Paris Jackson reminisced about her unique upbringing by her late dad Michael Jackson in a video chat with one of his friends, Naomi Campbell.
The King of Pop, who danced with the supermodel in his 1991 music video "In the Closet," raised Paris and her brothers Michael Joseph "Prince" Jackson Jr. and Prince Michael "Blanket" Jackson II in the United States, including at the singer's famous Neverland Ranch in Southern California, and abroad.
"I was conceived in Paris, from what I've been told, which is part of why I was named Paris," the 22-year-old musician, model and actress said on the YouTube show No Filter with Naomi Campbell on Tuesday, March 30. "Born in L.A., California and was kind of raised everywhere but. We spent a few years up north in like, Solvang, Santa Barbara area. But I was raised kind of everywhere, like the East Coast, the South, U.K., Europe, the Middle East. Like, we grew up everywhere."
Naomi praised Paris over her "intelligence level," adding, "You see that you're worldly."
"It was difficult, a blessing a privilege to be able to experience so much at a young age," Paris responded. "And my dad was really good about making sure we were cultured, making sure we were educated, and not just showing us like, the glitz and glam, like hotel-hopping five-star places. But it was also like, we saw everything. We saw third-world countries and we saw like, every part of the spectrum."
Paris, Michael's middle child, was 11 when the singer, the most famous in the world, died suddenly at age 50 in 2009 of a prescription drug overdose. She and her brothers made their major public debuts at his televised memorial service. Until then, while they were photographed around the world, they were usually seen wearing a veil or face covering.
"I was really confused. Like, I didn't get why I was wearing a mask," Paris told Oprah Winfrey in in 2012. "But I understand it now, why my dad would want my face to be covered. When we went out without him, we wouldn't be recognized. We could have a normal childhood."
When asked if she thought Michael wanted her to have a 'normal life," Paris replied, "Yeah, he did. He had his doubts [that it was possible]. He told us that when he was younger, he didn't really have a childhood. Like, he would be stuck in the studio, singing while all the other kids were out playing. And he wanted us to have that. So a lot of times, we'd go to Chuck E. Cheese. Chuck E. Cheese and Toys R' Us were our favorite places to go."
And speaking of Toys R' Us, Paris said she and her siblings had to work hard to earn those shopping sprees.
"If we wanted five toys from FAO Schwartz or Toys R' Us, we had to read five books," she said. "It's about earning it, not just being entitled to certain things or thinking, 'Oh, I got this.' It's like, working for it, working hard for it. It's an accomplishment."