Paris Jackson has never hidden her fragility, but she has recently started to speak more freely about her heroin addiction, emotional collapse, and years of family turmoil.
Sources close to the Jacksons have noted how, in many ways, she mirrored her father’s own descent.
Although now five years sober, Paris, 27, has recently opened fire on the billion-dollar Michael Jackson estate with a blistering series of legal attacks, leaving insiders fearing she may again be slipping toward the darkness she fought so hard to escape, and could end up another tragic chapter in the Jackson legacy.
“This didn’t feel strategic,” a family insider told Page Six of her recent lawsuit. “It felt emotional. And when Paris is emotional, that’s when the family gets scared. She’s been through hell—and sometimes old trauma talks louder than reason.”
Those within the Jackson family had already lived through Paris’ darkest years, which started before she was barely a teenager. They watched her spiral, vanish for days, self-harm, overdose, and crumble under grief and trauma of her father dying suddenly from a doctor-administered drug overdose in 2009.
After her first filing against the Jackson estate was thrown out by a judge at Los Angeles Superior Court, Paris and her legal team again filed this week, making more detailed claims. It has rattled the family she filed at all, as they suspect she is getting bad advice and under undue influence from outsiders — the same things which brought down her father.
The Jackson family first attempted an intervention with Michael Jackson in a New York hotel in 2001.
Concerns had been mounting since his February Rock & Roll Hall of Fame induction at the Waldorf Astoria in New York, where family members whispered he looked frail and jittery. By late September, during his 30th anniversary concerts at Madison Square Garden, the fear deepened.
At an after party at Tavern on the Green, Michael confided to one brother he wasn’t sure he could make it through the second scheduled show—a performance that took place the night before the 9/11 terror attacks.
“He didn’t look right,” a family member said. “There were whispers he was drinking Jack Daniel’s like water. And mixing that with the painkillers he’d been taking for years? That scared everyone.”
In 2002, the family launched intense group therapy sessions in Malibu in a desperate attempt to intervene. Michael refused to participate. Arguments erupted over numerous past chagrins, including patriarch Joe Jackson’s treatment of Michael and his sisters Rebbie and La Toya when they were children.
“It became impossible,” one source said. “The hurt was too deep. And every time that van pulled up to transport the family to therapy, the only two eager to participate were Janet and [brother] Randy.”
Although she was just four at that time, those same patterns—withdrawal, emotional crashes, secrecy, defiance, and vanishing—later appeared in Paris.
“Part of her struggles come from seeing what her father went through,” a separate insider told The Post. “Women are always more intuitive. She said that her dad had constantly been telling her that they’re trying to kill me, they’re trying to take you guys away from me.
“He was very paranoid. He was dealing with a lot then, of course. She got the firsthand effect of that,” they added.
After Michael’s tragic death, Paris appeared with brothers Prince, now 28, and Bigi, now 23, at the Los Angeles Staples Center weeping.
“Daddy was the best father you could ever imagine,” Paris managed to say through tears.
But after, all three kids went home to a full-blown family meltdown among the family at their Hayvenhurst compound in Encino. Paris, then 11-years-old, shut down.
She developed what family members called a “cold stare.” She locked herself in her bedroom for days. And when the door was finally cracked open, she was gone.
“She’d disappear,” a family member said. “And we panicked every time. She’s Michael Jackson’s daughter—there were real security fears.”
In June 2013, less than a month before the fourth anniversary of Michael’s death, emergency services responded to a reported overdose at the home where Paris was living. It was reported at the time she had attempted to cut her wrists, and she later confirmed she had made a suicide attempt.
“This was a trainwreck,” a source said. “She wasn’t showing motivation, locked herself in her room, disappearing.”
At that time Michael’s mother, the family matriarch, Katherine, was already 83. “She wasn’t equipped for any of this,” a source noted.
“If you told [Paris] she needed to be careful, she’d basically say ‘f–k off,’” another insider said.
Paris then became a heroin addict and an alcoholic. She revealed she has a perforated septum, leaving her with a constant involuntary whistle — damage she recently described saying: the drugs “ruined my life.”
Her breakdowns were brutal. Some nights she didn’t sleep at all. Some days she slept endlessly. She hid track marks and self-harm scars under oversized clothes.
“Growing up in that very abnormal environment – when you are the daughter of someone who was the biggest star to ever live in this world, that’s why she turned to drugs to deal with the emotional and physical pain of it as well,” the insider said.
Her brother Prince Jackson begged for intervention. Paris’ birth mother, Debbie Rowe, was called in repeatedly — “at least half a dozen times,” one insider said — often rushing over late at night to talk Paris down.
Onceshe started receiving money from the estate, Paris’ instability manifested itself in other ways. Insiders say she once bought as many as seven homes in quick succession.
“She now believes she has a problem with how the estate is handling money?” one family source questioned. “Imagine if she had full control. She would buy a house, find that she doesn’t like it, and then purchase another one. Is that rational?”
Another insider was much blunter. “Seven friggin houses? Who is she, Jeff Bezos?” the source said, referring to the billionaire Amazon founder who owns many homes across the world.
Then this week Paris doubled down on her accusations against her own estate executors.
In her new filing, she accused John Branca and John McClain of deliberately delaying the probate case, which is in charge of her father’s affairs until a judge rules it should be closed and passed along to her and her brothers to manage.
Paris claims while she and her brothers wait for the inheritance Michael intended them to have, the estate is sitting on more than $460 million in cash which earns almost no returns and the executors have paid themselves enormous compensation packages and poured tens of millions into their pet projects.
Pointing to account records for 2021, she says Branca and McClain took $8 million in executor compensation, plus another $2 million went to Branca’s law firm.
Paris claims the pattern is clear: the longer probate drags on, the richer the executors get.
However, some fear these filings are the meddling of a third party pulling the strings behind the scenes.
“Clearly, there are family members who have opposed this estate from Day one, and some who haven’t given up trying to upset the apple cart,” a source close to the Jacksons told the Post.
The Estate has fired back hard.
“All the beneficiaries are well taken care of … This is another misguided attempt by Paris Jackson’s attorneys to provide themselves cover,” a source close to the Estate said.
Paris also blasted the upcoming biopic “Michael,” alleging Branca of using estate funds to produce a film, despite having no experience with movies, and casting A-lister Miles Teller to play himself.
However, after the recent release of the film’s trailer, some think the movie has potential to become the highest-grossing biopic ever.
Paris’ lawyers argue the executors’ compensation through 2021 exceeds $148 million and accuses them of running the estate — valued at around $3 billion — like a private entertainment investment fund.
A longtime Jackson associate reiterated: “Michael died more than five hundred million dollars in debt. The estate cleared it and built a fortune. For Paris to turn on them now is shocking.”
Another insider said, “She’s stubborn, and she’s getting disastrously bad advice.”
“Everyone wants her to stay in the light,” a longtime family source said. “What they fear most is her being pulled back into the shadows that nearly killed her.”
