Michael Jackson left more than an extensive musical legacy and his former estate of Neverland Ranch behind when he died at the age of the 50 on June 25, 2009 — the “Billie Jean” singer also had three children.
Michael’s first child, Michael Joseph Jackson Jr., was born to the musician and nurse Debbie Rowe, to whom he was married from 1996 to 1999, on February 13, 1997. He was nicknamed “Prince” and reportedly cared for by nurses and nannies at the Neverland Ranch.
The Grammy winner welcomed a second child, daughter Paris, with Rowe, now 60, on April 3, 1998. She made a tearful speech at her father’s memorial service and struggled in the wake of Michael’s death, attempting to take her own life by slashing her wrists and taking 20 Motrin pills in 2013 and claiming to have been sexually assaulted by a stranger at the age of 14, according to her cover interview with Rolling Stone in January 2017. She spent time in treatment and later came to prominence as a model and aspiring singer.
His third child, Prince Michael Jackson II, arrived on February 21, 2002, to an unknown surrogate. He quickly garnered the nickname “Blanket” and was introduced to the world months after his birth — when his father made headlines for holding him over the railing of a hotel balcony in Berlin.
The 19-time Grammy winner later called the action a “mistake,” saying, “I offer no excuses for what happened. I got caught up in the excitement of the moment. I would never intentionally endanger the lives of my children.”
Since the late “Bad” crooner’s death, the three Jackson children have been vocal through the years about honoring their father and remembering his legacy.
“As we were growing up my dad always said, ‘I really don’t care what you do in life, as long as you’re happy doing it and you’re the best at what you do. If you want to be a janitor at a high school, you should be the best janitor that you can be,’” eldest son Prince said during a March 2017 appearance on Good Morning America. “So, I think that he would always be the supporting figure to me and my siblings and support us in all the endeavors that we try.”
He continued: “My father was the King of Pop and [my company] King’s Son Productions has this mantra where a title is earned, but a name is given. So, I was born as Prince and that was the name my dad had given to me, but my dad had earned the epithet King of Pop and that’s through hard work and years of training and everything that he worked so hard to get. So it’s a form of motivation because my name is Prince, but for all [intents and] purposes I am the King’s son — working to get my own epithet.”
Scroll through to find out where each of the pop star’s children are today:
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The Behind-the-Scenes Maverick
Prince, whose godparents include Macaulay Culkin and the late Elizabeth Taylor, admitted in a November 2016 interview that he can’t sing and can’t dance, yet he wants to follow in his father’s footsteps and go into showbiz — on the other side of the camera. “I’ve always wanted to go into production. My dad would ask me what I wanted to do and my answer was always producing and directing,” he told the Los Angeles Times. Prince produced his first video for Omer “O-Bee” Bhatti’s “Automatic” in 2016, launching King’s Son Productions off its success.
Prince has been dating Molly Schirmang since 2017.
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The Shining Star
The only daughter of the “Dirty Diana” crooner, Paris is also the most high-profile of the three children. She discussed her upbringing in an interview with Rolling Stone in January 2017: “I just thought his name was Dad, Daddy,” she said of growing up with her famous father. “We didn’t really know who he was. But he was our world. And we were his world. … When you’re at home, your dad, who you love more than anything, will occasionally come in, in the middle of class, and it’s like, ‘Cool, no more class for the day. We’re gonna go hang out with Dad. We were like, ‘We don’t need friends. We’ve got you and Disney Channel!’” Two months later, the Star actress signed a deal with IMG Models, and has since starred in campaigns for labels including Calvin Klein and Chanel.
In January 2019, the Gringo star checked into a treatment facility for her “physical and emotional health.” She addressed her wellbeing on Twitter on February 2: “There’s no meltdown, no ‘losing [my] s–t,’ or being demanding of anyone. please don’t believe what you read … I said it before and i’ll say it again, i’m the happiest and healthiest i’ve been in a long time.” Paris also sings, as seen in an Instagram clip from March 2018, during which she jammed with musician Austin Brown.
On March 16, TMZ reported that the model was hospitalized for suicide attempt. A LAPD spokesperson confirmed the news, not naming Jackson, but linking it back to her address. An Us Weekly source added it was likely due to “a build-up of many things,” including “backlash” from the Leaving Neverland documentary that debuted earlier in March. The source noted, “She is in better spirits and surrounded by friends and family,” post-treatment. Shortly after news broke, Jackson denied the reports on Twitter.
Paris dated musician Gabriel Glenn between April 2018 and August 2020.
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The Quiet One
Prince has since traded in the nickname of “Blanket” for a pet name of “Bigi” and is attending the same high school his big brother graduated from — Buckley High in the Sherman Oaks neighborhood of L.A. Though he keeps a low profile — a source told Us in 2015 that he was “really quiet” — Newsweek reports that the teenager has taken up martial arts and enjoys playing video games.
