Paris Jackson, 28, told Jack Osbourne on his “Trying Not to Die” podcast that her addiction left her acting in “really ugly” ways—especially because sobriety restored the kindness she’d been raised to show.
Paris Jackson didn’t beat around the bush when she described the person she became during addiction.
“The behavior is really ugly. It’s really ugly behavior in a moral way. because I was raised to be kind — and not nice. ” the 28-year-old said during a Tuesday. May 26 appearance on Jack Osbourne’s “Trying Not to Die” podcast. She explained that addiction didn’t just affect her choices—it changed how she treated other people. “I could give a s**t about being nice — but being kind and looking people in the eye and asking the waiter their name so you can write it down on the receipt later. just little things of. just like. how do you treat people?”.
She said she spent “years and years and years of self-hatred” before she reached sobriety. In her telling. the difference between who she was in addiction and who she became in recovery came down to morality and impulse. “‘Oh. I may be a liar. a cheater. a piece of s**t. a thief. whatever. but I do have a good moral compass. like. I was raised right in that way. What happens when I drink is that goes away,” she said. “That goes right out the window and I become a very vindictive person.”.
Jackson also shared that alcohol and drugs weren’t the first place her pain showed up. Before she ever had her first drink or drug. she said she struggled with self-harm “for a really long time. ” and that she also dealt with “weird relationships with overeating and food as a young kid.” She described the pull toward substances as a kind of urgency she recognized in other people battling addiction. “There was this overall reachy, graspy energy that I only ever see in other addicts. Reaching for something outside of yourself.”.
Treatment came more than once, she said. Jackson shared that she went to treatment “several times” before—and after—starting her sobriety journey.
Her comments build on what she’s shared publicly in recent years. Last year. she wrote on Instagram about a milestone in sobriety. posting: “Hi. I’m pk. and I’m an alcoholic and a heroin addict.” In that same January 2025 message. she said. “Today marks 5 years clean and sober from all drugs and alcohol. To say that I’m thankful would be a poor euphemism. Gratitude hardly scratches the surface.”.
Earlier this year, she returned to Instagram with a reminder that staying sober doesn’t automatically make life easy. “Getting sober ain’t always the indication that life is perfect,” Jackson wrote in January. “A few years in, it all got very very hard for what felt like an eternity. I didn’t have the same survival skills I was used to having to cope. I had to learn to live life on life’s terms.”.
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