Paris-Michael Katherine Jackson, the 18-year-old daughter of Michael Jackson, finally breaks her silence about her life and her father in the latest issue of Rolling Stone.
With piercing light blue eyes, Paris appears on the David LaChapelle-shot cover. Inside the mag is another whimsical, colorful photo captured in LaChapelle’s trademark style.
The revealing interview, “Paris Jackson: Life After Neverland,” was penned by Brian Hiatt, and focuses largely on Paris’ connection with her father who died when she was just 11 years old.
In the piece, Paris reveals that she believes her father was murdered. “It’s obvious,” she says. “All arrows point to that. It sounds like a total conspiracy theory and it sounds like bullshit, but all real fans and everybody in the family knows it. It was a setup. It was bullshit.”
When asked who would want to kill MJ, Paris explains: “A lot of people.” She adds that she wants justice for his death. “I definitely do, but it’s a chess game,” she explains. “And I am trying to play the chess game the right way. And that’s all I can say about that right now.”
Michael Jackson died on June 25, 2009. He was found with “lethal levels” of propofol in his body and his physician, Dr. Conrad Murray, was later found guilty of involuntary manslaughter in his death.
But death wasn’t the only topic of conversation. In the in-depth profile, Paris also revealed a lot of personal information, opening up about her bouts with suicidal thoughts, and revealing that she was sexually assaulted by a “complete stranger” as a 14-year-old.
See highlights from the story below…
ON SUICIDE ATTEMPTS: “It was just self-hatred, low self-esteem, thinking that I couldn’t do anything right, not thinking I was worthy of living anymore.”
ON BEING SEXUALLY ASSAULTED AT 14: “I don’t wanna give too many details. But it was not a good experience at all, and it was really hard for me, and, at the time, I didn’t tell anybody.”
ON HER CHILDHOOD AT NEVERLAND: “We actually had a pretty normal life. Like, we had school every single day, and we had to be good. And if we were good, every other weekend or so, we could choose whether we were gonna go to the movie theater or see the animals or whatever. But if you were on bad behavior, then you wouldn’t get to go do all those things.”
ON MJ’S MUSICAL INFLUENCE: “My dad worked with Van Halen, so I got into Van Halen. He worked with Slash, so I got into Guns N’ Roses. He introduced me to Tchaikovsky and Debussy, Earth, Wind and Fire, the Temptations, Tupac, Run-DMC.”
ON QUESTIONS ABOUT PARENTAGE: “He is my father. He will always be my father. He never wasn’t, and he never will not be. People that knew him really well say they see him in me, that it’s almost scary.”
ON RACE: “I consider myself black. [My father] would look me in the eyes and he’d point his finger at me and he’d be like, ‘You’re black. Be proud of your roots.’ And I’d be like, ‘OK, he’s my dad, why would he lie to me?’ So I just believe what he told me. ‘Cause, to my knowledge, he’s never lied to me. Most people that don’t know me call me white. I’ve got light skin and, especially since I’ve had my hair blond, I look like I was born in Finland or something.”
ON HER FATHER’S SADNESS: “My dad would cry to me at night. Picture your parent crying to you about the world hating him for something he didn’t do. And for me, he was the only thing that mattered. To see my entire world in pain, I started to hate the world because of what they were doing to him. I’m like, ‘How can people be so mean?’”
