Key Points
Paris Jackson recalled when she and her siblings Prince and Bigi were allowed to explore father Michael Jackson’s Neverland Ranch growing up.
She said that if they did their chores and homework during the week, they were allowed to go to Neverland on the weekends.
Michael died in 2009 and Neverland Ranch sold in 2020 for $20 million.
Paris Jackson is looking back at her childhood and clearing up misconceptions about Neverland Ranch.
Paris opened up about her upbringing and having Michael Jackson as a father during an appearance on Alex Cooper’s Call Her Daddy podcast. When asked about the Santa Barbara County property, Paris clarified that she and brothers Prince Jackson and Bigi Jackson “didn’t grow up” at Neverland Ranch.
“It was only the first few years of my life that I was there, and I’d wake up and I’d go to school,” she added, noting that there was a separate room in her home dedicated for that purpose.
Paris Jackson at Bar Marmont in Los Angeles in March 2026
Credit: JC Olivera/WWD via Getty
“The cool, very congruent line throughout my childhood that kind of started there and just continued on wherever we went was, if you’re good and you do your chores and you do your homework and you do the things you’re supposed to do, then on the weekends you can go and see some animals and you can go ride some rides and you can go to the movies,” Paris continued.
“It was made very, very clear that all of the attractions there were not for us, that did not belong to us, that was for underprivileged children that were terminally ill that couldn’t go to like Disneyland.”
Paris said that at one point in her childhood, her family didn’t stay anywhere for more than a year and “hotel-hopped” a lot, but the incentive of an amusement park or entertainment excursion remained.
“If we were living in Vegas and it’s like, ‘Okay, if you’re good, you can go to Circus Circus on the weekends,’ or [if] we were in some random place in Virginia, ‘if you’re good, you can go to Chuck-E-Cheese this weekend.'”
She added that the same rules applied to the television. “We weren’t allowed to watch television or movies either unless we were studying it for film with the sound off, or it was on the weekends if we had like done everything we were supposed to.”
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Michael, who died in 2009, bought the 2,700-acre Neverland property in 1988, per the New York Times. The estate included a train system, amusement park with rides and attractions, and a zoo with animals such as llamas, elephants, tigers, and chimps. The main house was 13,000 square feet.
It was raided in 2003 amid an investigation by police regarding the late musician’s relationship with a minor and molestation allegations. Michael was charged with multiple accounts of child abuse and endured a months-long trial that was highly publicized. He was acquitted of all charges in 2005.
After his death, there was speculation that the estate would take on a second act as a memorial to the late musician, like Elvis Presley‘s Graceland.
Neverland ranch in Los Olivos, Santa Ynez, California
Credit: Paul Harris/Getty
Curiosity about the estate rekindled in 2019 due to the HBO documentary Leaving Neverland, which detailed allegations of sexual child abuse against the late musician by Wade Robson and James Safechuck. They alleged that the encounters happened at the property.
Jackson’s estate denied all allegations, calling them “absolutely false.”
Neverland Ranch was ultimately sold in December 2020 for $22 million after being on the market since 2015 with an original list price of $100 million.
Read the original article on Entertainment Weekly