While many fans took to social media to wish the late Michael Jackson a happy birthday on August 29, which would’ve marked his 65th, some noticed that his daughter, Paris, didn’t say anything on any of her channels. This prompted a slew of vitriol from Jackson’s followers, saying that she purposely ignored his birthday.
Though MJ’s birthday had not ended yet, Paris took to Instagram to address the messages she had received.
“I just got off stage and I’m very sweaty,” Paris said. “So 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 continued, saying, “That being said, social media is apparently how people express their love and affection these days,” she said. “And if you don’t wish someone a happy birthday via social media, it apparently means that you don’t love them, you don’t care about them. There have been times where I don’t post anything for my dad’s birthday and people lose their f*cking 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. So, I made you guys a little video and I hope you enjoy it.”
The Instagram clip then transitions to another video. In the video, Paris, who is seen onstage, speaking with a crowd of fans, acknowledging the work of her father, and how he set the precedent for her.
“It’s also my dad’s birthday and he would have been 65 years old today,” she’s seen telling the crowd in the live footage. “He put 50 years of blood, sweat, and tears and 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. So I owe everything to him.”
The video then turned back to Paris speaking directly to her Instagram followers, whom she encouraged to volunteer their time or make donations to animal rights activism groups or climate change awareness groups.
You can see the full clip above.