The bitter rift tearing through the Jackson family just got louder — and it played out on the red carpet for all the world to see.
Janet Jackson and niece Paris Jackson were both conspicuously absent from the Los Angeles premiere of Michael, the highly anticipated biopic about the late King of Pop, according to a story published by Us Weekly on Tuesday, April 21.
The event on Monday, April 20, drew a crowd of Jackson family members, including siblings Jermaine, La Toya, Marlon, and Jackie, as well as Michael’s eldest son, Prince, 29. But the two most vocal critics of the project were nowhere to be found.
Their absence speaks volumes — and comes as no surprise.
As Globe previously reported, fireworks erupted after a private family screening in Los Angeles when Janet, 59, openly trashed the film in front of dozens of relatives. “She was like, ‘No! This is horrible. They are doing a disservice,’” a family insider told Globe. Her 71-year-old brother Jermaine, whose son Jaafar, 29, stars as Michael in the movie, reportedly confronted her afterward, urging her to get behind the project for the sake of the family’s legacy.
Paris, 28, has been equally blunt. She publicly slammed the movie on Instagram last year, per Us Weekly, calling it sugarcoated and accusing the filmmakers of inaccuracy, adding that she had zero involvement in the production despite claims to the contrary. The controversial film hits theaters Friday, April 24.
The tension isn’t limited to the big screen: Per Globe’s report, Janet has been urging Paris to ramp up her legal fight for control of Michael’s estimated $789 million estate, accusing the coexecutors John Branca and John McClain of mishandling the King of Pop’s fortune.
Branca and McClain deny the charges — and Janet’s inner circle insists there’s no family feud, either, per Us Weekly. But two very empty seats at Monday’s premiere suggest otherwise.
