By Stacy M. Brown
Black Press USA Senior National Correspondent
There are moments in a family’s life when truth becomes a battlefield, when people confuse the echo of old wounds for revelation, and when the soft stir of resentment becomes a storm. Paris Jackson has opened such a storm. Her new legal filing against the Michael Jackson Estate radiates anger, suspicion, and the weight of history. She claims the men who rebuilt her father’s empire have turned probate into a forever machine that feeds them riches while denying her and her brothers the transparency that she insists is owed to them.
But beneath that filing lies something older and more complicated. Long before Paris entered a courtroom, a faction within the Jackson family rejected the executors, John Branca and John McClain, and never accepted that Michael gave them the authority to run everything. It is a faction that has included Randy Jackson, who once desired the executor’s role for himself, and his sister Janet Jackson, who has, at various points, stood in open opposition to the Estate. Several insiders say that faction has found a new vessel in Paris, and her filing reads like a continuation of their war, not the beginning of hers.
Her petition accuses the executors of dragging probate into a sixteenth year because they benefit from the delay. She calls the Estate a private kingdom that shelters itself in silence. She claims they sit on more than $460 million in cash that earned next to nothing in 2021, that they paid themselves $7,981,204 in fees that same year, and that Branca’s own law firm received $2,162,439 on top of that. She says more than $148 million has already gone to the executors through 2021. She argues that while they prosper, she and her brothers remain dependent on financial reports that arrive years too late.
But the rest of the story, the one inside the documents, is larger than Paris’s filing allows. It is the story of how Branca and McClain inherited an Estate that was more than $500 million in debt, riddled with nasty and unproven allegations, and raised it into a multi-billion-dollar force that now surpasses $3 billion in value. It is the story of projects that have sold more than $2 billion in tickets worldwide. It is the story of a lawyer who negotiated the ATV Beatles publishing deal, the catalog acquisition that changed the industry, and whose work for Michael spanned decades. It is the story of “This Is It,” the highest-grossing concert film in history, “MJ: The Musical,” which continues to play to sold-out houses and has been showered with Tony Awards, “The Immortal World Tour,” “Michael Jackson ONE,” and the $600 million Sony catalog deal that fortified the Estate with unprecedented strength.
The documents note that Katherine Jackson has received more than $60 million in support since Michael’s death – a reaffirmation of the love the King of Pop always displayed toward his beloved mother. The late Tito and Jackie Jackson have been among the most steadfast supporters of the executors, calling this perhaps the greatest and most organized Estate administration in modern entertainment history. One observer quoted in the record put it simply. The executors had taken such careful control of Michael Jackson’s legacy that his heirs, including Paris herself, would be able to feed dozens of generations of Jacksons.
That is the scale of what Paris is attacking.
Even her argument about the upcoming Antoine Fuqua biopic, “Michael,” cracks under closer scrutiny. In the filing, she claims that the project lacks A-list performers except for Miles Teller, the actor portraying John Branca. That is false. The cast includes Nia Long as Katherine Jackson and Lorenz Tate as Berry Gordy, both acclaimed, award-winning performers with long and respected careers. Colman Domingo, one of the most decorated actors of his generation, anchors one of the lead roles. He has earned Emmy wins, Academy Award nominations, Tony Award nominations, and in 2024 was named one of Time Magazine’s 100 most influential people in the world. The film stars Michael’s nephew Jaafar Jackson as the King of Pop, and Paris’s own brother Prince serves as an executive producer, a direct contradiction to her claim that the film is a playground for the executors.
But the contradiction that towers above all others is the one in Paris’s own life. Public records show she has received more than $65 million from the Estate to date. Her brothers, Prince and Bigi, have received far less, creating a disparity that insiders say no one in the public ever seems to notice. When Paris sues the Estate, she is suing the very entity that pays her. Any attorney fees the Estate must now cover because of her lawsuit will be drawn from the pool that funds her own wealth. As one family insider put it, “What person has a $65 million allowance. Well, that is Paris Jackson.”
Some whisper that the pain she has carried, the years of battling addiction, the struggle with mental health that has been openly acknowledged, and the volatility that has surrounded her adulthood may be driving her toward those who want to aim her anger elsewhere. Sources quoted earlier agreed that her latest actions are out of step with the triumph of the Estate. One said, “Michael died more than five hundred million dollars in debt. The Estate not only cleared that, it built a fortune. For her to turn on them now is shocking.” Another warned, “She’s stubborn and she’s getting disastrously bad advice.”
The executors and those aligned with them see the truth in quieter terms. They point to the will Michael signed. They point to the courts that upheld their authority. They point to the billions generated. They point to the musicals, films, tours, Las Vegas residencies, catalog sales, and international productions that have reborn Michael Jackson’s legacy. They point to the support given to Katherine, to Tito, to Jackie, to the children, to charities. They point to an empire that was resurrected from ruins.
A source close to the Estate had the last word, and it carries the weight of a closing door. “This is another misguided attempt by Paris Jackson’s attorneys to provide themselves cover. The fact is, Paris Jackson’s lawyers lost their latest case against the Estate and have been ordered to pay the Estate’s attorneys’ expenses. All the beneficiaries are well taken care of by the Estate. This is a weak attempt to change the narrative of their loss.”
