The daughter of pop icon Michael Jackson said she has been the victim of online abuse, with people reportedly telling her to kill herself for not posting a tribute to the late music icon on his birthday.
Paris Jackson, 25, said in an Instagram video that her father never liked celebrating his birthday and that she was honoring him by not posting it on social media.
"There have been times when I don't post anything for my dad's birthday. And people lose their f*****g mind," Paris Jackson said. "They told me to kill myself and they're basically measuring my love from my own father based off of what I post on Instagram."
Paris Jackson said her father, who died in June 2009 at age 50 due to cardiac arrest caused by an accidental drug overdose, was strongly against having his birthday acknowledged and would refuse to reveal his actual birth date to his children because "he didn't want us to throw a party or anything like that."
Paris Jackson's video included footage of her announcing Michael Jackson's birthday during a recent performance at the Amphitheater at Las Colonias Park in Grand Junction, Colorado, earlier in the day.
"It's also my dad's birthday," she told the crowd.
"He would have been 65 years old today. And he put 50 years of blood, sweat, tears, 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. I owe everything to him."
In her video, Paris Jackson urged her father's fans to find other ways to honor his memory, such as raising awareness on certain global issues.
"There's always ways to get involved with raising awareness for climate change, doing so for the environment, animal rights, activism, these were things that he loved and he was very, very interested in," she said.
"And I can't speak for him because you know, I'm a different person and I don't know, but I'm sure he would have loved that and so if you want to, you know, pay homage and honor him on his birthday, that would be my suggestion."
Captioning the video, Paris Jackson wrote: "Please don't use a man you have never met as an excuse to abuse, manipulate, and harass his daughter (who you also have never met)."
Zoe Papadakis ✉
Zoe Papadakis is a Newsmax writer based in South Africa with two decades of experience specializing in media and entertainment. She has been in the news industry as a reporter, writer and editor for newspapers, magazine and websites.
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