Celebrity4 min(s) read
The last time most people saw Blanket Jackson, he was a small child being dangled over a hotel balcony in Berlin by his father, or standing in oversized sunglasses at Michael Jackson's memorial service in 2009, barely old enough to understand what was happening.
He is 24 now, goes by Bigi, and he looks nothing like that kid.
Bigi attended the world premiere of Michael, a new biopic about his father, in Berlin on April 10.
It was one of his most visible public appearances in years.
He walked the red carpet alongside his older brother Prince, 29. Both wore matching tributes to their father.
Their sister Paris, 27, was also at the event but was not involved in the film's production. Prince served as an executive producer.
Photographs from the premiere show a tall, quietly confident 24-year-old with shoulder-length dark hair who bears a noticeable resemblance to his father but carries himself with none of the performance.
He looked relaxed. He smiled for photos. He did not give interviews.
Earlier in the year, paparazzi caught him having lunch with friends in Los Angeles wearing a blue Jaws t-shirt and black sweatpants.
He looked like any other 24-year-old grabbing food on a Tuesday, which is entirely the point.
He was born Prince Michael Jackson II on February 21, 2002.
Michael nicknamed him Blanket.
He changed it to Bigi in 2015 because, perhaps understandably, he did not want to go through life being called Blanket.
He was born via surrogate.
His mother's identity has never been revealed.
He was seven years old when his father died from acute propofol intoxication on June 25, 2009. Michael's final words were spoken to his doctor, Conrad Murray, who was later convicted of involuntary manslaughter.
After Michael's death, Bigi and his siblings were raised by their grandmother Katherine Jackson.
He grew up largely out of the public eye. While Paris became a model and musician and Prince became a producer and television personality, Bigi stayed home.
Filmmaking, mostly. He directed a short film called Rochelles that screened at the Santa Monica Film Festival in 2024 and won the best drama award. It is the clearest signal of where his interests lie, and they are not in music or performing.
He is reportedly interested in environmental issues. He keeps a small circle. He does not use social media publicly. His sister Paris described him in an Instagram post on his 18th birthday as 'handsome, intelligent, insightful, funny, and kind' before adding that 'he likes privacy so that's all I gotta say'.
That is about as much as anyone outside the family knows.
Despite being the children of one of the best-selling music artists of all time, Bigi, Prince, and Paris have still not received the full inheritance from their father's estate. Michael Jackson's fortune remains tied up in a complex legal battle that has dragged on for 17 years.
The estate has generated billions since his death, largely through the catalogue sale to Sony and ongoing royalties. But the distribution to his children has been contested, delayed, and lawyered to the point where three adults who should be among the wealthiest young people in America are still waiting for what was left to them.
The Berlin premiere of Michael took place in the same city where the most infamous moment of Bigi's childhood happened. In November 2002, when he was nine months old, Michael held him over a fourth-floor hotel balcony to show him to fans gathered below. The baby's face was covered with a cloth. The footage was broadcast around the world. Michael later called it 'a terrible mistake'.
Twenty-four years later, Bigi walked a red carpet in the same city, on his own two feet, to watch a film about the man who held him over that railing. He did not talk about it. He did not need to.
He is 24. He makes films. He wears Jaws t-shirts. He looks like his father and lives nothing like him. That appears to be exactly how he wants it.
For more: Michael Jackson's bodyguard reveals why the star wore masks in public | Strange nicknames Jackson had for teenage boys revealed in Netflix documentary | Bombshell unseen recordings of Jackson surface
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