Michael Jackson's Kids Are All Grown Up Now

Michael Jackson was recently thrust back into the spotlight, almost 10 years after his death, when HBO premiered the docuseries Leaving Neverland. In it, two men describe the sexual assault they allegedly endured as children at the hands of Jackson. But despite child molestation charges before and now after his death, Jackson maintained a close relationship with his children. Because they aren't in the public eye as much anymore, you might be wondering how many kids Michael Jackson had and where they are now.

Jackson had two children with a nurse named Debbie Rowe, who he married in 1996. With her, Jackson had Michael Joseph Jackson Jr. in 1997 and then Paris Jackson the following year. While Michael Joseph has been mostly silent about their father’s death and about his childhood in general, Paris has taken on a more vocal role over the years, speaking to the press about her struggle to come to terms with their father’s death and about moving forward.

Their younger brother, Prince Michael Jackson II, who was nicknamed "Blanket", has probably been the least outspoken of Michael’s children and was conceived with an unknown surrogate. At 17-years-old now, he is the youngest of Jackson’s children and attends a private high school in an LA neighborhood.

Today, Paris is still the most well known of Michael’s children, likely because of her growing modeling, acting, and singing career. She gave a tearful speech at her father’s memorial service after his 2009 death and later, in 2013, she reportedly attempted to take her life. She told Rolling Stone that it was a dark period in her life when she was experimenting with drugs and going through a serious depression.

"It was just self-hatred," she said. "Low self-esteem, thinking that I couldn’t do anything right, not thinking I was worthy of living anymore."

Since then, Paris has turned to modeling, singing, and acting, following in her father’s footsteps. Her Instagram is full of spiritual sayings and inspirational quotes and she comes across as being more zen than anything.

Paris’s older brother, Michael Joseph, spends less time in the public eye, but that might be because he has always preferred to be behind the camera rather than in front of it. In 2016, he launched King's Son Productions and, he told the Los Angeles Times, that even though he can't sing or dance like his father, he plans to have a career in entertainment.

"Music is a big part of my life," he said at the time. "It shaped who I am because of my family, but I’ve always wanted to go into production. My dad would ask me what I wanted to do and my answer was always producing and directing."

Since he and Paris are so close in age, they’re as close as two siblings can be without being actual twins. On Michael Joseph’s birthday Paris posted some Instagram photos of the two of them as kids and wrote, "You have grown into such a strong and brave and handsome young man and there are no words to express my gratitude for you and how proud I am of all the things you do. You are the greatest big brother anyone could ever ask for, you are my rock, my anchor, my ride or die."

Unfortunately, not much is known about Prince these days. His first public appearance was at eight months old, when Michael took him out on his Berlin hotel balcony and seemed to dangle him over the railing. The incident made headlines around the world, but for the most part, the youngest of Michael's three children has remained out of the spotlight. Newsweek reported that, like any other teenager, Prince enjoys video games and he has taken up martial arts.

Michael’s children grew up mostly at Neverland Ranch where they were home-schooled together and since their father's death, they seem to have remained close.