Long before most people knew her name, Kim Kardashian was a teenager in Los Angeles with a boyfriend from one of the most famous families in music.
His name was TJ Jackson. He’s the son of Tito Jackson, which made him Michael Jackson’s nephew. TJ later sang with his brothers Taj and Taryll in the group 3T. And Kim says this was no passing crush.
“I dated Janet’s nephew for years and years in high school,” she said on Hulu’s “The Kardashians,” as People reported in February 2025. The romance started back in junior high, according to People, and it pulled Kim right into the Jackson family’s world. She was invited to the family’s game nights, and TJ’s famous aunt still means a lot to her.
“Janet means so much to me, more on like a personal level, than anyone could really imagine,” Kim said.
TJ made a good impression at the Kardashian house as well. Pam Behan, the family’s former nanny, remembered him on a 2018 Reelz TV show, as quoted by People. “I really liked T.J.,” she said. “He was kind of on the quiet, shy side, always very nice and polite.”
The rumor Kim didn’t fight
In April 2024, Kim sat down on “Jimmy Kimmel Live,” and Jimmy put her through a round of online rumors about her life. Some of them were just silly. She shot down the claim that she has six toes, TheWrap reported.
Then Jimmy got to a rumor about her 14th birthday and where she’d spent it. This time Kim didn’t push back, and she didn’t add a word of explanation either. TheWrap noted that she confirmed it “without elaboration,” and CNN put it on the list of rumors she “verified” that night.
So where was the party?
Jimmy put it plainly, saying that “you celebrated your 14th birthday at Neverland Ranch.” Kim answered, “I did.” Jimmy’s reply was simply, “That’s crazy.”
That’s the whole exchange. Kim turned 14 at Michael Jackson’s ranch while she was dating his nephew.
What she saw when she drove up
Kim was far more talkative about Neverland 15 years earlier. Speaking to People in 2009, she called the ranch “the most magical place on earth,” and she described the arrival the way a kid would remember it.
“When you drove up, there were baby elephants and chimpanzees in overalls, and there was all the rides,” she said. “It was everything you can possibly imagine. The memories I have from that place will last for the rest of my life.”
She wasn’t there only once, either. Behan said on that same 2018 show: “I know that she went to the Neverland Ranch with him a time or two.”
Kim didn’t say on Kimmel who came to the party or whether Michael was there that day, and none of the reports we found say so. What she did make clear, back in 2009, was how much the place meant to her.
Plenty of teenagers had birthday parties that year. Not many could say theirs was at a place with rides and baby elephants.
“I had my birthday at Neverland Ranch,” Kim told People. “Who else can say that?”