Michael Jackson's Kids Have Lived Really Tragic Lives

This article contains mentions of suicide and sexual assault.

In terms of success as a recording star, Michael Jackson is in a class all his own. The King of Pop produced 13 songs that reached No. 1 on Billboard's Hot 100 chart — with an additional four No. 1s coming by way of his work with The Jackson Five. Even now, decades after his '80s heyday, his music catalog is estimated to be worth more than a billion dollars. And while his musical exploits alone justify his mythic presence in the pop culture zeitgeist, his odd behavior, quirky personality, and the abuse he was alleged to have committed against multiple children made him a tabloid mainstay. All of which amounts to a tragic life story.

The circumstances resulting in the birth of his three children — son Prince Michael Jackson, daughter Paris Jackson, and son Prince Michael "Bigi" Jackson II (formerly known as Blanket) — also loomed large. Growing up with one of the most scrutinized figures in the history of entertainment as their sole caregiver, the Jackson kids were never going to lead normal lives. And despite Michael's best efforts to shield them from the public and the press, they've all been fodder for the gossip column and endured hardships that no parent would want their children to experience.

From their father's very public and premature death under tragic circumstances to custody battles and mental health crises, here are some of the tragic events that marked the Jackson kids' lives.

Michael Jackson's romantic life was always a mystery. So, it was a veritable media moment when he married Lisa Marie Presley in 1994. He made a similar splash in 1996 — the same year he and Presley divorced — when he married Debbie Rowe, a nurse who worked for Jackson's dermatologist. However, the reason for their union was particularly eyebrow-raising; Rowe knew Jackson's desire to be a father and partnered up with him as a means to realize that dream.

The following year, Rowe gave birth to "Prince" Michael Jackson, after which she welcomed Paris Jackson in 1998. Despite the arrangement, speculation about their parentage emerged pretty much from the outset of their lives. Among the early rumors were that Rowe had been artificially inseminated and was being paid a hefty sum. As chronicled by Time, tabloids were reporting that Rowe was to be paid either $528,000 or $1.24 million for Prince's birth. It was further reported that Rowe would receive $2.4 million and Michael would be awarded custody if the couple divorced.

Jackson spokeswoman Christine Holevas denied both the reports of Rowe's artificial insemination and financial arrangements before Prince was born. However, discourse about the couple's arrangement and the paternity of Prince and Paris continued. Later, Bigi Jackson's birth via surrogacy in 2002 prompted questions about who carried the child and whether Michael had known her.

After the birth of his three children, the King of Pop faced raising them in a world where his ability to maintain privacy or anonymity had long since faded. He was maybe the most famous man in the world, yet he had a clear desire to shield his children from the limelight. So, in an effort to preserve their own anonymity, he shrouded his three children in masks whenever they ventured out into public spaces (which was rare).

"Hey, speaking of terrorists, did you see that freakazoid on TV again last night? Does Michael Jackson really not understand that camouflaging the kiddies with elaborate masks or scarves is — weird?" read an excerpt from a February 2003 piece in the Toledo Times (via Medium). That commentary essentially captures the pulse of how much of the media and the public at large reacted to Jackson's decision to mask his children, regardless of the motivation behind it.

For her part, though, Paris came to understand why her famously quirky father made the choice that he did with the masks. "I understand it now, why our dad would want our face to be covered, so we went out without him, we wouldn't be recognized, and we could have a normal childhood," she told Oprah Winfrey in 2012 (via E! News).

The most infamous incident involving Michael Jackson's youngest son, Bigi, happened in November 2002. Jackson was staying at the Hotel Adlon in Berlin ahead of the Bambi Awards, where he was set to be honored as the Pop Artist of the Millennium. These days, though, Jackson's special night is a mere footnote to his putting Bigi into an incredibly dangerous situation.

Two days earlier, with fans and media camped outside of his hotel following his arrival in Germany, Jackson decided to greet the crowd from his third-floor window and balcony. Eventually, he brought baby Bigi, then nine months old, out to offer the world its first look. What happened next shocked onlookers and became a scandal worldwide, as Jackson presented his baby to the crowd by dangling him over the balcony railing. At one point, the pop icon had just one arm awkwardly wrapped around Bigi.

In the wake of the incident, Jackson apologized. "I made a terrible mistake," he said in the statement (via Entertainment Weekly). "I got caught up in the excitement of the moment. I would never intentionally endanger the lives of my children."

Although Debbie Rowe was Michael Jackson's friend and offered to have his children, her marriage to the pop star proved too difficult to maintain. As recounted by Starcasm, Rowe was overwhelmed by Jackson's otherworldly fame and requested a divorce that was finalized in October 1999. She reportedly received an $8 million settlement amid the dissolution of the marriage, which also saw her allow Jackson to retain full custody of Prince and Paris Jackson (a judge later terminated her parental rights altogether).

Despite allowing Jackson to become the sole caregiver and custodian of her children, Rowe later sought visitation. However, she was unable to secure significant scheduled time with Prince and Paris, and reportedly was forbidden from telling them she was their mother at one point. "That topic is off-limits. But it will be revisited when they are older," a source told The New York Daily News (via The Sun Journal) in 2005. Rowe indicated she would seek custody of her children following Michael's 2009 death, but instead secured some visitation rights.

"When I was really, really young, my mom didn't exist," Paris told Rolling Stone in 2017, adding, "By the time my mom came into my life, it wasn't a 'mommy' thing. It's more of an adult relationship." The women have remained close since; however, the nature of Prince's relationship with Rowe has been kept private.

The event that has shaped the Jackson children's lives more than any other occurred on June 25, 2009, when Michael Jackson died at the age of 50. At the time, Jackson was preparing for his "This Is It" comeback tour. However, before he could play a single show of the sold-out spectacle, he died at his home. Prince and Paris Jackson were 12 and 11 years old, respectively, when they lost their father, while Bigi/Blanket Jackson was just 7.

It was later revealed that Michael had been suffering from insomnia, which prompted him to enlist his physician, Conrad Murray, to administer him the drug propofol to help him sleep. As noted by People, Murray gave him a final dose on that fateful June morning after a particularly rough night for the "Smooth Criminal" singer, after which he eventually stopped breathing and suffered a cardiac arrest. Murray was later charged, convicted, and sentenced to four years for involuntary manslaughter, serving just under two years before his 2013 release.

It was a devastating loss for the Jackson kids, who lost the only parent they had ever known. In the wake of the incident, a custody battle between Debbie Rowe and Michael's mother, Katherine Jackson, broke out. Eventually, the latter was awarded custody of Prince, Paris, and Bigi, and their lives would never be the same again.

Speculation about their parentage reached new heights following the legendary performer's 2009 death. Mere days after his passing, Us Weekly reported that Debbie Rowe's employer, dermatologist Dr. Arnold Klein — who treated Jackson's vitiligo — was actually the biological father of the former Jackson Five frontman's two oldest children.

For his part, Klein offered only a vague denial of the report, saying (via ABC News), "To the best of my knowledge, I am not the father of these children." Added Klein: "I can't answer it in any other way. I don't want to feed any of this insanity that is going around." If anything, Klein's statement only added fuel to the tabloid fire that had raged since Jackson's death. 

Meanwhile, several people are rumored to have donated the sperm that resulted in Bigi/Blanket's arrival. In 2010, Jackson's former bodyguard, Matt Fiddes, made unsubstantiated claims that he was the boy's biological father, later exploring legal action to prove as much. "I am going to lodge my DNA and formally ask the Jacksons for access. I want visitation rights," he said in 2012 (via the Daily Mail). "Michael is their father and I do not want that to change, but I want the children back in my life. ... I think Blanket is mine but I want final proof." Other, more outlandish names have come up in the discussion, including screen icon Marlon Brando.

After their grandmother, Katherine Jackson, was awarded custody of Michael Jackson's orphaned children, they went to live with her at the Jackson family estate in Encino, California. Two years later, in 2011, Katherine, Prince, Paris, and Bigi relocated to a home in Calabasas. The children's lives with their grandmother were reportedly very different from their existence in the custody of the King of Pop.

"We were very, very healthy," Paris said on her Facebook Watch series in 2020 (via Entertainment Tonight) of her diet while living with Michael. "And then literally just within the year of him passing away I moved in with my grandma, so there were no rules. Soda and cake all the time." According to Paris, that anything-goes environment resulted in her gaining weight and developing an unhealthy relationship with food. Later, she turned to more serious activities after a relative criticized her weight. "I was like, 'OK, I can't do that anymore.' And that's how I fell into self-harm," she said.

Paris further revealed that the behavior eventually escalated to the point where she attempted suicide "many times," after which she was sent to a Utah boarding school. "I learned a lot about myself," she said of the experience. "The problems that I went there with got fixed, but I left with way more than I came in with." In 2020, Paris said she suffered from PTSD due to her experience at the facility. Since then, though, she has completely turned her life around.

Michael Jackson was first accused of sexually abusing a child in 1993 by a Los Angeles-area dentist who accused Jackson of abusing his 13-year-old son. Ten years later, authorities in Santa Barbara charged the "Captain Eo" star with seven counts of child molestation and two counts of providing alcoholic drinks to a minor in relation to his alleged criminal activity with a 14-year-old boy. And while Jackson was acquitted in the latter case — and was never charged in '93 — the abuse claims tarnished his reputation and greatly impacted his career.

Now, in the years since Jackson's 2009 death, his children are forced to live with the aftermath of those situations, continued public discourse about whether or not he committed criminal acts, and even new allegations of child sexual abuse. In 2019, the HBO documentary "Leaving Neverland" was released, chronicling the stories of two men who accused Jackson of years of abuse when they were children.

Said Prince in 2016 of the earlier allegations (via Vanity Fair): "It was a shock ... It all came at once. But [we] learned how to deal with it by just kind of ignoring it." The outlet noted that Prince considered many of the claims attempts at extortion. Wrote Paris (via X) amid "Leaving Neverland's" release: "There's nothing I can say that hasn't already been said in regards to defense."

While one might assume that Prince, Paris, and Bigi Jackson have led a charmed life given, their relation to one of the biggest entertainment stars in history, their existence has been anything but idyllic. Not only have they been subject to intense fan and media scrutiny and legal wrangling related to their guardianship, Michael Jackson's perceived misdeeds, and the handling of their father's assets and intellectual property, but also the sort of freak occurrences that can impact anybody, regardless of their background or financial status.

Such was the case in November 2017 when Michael's first son, Prince, was involved in a serious motorcycle accident in Los Angeles. As reported by TMZ, Prince — who was 20 years old at the time — was en route to the campus of Loyola Marymount University in light rain when he lost control of the motorcycle and was struck by another vehicle. An ambulance was called, after which he was transported to a local hospital.

Prince suffered a knee injury and multiple lacerations in the accident, according to ABC News, but was otherwise unscathed. He later took to Instagram to thank medical personnel for treating him, and to let fans know that he was home recovering. While the result could have been much worse for Prince, the accident became a major news item due to his relationship to the King of Pop.

After decades of creating pop magic and accumulating assets (and debts) along the way, Michael Jackson's estate became an organization unto itself, requiring a sophisticated management process. Caring for Jackson's next of kin and ensuring that they inherited their rightful portion of his fortune was among the estate's top priorities. However, Jackson's children have taken aim at the executors of their father's estate for allegedly failing that charge.

For her part, Paris Jackson has been embroiled in a lengthy legal fight with the executors of Michael's estate. In a November 2025 court filing, Paris expressed concern that the estate's executors, John Branca and John McClain, hadn't invested nearly $500 million in cash. It was further alleged that the co-executors had received more than $10 million in compensation from the estate, an amount purported to be "more than double the amount distributed to any beneficiary from the family allowance," as reported by People.

"Paris is increasingly concerned the estate has become the vehicle for John Branca to enrich and aggrandize himself, rather than serve the beneficiaries' best interests and steadfastly preserve her father's legacy," the filing stated (via People). The legal wrangling between Paris and those managing her father's estate is still ongoing.

While family tragedies — like Michael Jackson's fatal overdose — can serve as a rallying point for the individuals involved, they can also further sever already-frayed bonds and stress deep familial relationships. Following the King of Pop's untimely death in 2009, his children, siblings, and parents have struggled at times to relate to one another and/or agree on matters related to his estate.

Jackson's siblings – Rebbie, Jackie, Tito, Jermaine, La Toya, Marlon, and Janet Jackson — were omitted from the "Bad" singer's will, as Prince, Paris, and Bigi were named as his full beneficiaries and his mother, Katherine Jackson, was designated as their guardian. As reported by CNN in July 2012, this led Janet and four of her siblings to challenge the validity of the will in a letter sent to the estate's executors. At one point, a scuffle involving the siblings at the Jackson family home in Calabasas raised new questions about the kids' custody.

It was around this time that Prince put some of his relatives on blast for allegedly trying to keep him and his siblings — who were then still minors — away from their grandmother. As reported by The New York Daily News, Michael's oldest son shared text messages that appeared to show Janet requesting that the kids not be allowed to see her. Years later, Bigi clashed with Michael's mother over estate issues.

If you or someone you know is struggling or in crisis, help is available. Call or text 988 or chat 988lifeline.org

If you or anyone you know has been a victim of sexual assault, help is available. Visit the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network website or contact RAINN's National Helpline at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673).