Michael Jackson's daughter on calling off engagements: "He bought the ring with my money, without me even knowing"
The daughter of the late King of Pop has opened up about her destructive relationships, cancelled engagements, her tough childhood at the Neverland estate, and her ongoing struggle with addiction. "Alcohol turned me into a bitch," she admits.
Last summer, Paris Jackson (28), daughter of Michael Jackson, made headlines again when she called off her engagement to producer Justin Long. Now, she is dropping a bombshell, revealing that this was not her first time. "These are actually the second engagement I've called off," she revealed in an interview with Alex Cooper on the 'Call Her Daddy' podcast. "The first was when we were completely wiped out on drugs, and he bought the engagement ring with my money without me even knowing!"
She broke off the engagement to Long, with whom she had been for about three years, after realizing that her consent was given, among other reasons, due to the pressure of time. According to Paris, she sought help from professionals and friends who asked her difficult questions, making her realize that her answers were simply not good enough. "I realized that just because someone is a good person, doesn't mean they're my person. In this city, everyone is excited that a man doesn't cheat, but loyalty is the minimum; it's not a sufficient reason to stay if your major needs aren't being met."
To recover from the breakup and break her old habit of jumping straight into a stranger's bed, the pop star's daughter decided to take a 'male detox,' which lasted for many long months: no dates, no flirting, no prolonged eye contact, and no long, warm hugs.
These revelations come against the backdrop of a childhood that was far from easy. Jackson, who grew up in the infamous Neverland estate, clarified that the reality in that famous location was not a paradise. "We would wake up, do homeschooling, and do chores. Only if we were good, did our chores, and finished our homework were we allowed on weekends to spend time at the attractions there — which were not intended for us at all. It was made clear to us unequivocally that they were not for us and did not belong to us. They were intended for underprivileged children and terminally ill children who could not travel to Disneyland."
The loneliness and strict rules intensified in the shadow of the absolute absence of a mother in her life, Debbie Rowe, with whom Paris had no contact during her childhood. The first physical meeting took place only when she was 15, in an almost indifferent moment. "I went down the stairs and she was just sitting there in the living room with my grandmother. I walked in and just said 'Hi Mom', and she answered 'Hi'. We sat, talked a little, and went out to spend time together that day." Only towards the end of her adolescence did they really get closer, and today, Paris explains, she has learned not to arrive with expectations for relationships to avoid disappointments: "She is a Sagittarius and I am an Aries, we both have fire, but I realized that I must not expect too much so that something organic can grow."
The family disconnect and the complex life in the shadow of her father's early death at age 11 pushed her to very dark places in search of comfort. Already at ages 7-9, she felt the need to harm herself, and her romance with hard drugs (like heroin) and alcohol began as early as middle school. "It brought out a version of me that I didn't like at all, I was just a real bitch." Her friends began to tell her about terrible things she did when she was in a complete blackout, which scared her enough to seek help and start a rehabilitation process.
In a direct continuation, when Paris talks about her new song 'Sirens', she reveals that it was written about a traumatic event from 2018 that almost ended in tragedy: "The song tells about a close friend of mine who overdosed on my drugs, and I had to treat him myself until the paramedics arrived." Thanks to her training as a first responder, she managed to save his life at the last moment, with doctors making it clear that if she had reached him one minute later, he would have died or been left with permanent brain damage. Despite this, even this case did not cause Paris to sober up immediately: "It testifies to the fact that things take time, because I didn't stop and didn't get clean immediately, but only a year and a half later, at the beginning of 2020, when I hit my bottom." Today, she celebrates six full years of sobriety and recovery.
