The Tragic Story Of Michael Jackson's Daughter Paris

This article mentions suicide, self-harm, eating disorders, addiction, and sexual assault.

Paris Jackson, the daughter of Michael Jackson and Debbie Rowe, hasn't had it easy. Indeed, Paris is proof that being a celeb kid doesn't guarantee a charmed existence. Despite being the progeny of the undisputed King of Pop, her life has been blighted by a seemingly endless succession of tragedies and losses.

But Paris is nothing if not a survivor. Despite all her trauma, she's been able to use her platform to advocate for others, something which is said to be shaped by her own personal challenges. "I try to be supportive to touch on different degrees of service, not just on a grander scale," she told LVR Magazine in 2022. "The personal stuff is more day-to-day. For the bigger things, I do have a platform — and it seems pointless not to use it for something so important."

As Paris exemplifies through her healing journey, the scars of the past don't need to determine one's future. It's going to be a heartbreaking ride. This is the tragic story of Michael Jackson's daughter Paris.

Raised solely by Michael Jackson, Paris Jackson was incredibly close to her father. In 2009, Michael died of cardiac arrest at his Los Angeles home, aged 50. Upon being informed of her father's death, a distraught Paris, then 11, apparently screamed, "No, no, Daddy," per the Daily Mail.  

Paris even gave a heartbreaking speech at the funeral. "Ever since I was born, Daddy has been the best father you could ever imagine," she said, per the Evening Standard. "And I just want to say I love him so much." Years later, the pain of losing her dad hasn't subsided. "They always say, 'Time heals,'" she told Rolling Stone. "But it really doesn't. You just get used to it. I live life with the mentality of 'OK, I lost the only thing that has ever been important to me.' So going forward, anything bad that happens can't be nearly as bad as what happened before."

Moreover, the circumstances surrounding her father's death have always left her feeling uneasy. Michael's passing was one celebrity death that wasn't ruled accidental. Before he went to sleep, his doctor, Conrad Murray, administered the anesthetic propofol, which, in combination with the other drugs in the singer's system, led to his fatal cardiac arrest. Michael's death was ruled a homicide and Murray was jailed for four years (he served less than two). Paris has stated that she believes her father was murdered as part of a conspiracy, telling Rolling Stone that a lot of people wanted him dead.

Paris Jackson's relationship with her mother, Debbie Rowe, has been complicated. In 1996, Michael Jackson married Rowe, a nurse, and they welcomed two children together, Prince and Paris. Three years later, Michael and Rowe came to an agreement in which the former would have sole custody of the children, and Rowe would, in turn, receive a lump sum of $4-$5 million and $900,000 annually. "I do not wish to share parenting responsibilities with Michael because he is doing so well without me ... I want to forever give up any and all rights pertaining to the children because I fully believe that by doing so, it is in the children's best interests," said Rowe, per The Guardian.

Accordingly, Paris grew up not knowing her mother. "When I was really, really young, my mom didn't exist," she told Rolling Stone. But Michael Jackson's three children are all grown up now, and Paris is free to pursue a relationship with her mother on her own terms. 

After receiving treatment for mental health issues as a teenager, Paris began researching Rowe online and decided to contact her. Appearing on "Red Table Talk" in 2021, she opened up about reuniting with her mom at 15. "It's cool," she said. "I mean like getting to know her, seeing how similar we are, getting into what kind of music she really likes ... It's just cool having her as a friend." In 2017, she supported Rowe as she underwent cancer treatment.

Paris Jackson, who once dated model and queer icon Cara Delevingne, has been open about being a member of the LGBTQ+ community. But it took her a long time to embrace her identity. Representation is integral to LGBTQ+ youths' sense of identity and worth. Accordingly, a lack of diversity in the media proved damaging for a young Jackson, as she explained in "Unfiltered: Paris Jackson and Gabriel Glenn" in 2020. "I didn't know that it was a thing, and so I was a little conflicted about it, 'cause all I'd ever seen were men and women on TV together, and so these thoughts didn't really make sense to me," she said.

Although her father was accepting of her sexuality, this atmosphere of tolerance dissipated after he died. During her appearance on "Red Table Talk," Jackson opened up about struggling to accept her sexuality due to prejudice within her family (she was raised by her grandmother, who is a Jehovah's Witness). "My family's very religious," she explained. "And a lot of, like, homosexuality is very taboo, so they don't like to talk about it. It's not really accepted, but I've gone to a point where I respect them and I have love for them."

Paris conceded that she has stopped expecting her family to put aside their religious beliefs, as doing so would inevitably lead to resentment. "But there were moments where it was really hard and, like, you feel alone. You feel kind of excluded," she said.

Having struggled with self-harm, Paris Jackson attempted suicide in 2013, aged 15. "It was just self-hatred, low self-esteem, thinking that I couldn't do anything right, not thinking I was worthy of living anymore," she told Rolling Stone. It wouldn't be her last attempt.

She was sent to a behavior modification school, which she has since said did more harm than good. Accordingly, she has acknowledged that her mental health issues are an ongoing struggle. "Questions of mental health are part of my daily life," she told Numéro. "And I think it will always be a part of who I am and of my music, which is inspired by my life and the things I've been through. I can't see myself not talking about it."

In 2019, she was hospitalized again, with TMZ claiming that the documentary "Leaving Neverland," which documents Michael Jackson's alleged serial abuse of young boys, led to her suffering from a mental health crisis. However, Paris denied that she had attempted suicide. Two years later, she discussed her struggles with suicidal ideation on "Red Table Talk." "I can say, like, several years later that, like, I'm really grateful that it didn't [work]. Things have gotten better," she said. A musician, she also credited music with having saved her life. Since her attempts, she has had a number of tattoos to cover her self-harm scars.

Paris Jackson began struggling with addiction as a teenager. In her interview with Rolling Stone, she revealed that she spiraled in the years that followed her father's death and began hanging out with people much older than her. "I was doing a lot of things that 13-, 14-, 15-year-olds shouldn't do," she said. "I tried to grow up too fast, and I wasn't really that nice of a person."

Having attended a behavior modification school for her issues, Jackson said that the institution's practices ultimately exacerbated her substance use. Speaking to LVR Magazine, she criticized a lack of vetting at such schools, with students being given addictive medication. "There should be a better vetting process [in everything]: before you medicate ... It's important in all kinds of situations," she said. "It could be as simple as a job, or as complicated as medicine or a weapon. Psychiatrists hand out addictive medication like candy without really vetting the patient. There is no harm in vetting."

In 2019, she reportedly entered rehab for treatment for substance use. After leaving rehab, she was seen wearing a chip from Narcotics Anonymous that celebrated 30 days of sobriety. "Everyone is thrilled and so proud of her for getting sober because that is all that Michael would have wanted," an insider told Radar.

At 14, Paris Jackson was sexually assaulted by an older male, who was a complete stranger to her. "I don't wanna give too many details," she told Rolling Stone. "But it was not a good experience at all, and it was really hard for me, and, at the time, I didn't tell anybody." At the time, sources told The Sun that her family was aware of the abuser's identity. "There is a belief among the family about exactly who this man is — and serious concern it is an individual with form for this type of behavior," an insider said.

In a sit-down with C Magazine, she also alluded to being subjected to sexual assault at her behavior modification school. She was interviewed alongside Kathy Hilton, mother of Paris Hilton, who previously told The List about her experiences of child abuse at a therapeutic boarding school. Accordingly, Jackson revealed that her experiences at school were comparable to those of the "Simple Life" star. "I went through some very, very similar experiences with those kind of teen places," she said. "I went to another [reformatory] school in Utah." She praised Paris Hilton for raising awareness of the extreme abuse that allegedly takes place at such schools. "She's been through a lot and it's amazing to see her come out of the other end ... a diamond," she reflected. 

Suffering from money woes toward the end of his life, Michael Jackson was in severe debt at the time of his untimely death. Having lived in a manner befitting his King of Pop sobriquet — regularly buying jewelry, art, and gifts — he owed more than $500 million to his creditors.

Despite naming his children as beneficiaries in his will, they still haven't received the bulk of money from their colossal inheritance. Paris Jackson, her siblings, and her grandmother, Katherine Jackson (who is a life beneficiary of a portion of the trust), were blocked from Michael's estate. This is due to the ongoing dispute with the IRS over Michael's debts, which have since risen to $700 million, comprised of both money owed in taxes and penalties.

As stated in court documents obtained by Entertainment Tonight, Katherine claimed that money was deliberately being withheld from her son's surviving relatives. "It seems clear to [Katherine] that the Executors are holding all of the assets in the Estate in order to keep control over them, and to avoid the more liberal distribution of requirements of the Trust," the documents stated. However, Michael's estate executors told People that the late singer's children and mother had indeed been receiving substantial payments of financial support.

With the advent of social media, Paris Jackson found herself being cyber-bullied by her father's fans. "The whole freedom-of-speech thing is great," she told Rolling Stone. "But I don't think that our Founding Fathers predicted social media when they created all of these amendments and stuff."

In 2016, she revealed that the bullying became so extreme that it drove her to attempt suicide at 14. "I don't blame Justin [Bieber] for deleting his Instagram account," she wrote on X (via Glamour). "The type of harassment I see on my account daily is enough to make someone suicidal." After taking a two-year break from social media, she found that nothing had changed, leading her to ponder why she had become a target of vitriol. Paris has hypothesized that Michael Jackson fans are typically from an older, more conservative generation, and they perhaps resent her liberal values.

Paris has also received death threats from her father's fans. In 2023, for instance, she was told to kill herself after she failed to pen a birthday tribute to her late dad on social media. In an Instagram video, she explained that she was honoring her dad by not posting about him, as love cannot be measured by one's social media uploads.

Although Michael Jackson did everything he could to protect his children from the glare of the spotlight (he often made them wear masks in public), this ultimately proved an impossible feat. As the children of the King of Pop, the youngsters were relentlessly pursued by the paparazzi.

This continued after Michael's death. In 2017, Paris was chased by paparazzi while at Los Angeles International Airport. The paps repeatedly hounded her over her father's death, asking if she thought he'd been murdered. Overwhelmed, she covered her face and tearfully begged the photographers to stop flashing their cameras in her face. "This is the first time Paris has experienced paparazzi attention of this magnitude," a source told Entertainment Tonight. "She was very scared."

On "Red Table Talk," she revealed that she struggled with paranoia and anxiety as a result of the paparazzi harassment. "It's always been pretty gnarly ... I experience auditory hallucinations sometimes of camera clicks, and severe paranoia," she said. "And I have been going to therapy for a lot of things but that included ... I'll hear like a trash bag rustling and I like flinch and panic." As a result of being pursued by the paparazzi, she has PTSD, which affects every aspect of her life. She credits EMDR therapy as being helpful in addressing her PTSD. Asked by Glamour what's most important to her in life, Paris poignantly said, "Privacy — having things in my life that are private and not all public knowledge."

In an episode of "Unfiltered: Paris Jackson and Gabriel Glenn" in 2020, Paris Jackson discussed the stark contrast between being raised by her father and then her grandmother, Katherine Jackson. Under the care of her dad, she and siblings followed strict diets, for instance not being allowed to consume white sugar or white carbs (there has been speculation as to whether Michael Jackson himself had an eating disorder). But when their grandmother gained custody, they were suddenly free to eat whatever they wanted. "I gained a lot of weight and food became an addiction, and then a cousin called me fat so I was like, 'OK, I can't do that anymore.' And that's how I fell into self-harm," she said.

Over time, things have improved for Jackson. She credits modeling with helping her heal and subsequently embrace her appearance. "Plenty of people think I'm ugly, and plenty of people don't," she told Rolling Stone. "But there's a moment when I'm modeling where I forget about my self-esteem issues and focus on what the photographer's telling me — and I feel pretty. And in that sense, it's selfish."

The self-loathing has also subsided, with music providing an outlet for her to channel her trauma. In fact, she has even be able to embrace self-love. "I'm at a point in my life where it's the first time I've ever truly experienced self-love," she told the Evening Standard in 2021. "A big part of it is definitely the self expression."

In 2020, Paris Jackson lost two of her close friends in apparent quick succession. On Instagram (via the Daily Mail), she made two separate posts for her friends, Noah and Sofia, who both appeared to be a similar age to Jackson.

Paying tribute to Noah, she alluded to their death being related to mental illness. "I'm sorry life was so hard on you, and the world so cruel," she wrote. "You deserved nothing but light and joy and love ... It brings me peace to know you are now surrounded by those things, and no longer in pain. rest in transition, little brother. you will never be forgotten." She then paid tribute to Sofia, writing, "One [friend's passing] is already too much ... I hate this."

Though Jackson did not mention how Noah and Sofia died, she hinted at losing two of her friends to addiction in her song "Undone," which features the lyrics, "If you could just put down the needle / Mend yourself and make believe." In 2021, she discussed the meaning of the song with the Evening Standard. "That song was written about a couple friends of mine that are no longer with us, who I miss dearly," she explained. "It's kind of what I would tell them if they were here. I think about them all the time and I still feel their love with me. I really took down all my walls and completely exposed my heart when I wrote these songs."

If you or anyone you know needs help with mental health, eating disorders, or addiction issues, or may be the victim of sexual assault, contact the relevant resources below:

• The Crisis Text Line by texting HOME to 741741, call the National Alliance on Mental Illness helpline at 1-800-950-NAMI (6264), or visit the National Institute of Mental Health website.

• The National Eating Disorders Association website or contact NEDA's Live Helpline at 1-800-931-2237. You can also receive 24/7 Crisis Support via text (send NEDA to 741-741).

• The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration website or contact SAMHSA's National Helpline at 1-800-662-HELP (4357).

• The Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network website or contact RAINN's National Helpline at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673).