Paris Jackson

Lore & Background

Paris-Michael Katherine Jackson was born on April 3, 1998, at Spaulding Pain Medical Clinic in Beverly Hills, California, and was named after the French capital city in which she was conceived. Her name also comes from a promise that her father, aunt La Toya, and Kathy Hilton made when they were younger that if they had a daughter, they would name her Paris. She is the middle child and only daughter of singer Michael Jackson, and the younger child of Debbie Rowe. Rowe is Jewish, which makes Paris Jewish by birth according to Jewish law. She has an older brother, Michael Joseph Jackson Jr. ("Prince"), and a younger half-brother, Prince Michael Jackson II ("Bigi", formerly known as "Blanket"). Paris was raised solely by her father, who received full custody after he and Rowe divorced in 2000. She grew up at Neverland Ranch with her siblings. Her father made Elizabeth Taylor and Macaulay Culkin the godparents of her and her brother Prince. During her childhood, she and her siblings often wore masks during public outings with their father to hide their faces from the public and press.

After her father's death on June 25, 2009, Jackson and her siblings were taken into the care of their grandmother and their cousin Tito Joe Jackson. At the televised memorial on July 7, 2009, then 11-year-old Jackson concluded the service saying, "I just wanted to say, ever since I was born, Daddy has been the best father you could ever imagine." She later enrolled at the Buckley School, participated in flag football, softball, and cheerleading, and in 2017 signed a modeling contract with IMG Models. She made her feature film debut in Gringo in 2018. Jackson and musician Gabriel Glenn formed a musical duo called The Soundflowers, releasing a self-titled EP in 2020. Her debut album, Wilted, was released on November 13, 2020, under Republic Records.

Reader's Guide

Paris Jackson's significance stems from her position as the daughter of one of the most famous entertainers in history, Michael Jackson, and her own emergence as a model, actress, and singer. Her public life began in tragedy with her father's sudden death in 2009, when she spoke at his memorial at age 11. She has since built a career in modeling (signing with IMG Models in 2017), acting (appearing in Gringo, Scream, and American Horror Stories), and music (releasing the album Wilted in 2020 and forming the duo The Soundflowers). Jackson has also been open about personal struggles, including addiction, sexual assault, and suicide attempts as a teenager, as well as her experience at a therapeutic boarding school that she later described as abusive. She has publicly identified as part of the LGBTQ+ community. Her legacy is still developing, but she represents a figure navigating fame inherited from her father while forging her own creative path and speaking out on mental health and trauma.

Did You Know?

• Paris Jackson was named after the French capital city in which she was conceived, and also from a promise between her father, aunt La Toya, and Kathy Hilton.
• She is Jewish by birth according to Jewish law because her mother Debbie Rowe is Jewish.
• At age 11, she spoke at her father Michael Jackson's televised memorial, saying he was 'the best father you could ever imagine.'
• In 2020, she revealed that the therapeutic school she attended as a teenager had extensively abused her and other students.