Paris Jackson granted the public access to her life on her own terms a while back. The 25-year-old daughter of the late King of Pop, Michael Jackson, has a Facebook Watch series. Unfiltered: Paris Jackson and Gabriel Glenn is a reality-style series that gives viewers insight into Paris and her partner/bandmate, Gabriel.
The show debuted a few years ago, and fans were immediately fascinated with Paris' boho-hippie lifestyle. They also like that she's unapologetically honest and herself. In the show's debut episode, Paris opened up about her sexuality.
Paris identifies as gay, although her explanation rings true to the standard definition of pansexuality. Paris falls in love with people regardless of gender. It's something she believes her father caught on to when she was very young.
As Paris recalls her dad teasing her about a girl crush, you see something truly tender. Her memories of her father are truly her own. The world has had a lot to say about him, both before and after his untimely death. Paris' wonderful memories of her dad are unwavering nonetheless. It gives us insight into who Michael was as a dad, a role he cherished but kept as private as possible throughout his children's early years.
Paris Jackson is opening up about her life. Paris grew up notoriously privately as her father, the late King of Pop Michael Jackson, wanted his children to have all the joys of childhood he never got to experience. After his death, Paris and her siblings, Prince Michael and Bigi (known as "Blanket" in his childhood), were forced into a quick adjustment to life outside the idyllic world Michael worked hard to give them.
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"They always say, 'Time heals,'" she told Rolling Stone in 2017.
"But it really doesn't. You just get used to it. I live life with the mentality of 'OK, I lost the only thing that has ever been important to me.'"
"So going forward, anything bad that happens can't be nearly as bad as what happened before. So I can handle it."
Paris struggled with self-harm and a suicide attempt. It wasn't her first, but the first time she went public and brought her mental health into a worldwide conversation about troubled youth. She also survived sexual assault at the hands of a stranger. She made it through to the other side, even as people compared her struggles to that of her late father. It took a lot of work, but she now finds herself at peace.
When the dust settled, Paris had to acknowledge the circumstances of her life. She would always be linked to her late father and, to that end, always live with a degree of celebrity. It was her choice what to do with that.
"I was born with this platform," she said. "Am I gonna waste it and hide away? Or am I going to make it bigger and use it for more important things?"
Paris has worked as a model and an actress. She shares Michael's passion for music, which has been her main focus as of late. It's also the subject of her Facebook Watch series, Unfiltered: Paris Jackson and Gabriel Glenn. Gabriel is Paris' partner and also her bandmate in The Soundflowers.
In the debut episode of her show, Paris shared how her current relationship is not what she ever pictured for herself.
"Never thought I'd end up with a dude," she confessed.
"[I] thought I'd end up marrying a chick. I've dated more women than men and been with more chicks. The public only knows about three long term relationships I've been with and they've been with men. The public doesn't know about most of the relationships I've been in."
Paris identifies as gay but gave a more complete explanation of how she views her sexuality.
"I say I'm gay because I guess I am, but I wouldn't consider myself bisexual because I've dated more than just men and women," she said.
"I've dated a man that had a vagina. It has nothing to do what's in your pants, it's literally like, what are you like as a person?"
Paris believes that Michael knew she wasn't straight from a very young age. "I think he felt the energy and he would tease me the same way he'd tease my brothers, like, 'You got yourself a girlfriend,' if I were staring at a magazine of a woman too hard," she recalled.
"I'm very lucky to have that, especially so young, 8 or 9. Not many children have that experience."
Most children also didn't have to wear face coverings while going out in public. Many people wrote that off as another of Michael's eccentricities. Paris recently spoke on Unfiltered about how she and her siblings appreciated it, even if the world didn't get it.
"When [my dad] was young, he would be in the studio and he'd look outside and he'd see kids on the playground and he couldn't do that," she explained.
"He didn't want that for us, so we wore masks," Paris continued.
"I appreciated it. It was nice." The masks allowed them to have a more normal childhood experience, like "go to Chuck E. Cheese and Circus Circus."
Paris has been nervous about opening up to the world in this way but is comforted by the level of control she can have as an adult.
"For a long time I was just against letting the world in because I was just too scared to do it," she shared.
"You see a kid grow up in the public eye, you forget that I am a human. I was against letting the world in because it wasn't a choice. I wasn't ready then. I feel like I'm ready now."
