Inside Paris Jackson's Close Bond With Mom Debbie Rowe

Paris Jackson Says She's Mom Debbie Rowe's Clone in Rare Family Photos

When Michael Jackson welcomed two children with Debbie Rowe, first Prince Jackson in 1997 and then Paris Jackson in 1998, suffice it to say the world was a bit intrigued by the inner workings of their unusual family.

Jackson and Rowe, a nurse who worked for the "Thriller" artist's longtime plastic surgeon Dr. Arnold Klein, had quietly tied the knot in Australia on Nov. 15, 1996, 10 days after Jackson announced Rowe was sixth months pregnant—and just three months after his divorce from Lisa Marie Presley was finalized.

Mom of four Presley, who died in 2023, told Playboy in 2003 that Jackson had really wanted to have kids with her, but she was reluctant—"all I could ever see was a custody battle nightmare"—and Rowe "had a crush on him and offered to have his babies."

Jackson's second marriage ultimately didn't last, and he got full custody of Prince and Paris when he and Rowe divorced in 2000. (Bigi Jackson, the artist's third child, was born in 2002 via still-anonymous surrogate.)

"Michael has been a wonderful father to the children," she stated in an October 2001 motion, per CBS News, "and I do not wish to share parenting responsibilities with Michael because he is doing so well without me."

Rowe accepted $8.5 million from Jackson and eventually settled down on a horse ranch in Palmdale, Calif.

However, she moved to reinstate her parental rights after Jackson was charged with child molestation in 2003 (he was acquitted on all counts in 2005) and had a supervised visit with Prince and Paris after the trial. In 2006, an appellate court ruled that a judge hadn't properly overseen the process of Rowe relinquishing her rights, opening the door to the possibility of a new custody arrangement and visitation. 

All of which happened at a time when Prince and Paris were barely cognizant of her existence.

"When I was really, really young, my mom didn’t exist,” Paris told Rolling Stone in 2017. Not until she was about 10, having realized "a man can't birth a child," did she finally ask her dad who her mother was.

"I was like, 'What's her name?' And he's just like, 'Debbie,'" Paris recalled. "And I was like, 'OK, well, I know the name.'"

She was 11 when Jackson died in 2009—leaving her, Prince and Bigi (then known as Blanket) in the care of their grandmother Katherine Jackson—and a couple of years later she started researching her mom.

They've mostly kept their comings and goings private, but Paris has celebrated certain milestones publicly, such as when Rowe finished chemo for breast cancer in January 2018. Paris posted a photo on Instagram captioned, "my badass mom, kickin butt n takin names. ain't she f--kin fabulous????"

Watching Rowe fight cancer, Paris admittedly saw herself, noting to Rolling Stone, “We’re both very stubborn.”

Yet that wasn't all they had in common.

"Happy mothers day to the lady they used for my template during the cloning process," she wrote on Instagram Stories alongside photos in which the resemblance between mom and daughter is undeniable.

In the rarest of comments about their relationship, Rowe said in 2018 that Paris had been her "rock" during cancer treatment.

"She's amazing," Rowe told Entertainment Tonight. "She's been with me the whole time. She was there. First phone call, took her 30 seconds [to reach out] when she found out."

Rowe emphasized, "I can't tell you how much I love her. We go for sushi, we talk about music, and we text all the time."

And in addition to time on the ranch everything else they continue to enjoy together, as Paris' most recent crop of photos plainly show, they share a smile.

But while Paris' bond with her mom is singular, no one gets what being Michael Jackson's kid is like the way her siblings do. See Paris, Prince and Bigi through the years: