Ask anyone what they remember about Michael Jackson’s Neverland Ranch and there’s a good chance they’ll mention the animals. Michael’s famous home had a zoo most families could only dream of.
But his oldest son says the love behind all of it started long before Neverland.
Prince Jackson, whose full name is Michael Joseph Jackson Jr., is Michael’s eldest child. He was born on Feb. 13, 1997, and he still remembers those Neverland animals. Today he’s a grown man with a busy life of his own. He co-founded the Heal Los Angeles Foundation, and he was an executive producer on “Michael,” the 2026 movie about his father’s life.
In a 2023 podcast interview (reported by HELLO! magazine), Prince looked back on the ranch and its wild residents. He didn’t pretend any of it was ordinary.
“That’s pretty crazy,” he said.
Then he ran through the list of animals that lived there: “elephants, tigers, lions, a lot of primates like monkeys, gorillas, orangutans.”
For most of us, seeing an elephant meant a special day out at the zoo. At Neverland, they were part of home.
Michael’s own home videos from the ranch give you a feel for the world Prince is talking about.
Michael’s home videos from Neverland Ranch
So how does anyone end up with tigers at home?
According to Prince, it didn’t start with anything exotic at all. It started small. Really small.
“[My dad] loved animals when he was a kid. I think his first pets were two rats…” Prince said.
Two rats. It’s hard to think of a humbler start for a man who would one day keep lions. That’s how Prince remembers the beginning of Michael’s love of animals. Notice he said “I think.” This is Prince’s memory of what his dad told the family, and he’s the one who has shared it.
And from there, Prince said, it grew right along with Michael’s career.
“As he was making more money and more music, he was able to buy more animals.”
It’s a sweet picture. A young Michael looking after a pair of tiny pets, years before anyone had heard of Neverland. The animals got bigger as his success did.
There’s a fun footnote, too. Michael’s first No. 1 single as a solo artist on the US Billboard Hot 100 was “Ben” in 1972, a love song to a pet rat from a movie. In his 1988 book “Moonwalk,” Michael wrote, “I loved the song and loved the story,” and summed it up simply: “It was about a boy who befriended a rat.”
The song won a Golden Globe for Best Song and was nominated for an Academy Award, and you can watch a 14-year-old Michael sing it on the Oscars stage.
Young Michael sings “Ben” at the Academy Awards
Watch that boy at the microphone and Prince’s story feels easy to believe. Before the ranch and the big animals, his dad was a kid with two little pets, and Prince is the one keeping that memory alive.