Plenty of grandparents end up raising their grandkids. Not many start at 80, but that’s how old Katherine Jackson was.
Katherine, born May 4, 1930, is Michael Jackson’s mother. She became the guardian of his three children: Prince, Paris and Bigi. In the summer of 2010, Prince was 13, Paris was 12 and Bigi, who was born Prince Michael Jackson II and was called Blanket back then, was 8.
That June, Katherine sat down with Britain’s Mail on Sunday and talked about what everyday life looked like in a house full of growing kids. Her interview was published on Sunday, June 20, 2010.
The first thing she made clear was that she wasn’t starting from scratch.
“I’d say I’m a little less strict, but I’ve tried to follow the way Michael was raising them,” she said.
That’s a line plenty of grandparents will understand. You keep the parents’ rules. You just bend them a little.
Michael had the children taught at home with private lessons. That didn’t change. AP reported that a room in the house had been turned into a classroom, with a tutor coming in to teach them. So schoolwork was the backbone of every day.
But their days had more in them than books.
Katherine said the kids kept a healthy routine of daily schoolwork, karate and swimming.
Karate is not the first thing most people would guess for the children of the King of Pop. But these three were regulars at a martial arts class. AP put it plainly: “The Jackson kids are avid students of karate and have made friends at their karate classes.”
Earlier that same year, cameras caught the three of them arriving for class. You can see for yourself how ordinary it looked.
Prince, Paris and Bigi heading to karate class in April 2010
Swimming was the other half of it. And Katherine said the kids got a lot out of visits from the rest of the family.
“Having them around has helped the children immensely. They go places together and have fun. They listen to Michael’s music.”
Then she talked about each child, and she kept seeing her son in them.
“Paris has that lovely way like Michael, and I see his talent in her. Whatever she does she’s very good at it. She’s a good artist and plays the piano,” Katherine said.
The article said Bigi had Michael’s sense of playfulness, and Prince was interested in the arts.
This clip from a few months earlier, in January 2010, shows another day at the same karate class.
Another day at the Jackson kids’ karate class in January 2010
The martial arts stuck with at least one of them, too. Years later, at 19, Prince told the Los Angeles Times he was studying jujitsu.
For a grandmother of 80, keeping up with three kids, a tutor and a karate schedule was no small thing. Katherine did it her way, a little softer than Michael, but with his rules still on the fridge, so to speak.