Paris Jackson Talks About Her Unusual Upbringing, Exploring the “Real World” After Her Father’s Death

Paris Jackson’s childhood was anything but ordinary. Being Michael Jackson’s daughter sets you apart enough from your peers — but the situation was only made more complicated because she was homeschooled and kept hidden when out in the public with her famous father.

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“Once I got introduced into the real world, I was shocked. It blew me away,” she says in the new issue of Harper’s Bazaar, which features the 18-year-old on the cover. “Not just because it was sexist, but [misogynistic] and racist and cruel. It was scary as hell. And it still is really scary.”

MJ famously concealed his children’s faces when out in public. In a 2003 interview, he defended his decision to parade Paris and her two brothers — Prince and Blanket — in masks.

“I love and adore my children,” he said at the time. “They mean everything to me. When they’re in public, though, I conceal their faces, ‘cause I want my children protected. At home, they have a normal life, they play with other kids and they have a good time, they’re laughing a lot. They run around, they even go to school. It’s a normal life for them. But in the public, I must protect them. I love my children very much, and I’m proud to be their dad.”

In reality, Paris remembers it a little differently; she says she didn’t go to school or interact with her peers — making her upbringing anything but normal.

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She explains to Harper’s Bazaar, “The first 12 years of my life, I was homeschooled. Which means that the only interactions I’d ever had were with family members or other adults.”

Naturally, this impacted her interpersonal skills quite a bit.

“[I] didn’t have social skills. I had to force myself to learn so fast,” she says. “For the past six years, I’ve been learning how to communicate. And I think I’ve gotten pretty good at it.”