Paris Jackson said Tuesday that she has the “most beautiful” relationship with her late father, Michael Jackson, but that she no longer feels comfortable discussing its details in public.
Speaking on the Trying Not to Die podcast with Jack Osbourne on May 26, the 28-year-old singer and actress said she once felt an obligation to talk about her family life but has since stepped back. “There's definitely a certain element where I felt I had to share everything,” she said, and added that the feeling has changed. “And that has drastically changed in the last few years, because I don't really feel like any of us owe anyone anything.”
Jackson said she will not mark anniversaries or birthdays the way others do. “I'm not going to express my love in a copycat way, copying someone that didn't know him,” she said, explaining she no longer wants to perform public displays of affection for cameras or curated posts. “I'm now learning I can have my own personal relationship, and I'm allowed to be private about it,” she added, and then: “I'm in a very beautiful spot with my dad and I love that and it's no one's business and I don't have to share that with anybody.”
The remarks come as the Jackson family has been in the public eye in recent weeks because of the film Michael, a musical biographical drama that stars Jaafar Jackson and has become the second-highest-grossing movie of the year so far. The movie’s spotlight has brought renewed attention to how Michael Jackson’s children remember him, even as Paris says she has retreated from that role.
Paris said she once felt she “owed it to people” to speak about her father, and that expectation shaped how she engaged with fans and the media after his death in 2009, when he was 50. “Because I did. That was my best friend,” she said of her early public disclosures. But she framed the change as a relief: “There is a lot of freedom in that,” she said of keeping her relationship private, and repeated that privacy is now a conscious choice.
There is a practical dimension to the decision. Paris told Osbourne that Michael instilled a strong work ethic in her and her brothers, Prince and Bigi — a blend of privilege and pressure she described bluntly: “There was a lot about my upbringing that was silver spoon-esque, but there was so much of it that had to be earned.” That effort, she said, drives her creative life. “I really do. Because I'm like a shark; if I stop moving, I'll die.” Earlier this month she unveiled her latest musical project, Teenage Drama, signaling that her public output will mostly be through her work rather than personal disclosures.
The contrast between Paris’s chosen privacy and her family’s public appearances creates the central friction. In April, Prince Jackson attended the Los Angeles premiere of Michael and Bigi Jackson joined family members at a Berlin showing; Paris had previously distanced herself from the film. The siblings’ differing responses underline a split over how to engage with the film and with public memory of their father. Paris’s comments suggest she will not be joining public rituals around the movie or repeating the kinds of social-media commemorations that have become automatic for some relatives of famous figures.
Her decision also reframes what fans and the press should expect. Paris is signaling that she will protect the private parts of her life while continuing to be visible as an artist. That matters because it changes the shape of the public record: fewer personal anecdotes, fewer commemorative posts, and more artistic work to interpret instead.
Paris Jackson’s choice is final: she said she’s found a place where her relationship with Michael can be private and unmarred by obligation, and she plans to keep it that way while letting her career — not personal tributes — carry the public-facing story. In short, she will share music and performance, not intimate family details.
