Most children have a godmother who sends a card on their birthday. Paris Jackson had one of the most famous women who ever lived.
Paris is Michael Jackson’s only daughter. Her godmother was Elizabeth Taylor, the violet-eyed movie star who ruled old Hollywood in films like “National Velvet” and “Cleopatra,” won two Academy Awards, and spent decades as one of the most photographed women on the planet. She wasn’t just a name on a certificate either. Michael chose her himself.
He and Elizabeth had met back in the 1980s and grown close fast, two people who both knew what it was like to be famous long before they ever felt grown up. By the time Paris came along in 1998, Elizabeth was simply family. So when Michael dropped by to see his old friend, he often brought little Paris with him.
And Paris, even as a small girl, never wanted to show up empty-handed.
The gifts were the kind a child can gather on her own. Years later she remembered it plainly. “At the time, I just remember how I always wanted to bring her little gifts when we would visit her, like plush toys or bracelets I had found,” Paris said. She was little, but she clearly took the ritual seriously.
Once the presents were handed over, the grown-ups would settle in to talk. That’s a long stretch for a kid. But Paris had found the best company in the house, and it had four legs.
It was Elizabeth’s cat.
“Most of the time, I just sat on the floor of her bedroom with her cat, Fang, while she and my father caught up,” Paris said.
Fang. While two of the most famous people alive talked away the afternoon, Michael’s daughter was down on the carpet with a cat named Fang.
Paris shared all of this in the 2024 BBC series “Elizabeth Taylor: Rebel Superstar,” and People magazine wrote it up that September. By then she was grown, and the memories came out soft and fond.
She also has a theory about why her dad picked Elizabeth out of everyone he knew. Both of them had grown up famous as children, with cameras trailing them everywhere. “I think because I was growing up in the spotlight,” Paris said. “There’s definitely a part of him that knew that we would have a very similar experience.”
Elizabeth passed away in 2011, when Paris was still young. The bond clearly stayed with her anyway.
We couldn’t find real video of Paris telling this story, so there’s no clip to play here. What does exist are the photographs: Michael and Elizabeth side by side across the years, leaning in close and laughing like the old friends they really were. Look them up and you can almost spot the little girl just out of frame, waiting with a plush toy in her hands.