Michael Jackson was “misunderstood”, according to his son

Prince Jackson, the son of Michael Jackson, has described his late father as “one of the most misunderstood people out there”.

Prince is an executive producer on Antoine Fuqua’s new biopic of his father, Michael, which arrived in cinemas worldwide on April 24th.

Ahead of the film’s release, Prince appeared on ABC News on April 23rd. During the conversation, the interviewer mentioned to Prince that his father was “surrounded by controversy”, alluding to the slew of child molestation allegations against Jackson, which he denied, and asked what he wanted viewers to take away from this movie.

In response, Prince said, “I think my father is probably one of the most misunderstood people out there and I hope that you get a glimpse into the life and the cause and effect that made him who he was.”

The 29-year-old continued, “I know when I finished reading the script early on, for me it felt like a culmination of who my dad was, because I’d heard these stories growing up, that he’d told me himself, or that other family members had shared with me, and to see it packaged in a way, it’s like a beginning, middle and end, it made me closer to the story.”

Prince then said that he found being on set to be a “therapeutic experience and one that I’m eternally grateful for”.

He also heaped praise on his cousin Jafaar’s performance as Michael, sharing with ABC that seeing it happen has been “one of the greatest experiences of my life” and that “Jafaar greatly exceeded our expectations”, which left him “blown away”.

In contrast, Prince’s sister, Paris, confirmed in 2025 that she had no involvement in the film apart from reading the first script, which she deemed as “dishonest/didn’t sit right with me”.

Michael, which is expected to be a huge success at the box office, has been released to a sea of negative reviews, largely due to it ending in 1988 and ignoring the abuse allegations against Jackson.

Reportedly, Michael did originally include the allegations made in 1993 by Evan Chandler, who accused the star of sexually abusing his 13-year-old son. Jackson denied the allegations, and the parties reached a financial settlement in 1994.

It’s claimed that the production discovered late into the original shooting that the clause in the settlement with the family of Chandler prevented them from portraying the child on film or mentioning him at all. This led to an expensive reshoot costing $15 million, which was reportedly financially covered by Jackson’s estate.

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