Michael Jackson‘s sudden death may give his three beloved children something he could never provide — a chance to be themselves.
At the Michael Jackson memorial Tuesday, the world met – and was deeply moved by – the King of Pop‘s 11-year-old daughter, Paris, who gave an unplanned, emotional tribute to her father.
For most of her life, Paris, and her brothers Prince Michael, 12, and Prince Michael II (a.k.a. “Blanket”), 7, were carefully shrouded from the public eye, often emerging with their father wearing colorful masks. So, who are the Jackson children?
According to family friend Gotham Chopra, the late star’s eldest son Prince is a “fun kid” who “has a lot of energy.” He describes Paris as “very thoughtful, very caring, and very sensitive” and quiet Blanket as “a lot like Michael.”
As PEOPLE reported in 2007, by all accounts, the kids are bright, well-behaved and seemingly well-adjusted. A spokesman from the National Zoo, who accompanied the family on a visit, told PEOPLE at the time, “I was struck by how considerate and nice and normal they all were.” Jackson’s longtime bodyguard Miko Brando recently echoed that sentiment. “They are well-mannered, well-behaved kids,” he said. “They are really level-headed.”
A Normal Dad…
It may seem like a contradiction, given their father’s staggering fame and highly scrutinized lifestyle, but many say that as a father, Jackson was nothing but normal and loving. “There were a few times he brought his kids to work,” says tour dancer Christopher “Kriyss” Grant. “You could tell by the way they looked at him that they adored him.”
Adds Jackson‘s former publicist Raymone Bain: “They were Michael’s first priority.”
The King of Pop devoted his life to creating a fairy-tale Never Neverland for his three young heirs, a world where the reality around them was hidden behind masks or the burly frames of professional bodyguards.
Prince Michael, Paris, and Blanket, have never attended a day of school. They’ve never known a neighborhood friend. They sleep together in the same room. And the only outsiders they know are strangers their father would bring in to entertain them.
Last Christmas Eve, Jackson and his dermatologist, Dr. Arnold Klein, — the suspected father of the two oldest children — arranged for Carrie Fisher to surprise the kids by reprising her role as Princess Leia in “Star Wars” at their rental mansion in Holmby Hills, Calif.
“Michael brought the kids down in their pajamas and said, ‘This is Princess Leia,’ ” said family friend Stephen Price. “They were so excited! She did her famous speech for them — the ‘Help me, Obi-Wan’ speech.”
“They are the greatest kids you’ll ever meet,” Price told Us Weekly of the Jackson kids. “They didn’t act like they had silver spoons in their mouths. They are nice and not Hollywood brats. Paris is very polite, a little reserved. Prince is the most outgoing. And Blanket is a sharp kid, but also pretty quiet. When I asked what he wanted for Christmas, he said, ‘I just want a stuffed animal.’ “
To entertain his kids, Jackson would often take them on midnight shopping sprees in stores specially opened just for them. They hopscotched around the globe from California to Las Vegas to Bahrain to Ireland to New Jersey to Switzerland.
He showered the children with indulgences. In 2007, he shut down parts of the New York, New York Hotel in Las Vegas so he and the kids could play video games and ride the roller coaster. And the kids would show up bleary-eyed at bookshops and toy stores around the world for private shopping sprees at 2 or 3 a.m.
They ate Jackson‘s favorite — KFC — for lunch and dinner.
“Prince I, Paris and Prince II were his life,” Michael‘s longtime pal Dieter Wiesner told Life & Style. “He made breakfast for them — a lot of people don’t know this side of Michael.”
Perhaps best of all from a child’s perspective — no school.
“I’m going to build a computer school on the grounds [of Neverland],” Jackson said in an interview. “How can they go into society? He’s Prince Michael Jackson. She’s Paris Katherine Michael Jackson. It would be too difficult.”
He also fathered by example — and showed them how to take responsibility for themselves, one record producer told Jackson biographer J. Randy Taraborrelli. Prince Michael once spilled popcorn on the studio floor, and the producer bent over to clean up the mess, fearing Jackson would have a diva-like tantrum.
Instead, the megastar apologized.
“He’s my kid. I’ll clean up after him,” Jackson said, according to Taraborrelli.
The producer recalled, “I looked down and there’s Michael Jackson on his hands and knees picking up his son’s popcorn. I’m not sure you would see Madonna doing that.”
Jackson did his best to prevent his kids from becoming brats, friends said.
“He wanted them to have a chance at a childhood which he never had,” friend Price recalled. “He wanted to make sure they played, because they are kids first and foremost. He made sure they were taken care of, but he understood the difference between a need and a want. He knew to give them a solid foundation to be good people, and that’s what I saw in these kids: bright, intelligent, good people.”
Others in Jackson‘s inner circle agreed.
“He wasn’t a disciplinarian but he didn’t let the kids run the roost or be spoiled rotten,” Stuart Backerman, a former adviser and publicist for Jackson from 2002 to 2004, told The Post.
He recalled a moment in 2004 when he walked through Neverland‘s kitchen and a 6-year-old Paris spit out her food — drawing a quietly stern reaction from Jackson.
“Michael looked up and told her, ‘We don’t spit out food and we don’t talk badly about other people in this house, and we have good manners,’ ” Backerman recalled.
“It didn’t mean anything to me at the time, but now as I look back, it reminds me what kind of parent he was.”
Jackson insiders say their eccentric father did his best to instill a steely self-confidence in his children.
Jackson‘s 11-year-old daughter, Paris Katherine, exemplified that strength when she took the microphone at his memorial service on Tuesday to say before a crowd of 20,000 — and millions watching worldwide — “Daddy has been the best father you could ever imagine.”
“Without getting over-mushy about it, it might have shown Jackson did a pretty damn good job raising those kids,” Backerman said. “She’s no shrinking violet, this kid, as you saw. She might have been hidden by veils and skulking around because of the privacy issues all these years, but she showed herself to be a maturing preteen girl.”
Still, there was much to be concerned about.
Elvis Presley‘s daughter, Lisa Marie, was Jackson‘s first wife and refused to have his babies.
She said that the King of Pop was too emotionally immature to raise a child. The two were divorced within two years of their marriage.
Prince Michael Joseph and Paris Katherine were born after Jackson‘s second wife, Debbie Rowe, the nurse at his dermatology clinic, was artificially inseminated.
Rowe played no part in the children’s lives, but she has hinted at a custody challenge in the wake of Jackson‘s death.
News reports have said the sperm donor may well have been Klein, Rowe‘s boss who has been oddly close to the children, although he denied those reports yesterday.
“We never saw [Rowe],” a Neverland staffer told Jackson biographer Taraborrelli of life after Prince Michael was born in 1997.
“The baby was cared for by a team of six nannies and six nurses, who worked in shifts so that there were always two nurses and two nannies by his side. They were kept under constant video surveillance, which was monitored by members of Jackson’s security team.
“The day team did exercise drills with the baby to build up his strength. The night team read and sang to him. But it was as if he had no mother,” Taraborrelli reported.
Another nanny said the air quality in Prince Michael’s room was measured hourly, all utensils were thrown away after every use, and toys were tossed each night to be replaced the next day.
Looking forward…
Prince, Paris and Blanket will continue to be well cared for. “The Jacksons have come together and are really loving the kids,” says Chopra. “Cousins and puppies are [around in] full-force, and the kids are enjoying [it].” And no matter what the public may have thought about Jackson, adds Bain, “his children will be his greatest legacy.”
Next Monday, Judge Mitchell Beckloff of Los Angeles Superior Court will hear Michael‘s mother Katherine Jackson‘s petition for permanent custody of the kids.
Sources: PEOPLE/NY Post
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According to AC360°, Judging from the Twitterfall, a lot of fans were reduced to weeping puddles by the words of Paris Jackson. As that young girl stood at the microphone and tried to speak of her love for her father, she was a stark reminder of the simple fact that in the end the King of Pop was also a human being. I watched as the family swept her away from the microphone and hugged her, and heard the audience applaud with praise and sympathy for her courage in a terrible time.
My heart-breaking moment was hearing Paris speak about her dad. Rumors had it that his son was going to sing or speak, but I never expected to see his daughter talk about her dad in such a loving way. She really let everyone know that he was the best dad, and person in the world. He was someone who cared about everyone and people just thought the worst in him.
JNEL & J. Magazine 