A glimpse into Michael Jackson’s nightmare of being a child
Paris Jackson has exposed the costs of living for Michael Jackson’s daughter, exposing addiction, self-harm and a drug-ravaged body as she marks hard-won sobriety as life within the family remains fraught.
And RadarOnline.com can reveal that her grim story is part of what insiders call the “curse” of being one of Jackson’s children.
Raised behind the gates of Neverland and homeschooled away from prying eyes, Paris, 27, and her brothers Prince, 28, and Bigi, 23, have navigated adulthood under brutal scrutiny since their troubled father died in Los Angeles in 2009 at the age of 50 following cardiac arrest due to a drug overdose.
The siblings now bear the burden of his disputed inheritance as legal battles over the estate continue and a biopic, Michael, looms.
This week, Paris revealed to fans in a fearless Instagram post that her years of heroin addiction had left her with a hole between her nostrils. She said in one video posted on TikTok she has a perforated septum – a hole in the cartilage in her nose – which makes recording vocals difficult.
But she said she will not undergo surgery, citing the need to avoid strong postoperative medications to protect her sobriety.
Paris confessed, “I realized that I never addressed this and that it can be very noticeable at times.
“I have a very loud whistle because you can hear it when I breathe through my nose and that’s because I have what’s called a perforated septum.”
The singer gave her fans a grim impression of the condition by shining her mobile phone flashlight on her nostril, revealing a lit tunnel inside.
Paris – who has been open about her past heroin and booze abuse – said of the hole: “It’s exactly where you think it comes from.” She added that she had lived with the condition for about seven years, starting when she was 20.
Towards the end of the video, Jackson looked into the camera and warned, “Don’t do drugs, kids.”
Paris celebrated half a decade of sobriety earlier this year, adding that she was hesitant to undergo surgery to repair the perforation because she had been “almost six years sober” and feared the aftereffects of the procedure could lead to a relapse.
She added: “You have to take pills when you do such a major operation. And I don’t want to mess with that.”
Paris admitted in 2017 that some of her many tattoos were designed to hide signs of drug use and scars from self-harm.
She revealed that she attempted suicide “several times” before studying at a therapeutic school in Utah.
But her entire family’s abnormal upbringing still overshadows their lives. In their early years, Jackson often masked the faces of all his children in public and tightly controlled access while the trio lived on his barmy Neverland ranch.
After his death, custody of his three children shifted – first to a grandparent, before a cousin was given temporary custody during a period of family turmoil – and the legal wrangling has barely stopped since.
For the youngest, Bigi, adulthood meant withdrawal. He lives like a recluse, keeping a low profile while occasionally popping up alongside Paris and Prince, and has taken action to protect his legacy. Last year he filed a lawsuit to prevent family money from being used in a new legal battle – a sign of the tensions that have hung over a fortune that runs into the billions.
Prince, meanwhile, has worked on charitable projects and media ventures in Los Angeles, honoring his father’s memory while recognizing the high expectations.
He has said he hopes the King of Pop would be proud, even though the spotlight rarely fades.
Bigi, who lost his childhood nickname “Blanket” years after his father infamously dangled him from the balcony of a Berlin hotel at nine months old, has developed a passion for film despite his reclusiveness – but that’s work behind the camera.
Although Paris and Prince appear more often in public, even their outings together are rare. The trio’s occasional reunions underscore how carefully they live largely private lives — a lesson learned from a childhood spent in hiding.
A source said: “Bigi hides himself from the world, and Prince is obsessed with trying to help people.
‘The problems of Paris speak for themselves. Obviously being one of MJ’s kids is a curse.”
It is unlikely that the children’s individual torments will disappear.
New attention for them is certain Michael – a studio biopic starring a cousin – is nearing release and there is talk of a sequel to the 2019 documentary We’re leaving Neverland resurfaces the child molestation allegations that dogged Jackson until he was pushed into an early grave by his addiction to the sedative propofol – a hospital-grade drug he used to put him to sleep.
