The King of Pop - who passed away in 2009 - left behind three children who tend to steer away from the spotlight.
He had his first two children; Michael Joseph Jackson Jr., 27, known as 'Prince,' and Paris-Michael Katherine Jackson, 26, with his second wife, Debbie Rowe, a dermatology nurse.
Whilst his third child, Prince Michael Jackson II, 22, known as 'Blanket' and later as 'Bigi', was conceived through a surrogate.
The identity of Bigi's mother has never been publicly disclosed.
The King of Pop famously didn't show his kids' faces when they were younger (Instagram/@princejackson)When they were younger, Jackson would often cover his children's faces in public and his eldest has revealed why in an interview with the Los Angeles Times in 2016.
Prince said: “My dad spoke to me like an adult.
“He told us the reason for the masks was he wanted us to have our own life without him.
“I don't think I ever thought about if other kids lived like that when I was younger.
“But once I knew who he was, I realised it wasn’t normal.
“I remember being in Disneyland and I went to the window and there were all these fans waving and taking pictures of me.
“I thought it was normal, so I just waved back.
“You could say my whole life has been unconventional.
“I really love that though, and it's all I've ever known.
“It wasn’t until I saw a video of him performing and people were fainting and passing out, when I realised the work he did meant a lot to people.”
Prince Jackson with girlfriend Molly Schirmang (Instagram/@princejackson)Talking about following in his dad’s footsteps, he joked: “Everyone thinks I’m going to do music and dance.”
But he is the first to admit he cannot do either of the things his dad was renownedly the ‘King’ of.
He added: “Music is a big part of my life.
“It shaped who I am because of my family, but I’ve always wanted to go into production and directing.”
Prince graduated from Loyola Marymount University with a degree in business administration in 2019.
He also co-founded the charity Heal Los Angeles, which aims to 'improve the lives of young people in Los Angeles'.
In 2020, he said he thinks his dad would be 'very proud' of all that he's achieved.
Two years later, Prince shared that he and his girlfriend, Molly Schirmang, had been together for five years.
They still appear to be together to this day.Featured Image Credit: Dave M. Benett/Getty Images/Kevin Winter/Getty Images
Published 15:37 31 Aug 2023 GMT+1
Michael Jackson’s son explained why his dad always covered their faces growing up
The King of Pop had some mysterious ways, and his children are starting to shed some light on the reasons why.
The King of Pop had some mysterious ways, and his children are starting to shed some light on the reasons why.
Michael Jackson had three children, Prince, Paris and Blanket (now known as Bigi), and they rarely speak publicly about their dad and his private life.
However, eldest son Prince has given some insight into some of MJ’s unexplained tendencies.
In a fascinating interview with the Los Angeles Times in 2016, Prince explained why he and his siblings were made to wear masks to cover their identities when they were children.
Prince said: “My dad spoke to me like an adult.
“He told us the reason for the masks was he wanted us to have our own life without him.
“I don't think I ever thought about if other kids lived like that when I was younger.
“But once I knew who he was, I realised it wasn’t normal.
“I remember being in Disneyland and I went to the window and there were all these fans waving and taking pictures of me.
“I thought it was normal, so I just waved back.
“You could say my whole life has been unconventional.
“I really love that though, and it's all I've ever known.
“It wasn’t until I saw a video of him performing and people were fainting and passing out, when I realised the work he did meant a lot to people.”
He added that he understood a lot of his dad’s wacky parenting choices, because they could often go out without him, and not be recognised due to their identities being kept a secret.
Talking about following in his dad’s footsteps, he joked: “Everyone thinks I’m going to do music and dance.”
But he is the first to admit he cannot do either of the things his dad was renownedly the ‘King’ of.
He added: “Music is a big part of my life.
“It shaped who I am because of my family, but I’ve always wanted to go into production and directing.”
After the 2016 interview, Prince graduated from Loyola Marymount University with a degree in business administration in 2019.
He also co-founded the charity Heal Los Angeles, which aims to 'improve the lives of young people in Los Angeles'.
In 2020, he said he thinks his dad would be 'very proud' of all that he's achieved.Featured Image Credit: Dave Hogan/Dave M. Benett/Getty Images
Published 14:20 30 Aug 2024 GMT+1
Sad reason Michael Jackson's kids never received any of their staggering £85m inheritance
Prince, Paris and Bigi are being supported by their father's estate
Since the tragic passing of the King of Pop nearly two decades ago, there have been many questions about who inheritted what of his staggering fortune.
Now, it’s only natural to believe that his family would get their cut, but that’s not always the case with these things.
Back in 2009, the awful news circulated on every major TV station that Michael Jackson had died at the age of 50 and since then, it’s been a battle of the Jacksons.
The King of Pop died at the age of 50 in 2009. (Kevin Mazur/WireImage)After the music icon's passing, his giant estate continued to generate a whopping half a billion dollars in just three years, according to Forbes.
Thanks to his This Is It film, he accumulated an extra $60 million advance payment, as well as a new contract for his recordings which racked up $250 million. And the singer’s Immortal World Tour, Cirque du Soleil, grossed over $75 million in 2012.
So, it’s no surprise that there was a fight for his cash.
Even though Jackson left behind his estate to his family, his fortune is still being debated to this day, and his kids haven’t seen a penny of their $85 million.
Because of a dispute between the late 'Thriller' singer - who would have been 66 now - and the IRS over a tax bill, his three kids Prince, 27, Paris, 26, and Bigi (aka Blanket), 22, can’t get any money from the fortune until it’s resolved.
Michael Jackson's kids - Prince, Paris and Bigi - haven't had a penny of their inheritance (Alan Chapman/Dave Benett/Getty Images)While they are given an allowance from the estate and are apparently ‘very well taken care of’, they are still missing out of their rightful inheritance.
A statement about the issue obtained by PEOPLE read: "In annual reports provided to the probate court, which are publicly available, anyone can see that the Estate provides Michael’s mother and children with very substantial amounts of money to support them.
"The Estate has a very cooperative relationship with Michael’s children and whenever they need anything, the Estate works with them to ensure that they are very well taken care of, just as Michael would have wanted."
In his will, which was submitted in 2002, it was explained that his interests would be placed in the ‘Michael Jackson Family Trust’, with 20 percent of his money to be donated to charity, while the rest would go to a lifetime trust for his mum Katherine Jackson, and a trust for his three children.
His father - the creator of the Jackson Five Joe Jackson - as well as his siblings and and ex-wives, did not appear in his will.
The Jackson family want a piece of his estate (Carlo Allegri/Getty Images)There was also a clause which stated that if they challenged the will, they’d be disinherited.
But this didn’t stop his dad trying to claim some money from the estate, which was rejected in 2009.
Judge Mitchell Beckloff said in 2009: "Joe Jackson takes none of this estate. This is a decision his son made."
Now, Bigi is in a legal battle with his grandmother Katherine after reportedly filing legal papers to stop her from using his dad’s estate money to pay for legal fees.
TMZ claimed: "Based on recent reporting, it seems like it may be related to the deal the estate made with Sony to sell about half of Michael's music catalogue for $600M."
While Bigi and Katherine opposed the deal, the court ruled against them and now the grandmother wants to appeal, while the youngest Jackson doesn’t want his father's estate paying for the legal bills.Featured Image Credit: Kevork Djansezian-Pool/Getty Images/Alan Chapman/Dave Benett/Getty
Published 14:53 22 Feb 2024 GMT
Sad truth behind Michael Jackson’s nose surgeries
All has been revealed on the King of Pop's plastic surgery
The King of Pop had a number of plastic surgeries over his lifetime, as his look changed throughout the years.
But fans have always been curious as to why Michael Jackson felt the need to change the way he looked so drastically.
Jackson is viewed as one of the most talented and influential artists of all-time, with his 'Thriller' album still the best selling album of all time, a good 21 million clear of second place.
But as one of the most popular musical figures, Jackson was one of the most scrutinised, and to this day, he arguably still is.
Perhaps his upcoming biopic will offer us more insight into who the man really was, but for now all we have is archive videos and stories from those who knew him.
A subject that has always interested the public was Jackson's ever-changing appearance throughout the decades, and it looks like his bodyguard may just have revealed all on the changes.
Steve Granitz/WireImage/GettyMatt Fiddes is a Swindon-born celebrity trainer who is also the self-proclaimed 'owner of the world's largest martial arts schools.'
But before all of that, he was a bodyguard for none other than Michael Jackson.
Featuring as a guest on 'The Steven Sulley Study' podcast, Fiddes was asked by Sulley about the change to his nose, and did so as a TikTok clip of the podcast has amassed over 130k views.
He explained: "He used to get teased by his family a lot over the size of his nose - being called big nose and all of this stuff."
"He used to say his dad used to be the main one - 'you didn't get that from me, you got that from your mom, you didn't get that from my side of the family' - it hurt him a lot." Fiddes explained.
But that ultimately wasn't the reason.
Fiddes went on: "Michael used to dance about three hours a day on average. At one stage he was doing 50 spins in a row - it was unbelievable.
"He fell over and broke his nose and he saw it as the perfect opportunity while he was under anaesthetic to just get a smaller nose."
Jackson underwent his first rhinoplasty surgery in 1979, and went on to have several more.
Fiddes also stated that he didn't speak to the singer about the extent of each surgery in detail, but said that it was clear that he altered his nose.
The ex-bodyguard also suggested that Jackson knew that people paid a lot of attention to his appearance, and that Jackson would play on it.
"A lot of times how the media would have seen him is not how I would have seen him,
"He would make himself look ridiculous to wind the media up."Featured Image Credit: Aaron Lambert-Pool/Frank Edwards/Fotos International/Getty Images
Published 16:40 4 Feb 2024 GMT
Michael Jackson shared the biggest regret he had about his career in brutally honest interview
Michael Jackson had a big regret about his career, and it's something many famous folk seem to have experienced
Michael Jackson once spoke about the biggest regret he had about his career in the music industry.
It's been years since the singer died shortly before he was due to perform his farewell concerts for his This Is It show.
Jackson died on 25 June 2009 just 18 days before he was due to begin his This Is It tour, and he had been rehearsing for it shortly before his death at the age of 50.
While he was one of the biggest music stars of all time with millions of fans it seems as though Jackson could be his own harshest critic, as evidenced by resurfaced interview footage where he spoke about regrets.
Almost a decade after Jackson's death, Good Morning America announced that there would be a documentary about his life called The Last Days of Michael Jackson, which contained previously unseen footage from an interview the singer did in 1995.
Kevin Mazur/WireImageDuring that never before seen conversation with ABC's Diane Sawyer he was very critical of his own performances and shared the biggest regret he'd had about his career.
He said: "I'm just never satisfied with what I do creatively.
"I just regret the limitation of my own imagination. I just feel there's so much more.
"I don't think I've ever done a project where I was totally happy with it."
The self-criticism continued onto a subject most people would have reckoned Jackson was a master at, dancing.
He said he 'wasn't happy' about his first performance of the moonwalk, as he'd planned to spin around five times, land on his toes and hold the position.
Not managing this, Jackson said he was 'angry' that he'd not done it and felt 'really disappointed' afterwards.
Fortunately he revealed that something managed to cheer him up pretty quickly afterwards, getting a call the next day from famous dancer Fred Astaire who told Jackson he was an 'incredible mover'.
This was the review the singer needed to convince him he'd actually done a good job with the moonwalk after all.
In a different interview Jackson was asked whether he ever regretted being famous to which he responded 'sometime, only sometime'.
"Sometimes I wanna sneak into places and not have any hoopla, and it doesn't work all the time 'cause people start and they crowd around," Jackson said as his interviewer told him everyone had the right to be alone from time to time.
The singer responded that it was 'part of the work'.
