Blanket Jackson: Michael Jackson’s youngest son spotted in rare public outing
Michael Jackson’s 18-year-old son Blanket has been pictured out and about lunching in California, where he owns a $3.6 million home.
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Blanket Jackson made a dramatic public debut at nine months old when his King of Pop father dangled him over a hotel balcony for his adoring fans to see.
Now, Blanket Jackson is all grown up and rarely seen in public.
This week, the 18-year-old youngest son of the late Michael Jackson was pictured grabbing lunch in California, near his $3.6 million mansion.
Jackson, now known as Bigi, was pictured sans-face mask as he placed an order in the drive through of US fast food chain Chick-fil-A, sporting facial hair with his long black locks worn down.
The teen, who was seven at the time his father died in 2009, moved into an exclusive gated community earlier this year, with celebrity neighbours including Dr. Dre and John Travolta.
RELATED: Blanket ‘stops talking’ after Jacko documentary
The 6,382 square foot house has six bedrooms and seven-and-a-half bathrooms.
His grandmother Katherine Jackson, who cared for him and his two siblings following their father’s death, lives a stone’s throw away at the Estates at The Oaks, an upscale California community where the Kardashians also reside.
All three children once lived in the home with Katherine, and Bigi was the last to leave.
His sister Paris Jackson, 22, bought a house in Topanga, California, for about $2.7 million in 2017, and the same year, his brother Prince, or Michael Jackson Jr, 23, bought a home in Rancho Palos Verdes for around $3 million, according to Variety.
Last year, Bigi and his 23-year-old brother Prince Michael, announced they had started their own YouTube series.
Prince shared the news to his Instagram account, posting their first movie review for Avengers: Endgame.
“We are very excited to announce that we are starting a movie review channel,” he wrote.
The brothers were joined by their cousin Taj Jackson and special guest James Sutherland for their first episode.
The move came shortly after reports family were concerned for Bigi’s mental health following the release of Leaving Neverland, the explosive documentary which aired allegations of horrific sex abuse against his late father.
According to Blanket’s British godfather Mark Lester, Michael Jackson’s former best friend, the teenager went mute after the doco was released.
RELATED: Inside Paris Jackson’s dark teen years
Despite being spotted this week without a face mask, all three Jackson children; Prince, Paris and Blanket, wore them regularly growing up.
On her show Unfiltered: Paris Jackson & Gabriel Glenn, Paris, 22, discussed why her father was intent on keeping his kids’ faces covered when they were young.
“When (my dad) was young, he would be in the studio and he’d look outside and he’d see kids on the playground and he couldn’t do that; he didn’t want that for us, so we wore masks,” she said. “It was nice.”
In a separate episode of the webseries, the 22-year-old model reflected on her past suicide attempts and said self-harm felt like a “distraction” from her “emotional pain”.
Jackson explained that her suicidal feelings stemmed from her body-image issues.
She was raised on a strict diet but was allowed to have “soda and cake” when her grandmother Katherine started looking after her following Jackson’s death.
She said: “I gained a lot of weight and it (eating) became an addiction … and then a cousin called me fat so I was like, ‘OK, I can’t do that anymore’. And that’s how I fell into self-harm.”
“It was a distraction from emotional pain and transferring to physical pain and the need for control.”
Paris added: “Yes, I tried to kill myself many times.
After an attempt in 2013, Paris was sent to a boarding school in Utah for a year and a half.
Paris claimed she had “no choice” but to go to the school, alleging that Child Protection Services claimed they would “take” her if she didn’t attend.
“I didn’t have a choice, I was underage,” she said. “CPS said they would take me if I wasn’t sent there.”
“I learned a lot about myself (in boarding school). The problems that I went there with got fixed, but I left with way more problems than I came there with.”
Paris was reported to have attempted suicide in March 2019 in Los Angeles, however she denied it.
Originally published as Blanket Jackson: Michael Jackson’s youngest son spotted in rare public outing