It sounds like something invented for a crime movie.
But Juan Pablo Escobar, now known as Sebastián Marroquín, says his father once seriously considered bringing Michael Jackson to Colombia and then demanding millions of dollars before allowing him to leave.
Juan Pablo was a huge Michael Jackson fan as a child.
While growing up at Hacienda Nápoles, Pablo Escobar’s enormous Colombian estate, he became tired of seeing the same regional performers brought in for private events.
So he asked his father for someone much bigger.
Michael Jackson.
According to Juan Pablo, Escobar immediately agreed with the idea.
Then his criminal instincts took over.
In a later interview, Juan Pablo recalled his father essentially telling him that they could bring Michael to the estate and, when he wanted to leave, charge him $60 million for his freedom. Juan Pablo insisted the remark was not a joke.
Pablo Escobar’s Son Tells the Michael Jackson Story
The story resurfaced strongly in 2026 through the documentary series Dear Killer Nannies: Criado por sicarios, in which Juan Pablo revisited his childhood inside his father’s violent world.
Reports based on the series say Escobar considered paying around $3 million to bring Michael to Colombia for a private appearance in 1988. The alleged plan was then to recover far more by holding him and demanding money before allowing him to leave.
For Juan Pablo, the memory was disturbing because the idea had started as something innocent.
He simply wanted to see his favorite performer.
Instead, he said his father immediately turned that wish into a potential kidnapping scheme.
The plan never happened.
There is also no evidence that Michael Jackson or his representatives were ever aware of the proposal, much less that travel arrangements reached an advanced stage. The story rests primarily on Juan Pablo’s recollections years later.
That distinction matters.
But Juan Pablo has repeated the story more than once, including in a 2016 VICE interview and again in 2026. In the earlier interview, he said the episode demonstrated how naturally his father’s mind turned ordinary situations into criminal opportunities.
For a young Michael Jackson fan, the idea had been simple:
Bring the King of Pop to Hacienda Nápoles and watch him perform.
According to Pablo Escobar’s son, his father had something far darker in mind.
Michael Jackson never made that trip to Colombia, and one of the strangest alleged plots involving the King of Pop remained nothing more than a plan.