Paris Jackson

Image

Paris Jackson, (full name Paris-Michael Katherine Jackson) is the daughter and middle child of Michael Joseph Jackson.

Paris was born on April 3rd, 1998, at Spaulding Pain Medical Clinic in Beverley Hills, CA. Her mother is Deborah Jeanne Rowe (known as Debbie), Michael's second wife. At the time of Paris' birth, she already had an elder brother, Michael Joseph Jackson Jr, (known as Prince, or Prince Michael I), who had been born just over a year before, on February 13th, 1997.

Throughout her young life, Paris has been shielded from the world, due to her father's enormous fame. She and her brothers (a younger brother, Prince Michael Joseph II, aka Blanket was born in 2002) were pictured out with their father wearing a variety of different masks to shield their identities. Jackson later said he did this to calm his very rational fears of kidnap.

However, this innocent act of vieling his children and living as a recluse with them, first at Neverland, his ranch home in Santa Barbara, then at various other places after 2005, (including Ireland and Las Vegas) meant the world viewed Jackson, and therefore his children, as oddities.

The world's first pure, unobstructed true look at the children came in a tragic form. After her father's death on June 25th, 2009, Paris and her brothers were distraught, and began living with their elderly grandmother, Katherine Jackson, at the family's Hayvenhurst estate in Encino, CA.

On July 7th, 2009, a memorial service was held for Jackson at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, where, just two weeks before, he had been at his last rehearsal for his upcoming shows in London, somewhat aptly named 'This Is It'.

After everyone else had spoken, Paris asked aunts Janet and La Toya if she was allowed to say something to those in the arena, and an estimated billion people worldwide, about her father. Her aunts acquiesced, though reluctantly, realising how important it was to the 11 year old girl. Despite the fact that her father tried all her life to keep her away from public view, in that moment, the world fell in love with Paris as she uttered these words through tears:

"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..."

Since that speech, which has been hailed many times as a speech that 'humanised Jackson' and changed the world's perspective of him from an idol, to simply a man who has left behind three heartbroken children, Paris has appeared at a televised event only once.

She, brother Prince, and three of her cousins, (sons of her Uncle Tito), were introduced onto stage by Lionel Richie at the 2010 Grammys to accept a Lifetime Achievement Award for their father. After Prince made his speech, Paris came to the microphone, and, seeming somewhat nervous, standing again on the stage at the Staples Center, said:

"Daddy was supposed to here...Daddy was gonna perform, but he couldn't perform last year. Thank you, we love you Daddy."

On June 25, 2010, Paris and her brothers spent time with cousins and other family members in Hawaii, getting away from the US for the anniversary of their father's death.


 
< Prev   Next >