Michael Jackson’s daughter on prioritising her mental health amid her music career

Musician and actor Paris Jackson – yes, daughter of that Jackson – is sitting crossed-legged on a sofa at the luxury medical health retreat Mayrlife, by Lake Altaussee in Austria. Wearing a plain T-shirt with stacks of jewellery, just-tousled-enough hair and a touch of eyeliner, Jackson looks every inch the off-duty musician.

She released her debut album, the indie-folk Wilted, in 2020, and a grunge-rock follow-up, Lost, in 2022. Jackson has also starred in four films since 2018, and in 2021 appeared in three episodes of American Horror Story. Despite this, the 26-year-old is famously low-key – albeit with 5.3 million followers on Instagram.

Jackson is staying at the retreat with Norwegian rapper Omer Bhatti, 39, whom she describes as her eldest brother (her real-life brothers are Prince, 27, and Bigi – formerly known as Blanket – who is 22). She’s at the retreat “to find some balance”, she says, in her husky Californian lilt. “I’ve been so big on mental health for such a long time,” she says, “it’s nice finding a balance for my physical health too, and having the two of them aligned.”

She likens the surroundings to Yosemite National Park in California, telling me
that “the big reason I still live in California is because of the amount of nature there. This week in Austria we’re going for lots of walks and that’s all the exercise we’re doing really. Hearing nature is very important to me.”

It’s clear that Jackson’s spiritual wellness is something she thinks about a lot. “In everyday life the first thing I do is pray. I pray in the morning and at night and sometimes throughout the day,” she explains. She’ll also meditate twice a day for 20 minutes, as well as “morning journalling and nightly journalling”.