Paris Jackson Calls Michael Jackson Her ‘Best Friend’ While Detailing Her Strict, Isolated Childhood
Paris Jackson recently opened up about her childhood as the daughter of Michael Jackson. Jackson’s level of fame meant that Paris did not have a typical childhood. She described her upbringing as strict, but she considered her father her best friend.
Paris Jackson spoke about her childhood with Michael Jackson
Paris said that while she didn’t grow up at Jackson’s Neverland Ranch, she spent the first several years of her life there. She went to school at home.
“I’d wake up and I’d go to … the room that was our classroom, and we would go to school,” she said on Call Her Daddy.
While Neverland Ranch had a number of carnival attractions, Paris said she and her brother were not allowed to ride them.
“It was made very, very clear that all of the attractions there were not for us … that did not belong to us,” she said. “That was for underprivileged children and children that were terminally ill that couldn’t go to like Disneyland.”
They also could not watch television except during specific windows.
“[It was] the same thing with television,” she said. “We weren’t allowed to watch television or movies unless we were studying it for film with the sound off or on the weekends if we’d done everything we were supposed to.”
She admitted that her family “hotel hopped a lot” and “wouldn’t stay in one place for more than a year.” Still, they managed to have fun on the weekends. During public outings, however, they had to wear masks to hide their identities. She said she didn’t mind this.
“[We were told], ‘If you do this now, you can go to Chuck E. Cheese and be normal because no one will know who you are,’” she explained.
Paris Jackson said Michael Jackson was her best friend
Jackson died in 2009, when Paris was 11 years old. She described her father as a “really funny guy that was [her] best friend.” Paris said she doesn’t feel the need to speak about her relationship with Jackson. Instead, she is allowing it to be something she cherishes privately.
“I’m now learning I can have my own personal relationship and I’m allowed to be private about it and I’m now like, my relationship is the most beautiful relationship ever,” she said on the Trying Not to Die podcast. “I’m in a very beautiful spot with my dad and I love that and it’s no one’s business and I don’t have to share that with anybody. And there’s a lot of freedom in that, which is really cool.”
Even years after his death, Paris said that she still feels a deep connection with him.
