
Jean-Paul Goude/Harper’s Bazaar
Paris was born into pop music royalty, but it wasn’t necessarily the life Michael wanted for his little girl. “I wasn’t around a lot of other girls. When I was a kid, I was with my dad and my two brothers [Prince Jackson, 20, and Blanket Jackson, 15],” Paris says. “Growing up, I was treated as the favorite because I was the only girl. I was the princess; I was perfect in my dad’s eyes.”
Michael was fiercely protective of his children, and for the first 12 years of Paris’ life, she was home-schooled—meaning “the only interactions I’d ever had were with family members or other adults,” she says. As a result, Paris “didn’t have social skills. I had to force myself to learn so fast. For the past six years, I’ve been learning how to communicate.”
Fortunately, she says, “I think I’ve gotten pretty good at it.”
Jean-Paul Goude/Harper’s Bazaar
To say Paris’ life has been hard is an understatement.
In the eight years that followed Michael’s death, Paris tried to commit suicide several times, and she eventually sought treatment at age 15. A self-proclaimed “weird kid,” Paris “always wanted to kind of break off and do my own thing, just ’cause I feel I enjoy independence very much.” But independence wasn’t necessarily what she expected—or what she needed. “Once I got introduced into the real world, I was shocked. It blew me away,” she says. “Not just because it was sexist, but misogynist and racist and cruel. It was scary as hell. And it still is really scary.”
Jean-Paul Goude/Harper’s Bazaar
As for her haters, she says “There are some days when I still don’t want to deal with any of it. There are some days where I’m like, ‘Nope, I’m not going to go online.’ There are days when I’m too sensitive,” she says. At the end of the day, Paris says, “Who gives a f–k? You’re on their mind—how is that a bad thing? Doesn’t matter if they’re saying good or bad things about you. They’re thinking about you enough to write about you. You just can’t care. I used to [care]. Then it gets to a point where, you know what, it’s going to happen. Not everybody is going to be happy with what you do. If you’re not happy with what you’re doing, that’s a problem. If you’re happy, who gives a f–k?”