It can’t be easy being related to a famous person, much less be related to one of the most famous and controversial people of all time – Michael Jackson. That’s the position Paris Jackson finds herself in. Famous from the moment she was born, she has to deal with more scrutiny and attention than most get in a lifetime. Now she’s pushing back against assumptions about her relationship with her father.
The 25-year-old took to Instagram Stories to express her disdain at people pulling her down for not acknowledging her father’s birthday (August 29). She basically explained that even her father didn’t like to celebrate his own birthday. Here’s what she said:
“So, today’s my dad’s birthday, and, back when he was alive, he used to hate anybody acknowledging his birthday, wishing him happy birthday, celebrating it, nothing like that. He actually didn’t want us to even know when his birthday was because he didn’t want us to, like, throw a party or anything like that. That being said, social media is apparently how people express their love and affection these days, and if you don’t wish someone a happy birthday via social media, it apparently means that you don’t love them, that you don’t care about them.”
She then shared a video of herself on stage (she’s opening for Incubus on the road), and said, “[My dad] put 50 years of blood, sweat and tears and passion into doing what he did so I could stand up here on stage and scream into a microphone.”
What if you’re a Michael Jackson superfan and want to celebrate anyway? Paris has you covered. “If you want to do something he would’ve loved, which is not celebrate his birthday, my suggestion would be; there’s always ways to get involved with raising awareness for climate change, doing stuff for the environment, animal rights activism. These were things that he loved and was very, very interested in.”
This idea that Paris doesn’t love her dad, or any relative of any celebrity doesn’t, just because they don’t publicly acknowledge a birthday, is ridiculous and exemplary of some of the worst parts of social media.
It can’t be easy being Paris. Who would want that kind of attention? Should she “commit suicide” — as one rabid fan suggested — because she didn’t say Happy B-Day to her dad? This is the same kind of thing Lisa Marie Presley had to deal with over her father Elvis.
Lisa Marie, also famous from the moment she was born, married four times, lost her son in 2020 and was addicted to painkillers for a long time. Also, she was married to Paris’ dad for a while in the ’90s.
In a 2016 interview with Oprah, Lisa Marie talked about the similarities between Michael Jackson and Elvis Presley.
They both “had the luxury of creating whatever reality around them they wanted to create. They could have the kinds of people who were going to go with their program or not go with their program. If they weren’t, then they could be disposed of.” None of that sounds easy, and the kids are left to deal with the complicated legacies of famous parents.
Paris has been navigating her way through her fame her own way, and to her credit she’s making a name for herself away from the shadow of her father. She recently appeared in the Amazon Prime show Swarm, and her last album wilted came out in 2020. She’s also allowed to celebrate the death of her father however she wants to.
