.
“Having the ability to go into the acting and fashion world, I just figured why not use that to make my platform bigger. That way, instead of helping the world one by one… I could help the masses.”
Rather than being remembered for her father’s enduring [albeit complicated] legacy, she wants to be remembered for her “commitment – until death – towards the environment, animals, and human and civil rights,” Paris explained to L’Officiel Italia in 2020. “In addition to someone who has always fought to change the system. Power to the people!” she finished.
True to her word, Paris is an ambassador for the Heal Los Angeles Foundation and the Elizabeth Taylor AIDS Foundation. “Whether it be pipelines, or racial equality, or women’s rights, we’re fighting to be heard. We want the Man to listen to us,” she said in a powerful statement to Vogue Australia.
BY KATIE FITZPATRICK
