Paris Jackson spent ‘hours’ covering her tattoos before Grammy Awards
Paris Jackson shocked fans when she had her dozens of tattoos covered up for the 2024 Grammy Awards so her dress could take center stage.
Bang Showbiz
Paris Jackson is looking back on the emotional, unplanned remarks she delivered at her father Michael Jackson’s 2009 memorial service.
During her Aug. 12 sit-down on the “Call Her Daddy” podcast, the King of Pop’s 28-year-old daughter shared that she had not planned to speak publicly at her father’s memorial in July 2009, when she was 11 years old.
“It kind of just happened in the moment,” Jackson said. “I was on stage. … They looked, and they were like, ‘Are one of the kids going to say something?’ And no one moved. … It just happened.”
At the end of the 2009 memorial service for the “Thriller” singer in Los Angeles, Paris Jackson, accompanied on stage by family members, took the microphone and sobbed as she said her dad was “the best father you could ever imagine” and “I love him so much.”
Michael Jackson died on June 25, 2009, from cardiac arrest caused by acute propofol and benzodiazepine intoxication. He was 50. Jackson welcomed Paris in 1998 during his marriage to Debbie Rowe, his second wife. They also welcomed a son, Prince, in 1997. Jackson later welcomed his third child, Bigi Jackson, via a surrogate in 2002. Paris is Michael Jackson’s only daughter.
Speaking on “Call Her Daddy,” she described her speech at her father’s memorial as a sort of “energetic initiation,” as she would go on to spend much of her life in front of microphones as a singer and actress.
“It felt like it happened very slowly,” she said, while noting she has never gone back to watch the footage. “It felt like, ‘Someone’s gotta say something. Little bro’s not gonna do it. Older bro’s not moving. Alright.'”
During the more-than-an-hour-long conversation, Paris Jackson described her late dad as a “really funny guy” and her “best friend.” She also recounted spending the “first few years” of her life at her dad’s Neverland Ranch property in California.
“It was made very, very clear that all of the attractions there were not for us,” she said. “That did not belong to us. That was for underprivileged children, and children that were terminally ill, that couldn’t go to Disneyland.”
Elsewhere in the conversation, Jackson confirmed she called off her engagement to Justin Long, a music producer, in 2025. She said ending the engagement was a “choice that I needed to make to be happy.” Jackson also noted this was the “second engagement” she called off, but she did not mention who she was engaged to the first time.
“I don’t know if you could count the first one,” she said. “It was real to me, even though we were strung out on drugs and the ring was one that he bought with my money, without me knowing.”