Tuesday, Aug. 29, would have been Michael Jackson’s 65th birthday, but instead of celebrating, some have been criticising his daughter, Paris Jackson, the 25-year-old said in an Instagram video.
“Today’s my dad’s birthday and back when he was alive, he used to hate anybody acknowledging his birthday, wishing him a happy birthday, celebrating it, nothing like that. He actually didn’t want us to even know when his birthday was because he didn’t want us to throw a party or anything like that,” she began in the clip uploaded Tuesday. “That being said, social media is apparently how people express their love and affection these days, and if you don’t wish someone a happy birthday via social media, it apparently means you don’t love them, you don’t care about them.”
“There are times when I don’t post anything for my dad’s birthday and people lose their f–king minds — they tell me to kill myself, and they’re basically measuring my love for my own father based off of what I post on Instagram,” continued the singer-actress before cutting to a video of herself opening for Incubus at the band’s Cedar Rapids, Iowa, show earlier in the day.
The video-within-a-video indicates that she did, in fact, pay tribute to the late King of Pop on his birthday, just not in the way that some believe she should have. Paris informs the audience on stage that the “Beat It” singer would have turned 65 this year. “He put 50 years of his blood, sweat, tears, love, and passion into doing what he did so that I could stand up here on stage in front of you and scream into a microphone,” she explained. “So everything I owe to him.”
The film then returns to Paris, who makes some insightful suggestions for how fans might honour the 13-time Grammy winner in ways he would have appreciated. “My suggestion would be, you know, there’s always ways to get involved with raising awareness for climate change, doing stuff for the environment, animal rights activism. These were things that he loved and he was very interested in,” Paris said. “And so if you wanna pay homage and honor him on his birthday, that would be my suggestion.”
Michael Jackson died of severe propofol intoxication on June 25, 2009, at the age of 50. According to the autopsy report, he was otherwise healthy at the time of his death. His physician, Dr. Conrad Murray, was found guilty in the pop superstar’s overdose death and sentenced to four years in prison.
Prince and Bigi (previously known as Blanket) are the late musician’s sons. Watch Paris Jackson’s video response to her detractors below: