Michael Jackson’s daughter on prioritising her mental health amid her music career

Musician and actor Paris Jackson – yes, daughter of that Jackson – is sitting crossed-legged on a sofa at the luxury medical health retreat Mayrlife, by Lake Altaussee in Austria. Wearing a plain T-shirt with stacks of jewellery, just-tousled-enough hair and a touch of eyeliner, Jackson looks every inch the off-duty musician.

“The most important thing for me is to be of service in any way possible, even if it’s just a small thing such as calling someone who’s going through a hard time and asking them how their day is.”Credit: Getty Images

She released her debut album, the indie-folk Wilted, in 2020, and a grunge-rock follow-up, Lost, in 2022. Jackson has also starred in four films since 2018, and in 2021 appeared in three episodes of American Horror Story. Despite this, the 26-year-old is famously low-key – albeit with 5.3 million followers on Instagram.

Jackson is staying at the retreat with Norwegian rapper Omer Bhatti, 39, whom she describes as her eldest brother (her real-life brothers are Prince, 27, and Bigi – formerly known as Blanket – who is 22). She’s at the retreat “to find some balance”, she says, in her husky Californian lilt. “I’ve been so big on mental health for such a long time,” she says, “it’s nice finding a balance for my physical health too, and having the two of them aligned.”

She likens the surroundings to Yosemite National Park in California, telling me that “the big reason I still live in California is because of the amount of nature there. This week in Austria we’re going for lots of walks and that’s all the exercise we’re doing really. Hearing nature is very important to me.”

It’s clear that Jackson’s spiritual wellness is something she thinks about a lot. “In everyday life the first thing I do is pray. I pray in the morning and at night and sometimes throughout the day,” she explains. She’ll also meditate twice a day for 20 minutes, as well as “morning journalling and nightly journalling”.

But, she admits, “I haven’t been good about meditating in the last month, which is probably why I’m here to de-stress.” For Jackson, this “reset” has confirmed how she was feeling. “They ran all these tests on me here and they could tell by the way I breathe that I’m very stressed,” she says.

What helps her? “Community is a big part of my health. We as humans have always been tribal creatures, we’ve always lived in communities and tribes and groups, and I think there’s a reason for that,” she says. “I always feel much better connected.”

This means regular check-ins with her brothers, her best friend and her “spiritual mentor”, although she doesn’t disclose who this is. (One of Jackson’s godparents is Macaulay Culkin; in an interview last year, she said her relationship with Culkin was “more family than a friendship”.)

We quickly get to the secrets of a good life. “The most important thing for me is to be of service in any way possible, even if it’s just a small thing such as calling someone who’s going through a hard time and asking them how their day is,” she explains.

Although we don’t delve into the topic of Jackson’s upbringing and the fact that her father happens to have been one of the most famous musicians of all time, I ask Paris – who was 11 when her father died – how important it is for her to forge her own destiny away from the Jacksons.

“Not even a little bit important,” she tells me, flatly. “I’ve turned my will and my life over to something else. It’s not really in my best interest to be in charge any more.” What the “something else” is, she doesn’t divulge. (Jackson’s birth mother is Debbie Rowe, who gave full custody to Michael when the pair divorced in 2000.)

It’s clear she has the Jackson musical gene. She is working on a new album produced by legendary hitmaker Linda Perry, the woman behind Pink’s success and Christina Aguilera’s early noughties musical highs. “We’re through the demo process and we have tons of songs,” she says, smiling.

As our interview comes to an end, I ask Jackson what she’ll be doing when she leaves the retreat and heads back to her cabin-style home in the Hollywood Hills.

“I’m going to hang out with my dog and my cat, and get back to my music,” she says sweetly, “but this break here has definitely been needed.” She pauses. “And I’ll probably go back to the back-and-forth of prioritising mental health and physical health, and just do that dance.”

The Telegraph Magazine, UK

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