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It’s not surprising that Michael Jackson’s youngest child, Blanket, has mostly remained out of the public eye since his father’s death his 2009.
After all, the 17-year-old’s public debut occurred in 2002, when he was just 8 months old, and his notoriously idiosyncratic father showed him to photographers by dangling him over the balcony of a Berlin hotel.
Since that troubling debut, things haven’t gotten any easier when it comes to how the media portrays Michael Jackson, who was recently accused of being a serial sexual predator of young boys in the HBO documentary “Leaving Neverland.”
But Blanket recently decided to ignore the “Leaving Neverland” controversy and venture out to see “Avengers: Endgame” with his older brother, Prince, and a group of friends, People reported.
Blanket, whose real name is Prince Michael II, also decided to pose for a photo with his brother and their friends, perhaps knowing that his brother would share the photo on social media with his more than 570,000 Instagram followers.
“#Endgame,” Prince Jackson captioned the photo. His real name is Michael Joseph Jackson Jr., but he goes by the nickname Prince — just as his brother is called Blanket.
Prince, 22, posed on one knee while Blanket stood in the back row in the middle of the group, wearing a wide smile.
Missing from the group photo is their sister Paris, 21.
It’s safe to say that Michael Jackson’s children never had the most normal of childhoods. All three were born to surrogate mothers. For a few short years, they were raised by their father at his secluded Neverland Ranch, a 2,400-acre estate in Santa Barbara County that featured a private amusement park, a petting zoo and garden featuring statues of children.
In 2005, Jackson had to defend himself in a criminal trial against child molestation charges. It was the second time that the pop music icon had been accused in court of child molestation; the first time was in 1993, when the family of a 13-year-old boy filed a lawsuit that accused Jackson of a repeated sexual battery. The case was later settled for as much as $20 million, according to reports.
While Jackson was acquitted in the 2005 criminal trial, he decided to move his family away from Neverland because it had been searched by police in connection with the investigation.
Four years later, Jackson died suddenly from cardiac arrest brought on by powerful sedatives. His kids — then 12, 11 and 7 — appeared on stage at a public memorial service and were left to be raised by members of the oft-squabbling Jackson clan.
In the years since, Blanket has struggled the most of Jackson’s three kids to lead a normal life while coming to terms with his father’s death and controversial legacy, according to a family friend who was interviewed by People in 2017.
“The kids live like Michael is constantly looking down upon them,” the friend told People at the time, explaining why Blanket “has had the most problems adjusting” after Jackson’s death.
“He acted very lost and extremely upset,” the source told People.
Blanket also endured bullying, in part because of his father’s nickname for him, People reported. But in 2015, the boy decided to change his name to Bigi. Radar reported that the boy “always thought Blanket sounded so stupid and resented his father for calling him that.” Bigi, on the other hand, has a German origin and means “idealistic, sensitive and inspirational,” according to Radar.
Maybe the name Bigi has stuck with his friend group. People reported in 2017 that the teen remained “shy around people he doesn’t know” — but had become “confident” in his Los Angeles private school environment, focused on grades, sports, movies and hanging out with his friends and nearly 30 cousins.
Neither Bigi nor Prince Jackson have commented on the allegations made in “Leaving Neverland.”
Two men, James Safechuck and Wade Robson, offered detailed accounts in the explosive documentary of how Michael Jackson befriended them as children and molested them repeatedly over a number of years. The singer’s estate has filed a lawsuit against HBO and parent company Time Warner over the accusations.
Paris Jackson only commented on the documentary, via Twitter, to explain that it was “not her role” to defend her father. Her comments came after some Michael Jackson fans criticized her for not being more vocal in defending him. The usually outspoken actress and model commended her cousin Taj Jackson for doing a good job being the family’s point person on the documentary.
“There’s nothing i can say that hasn’t already been said in regards to defense. taj is doing a perfect job on his own,” Paris Jackson tweeted. “I’m just tryna get everyone to chill out and go with the flow, be mellow and think about the bigger picture. that’s me.”
there’s nothing i can say that hasn’t already been said in regards to defense. taj is doing a perfect job on his own. and i support him. but that’s not my role. i’m just tryna get everyone to chill out and go with the flow, be mellow and think about the bigger picture. that’s me.
— PK (@ParisJackson) March 14, 2019
