Sixteen years ago tomorrow, on Nov 8, 2010, Oprah Winfrey aired a sit-down with Michael Jackson’s three children. And they talked about their dad.
It wasn’t filmed in a studio. Oprah taped it in the backyard of the Jackson family home, with several cousins around. Prince was 13. Blanket, who goes by Bigi now, was 8. And in the middle was Paris, who was 12.
This clip from the Oprah Winfrey Network ranks the interview No. 17 on TV Guide’s Top 25, and it lets you see Michael’s children sitting down with Oprah for yourself.
Oprah’s interview with Michael’s children
Paris didn’t describe a superstar. She described her dad.
“He was just a normal dad,” she said.
That’s a funny thing to hear about a man who had his own rides and a zoo at home. She told Oprah their father had a plan for them, and it didn’t quite work out.
“He tried to raise us without us knowing who he was, but that didn’t really go so well.”
So what does a normal day out look like when your dad is Michael Jackson? You might guess an amusement park, or a private tour of somewhere fancy. The outing Paris described was much calmer than that.
He took her to museums.
“Sometimes he would take me to a museum, because we both loved art.”
That’s the part that makes the story so sweet. Michael could have taken her almost anywhere, and he chose a museum because they both loved the same thing. Paris didn’t say which museums or which city, and that almost doesn’t matter. What stuck with her was the reason they went.
If you want to hear Paris say it in her own voice, this fan upload is billed as the full interview with Katherine Jackson and the kids, with behind-the-scenes footage added.
The full 2010 interview with Katherine Jackson and the kids
The art museum trips weren’t the only simple things Paris brought up. Home life sounded a lot like anybody else’s.
“We’d play tag outside,” she said. “He got us Kenya [their dog] four years ago.”
That puts Kenya’s arrival at around 2006. It’s a small detail, but it tells you a lot. With all the space and all the extras at his fingertips, Michael still gave his kids a family dog and ran around the yard with them.
Paris had her own dreams, too. She told Oprah she’d like to be an actress when she was older.
Paris sat down with Oprah again for “Oprah’s Next Chapter,” and in this clip from Oprah’s network she shares more of her memories of her father.
Paris shares memories of her father on “Oprah’s Next Chapter”
It’s easy to forget, with all the costumes and the crowds, that Michael was a dad to these three kids before anything else.
Paris was only 12 when she sat in that backyard with Oprah. Of all the things she could have said about her famous father, she chose to talk about the art they loved together.