All About Michael Jackson's Younger Son Bigi Jackson

Michael Jackson was a father to three children before his death in 2009, but his youngest child, Bigi Jackson, has chosen to live more out of the public eye than his older siblings.

The late “Thriller” singer welcomed Bigi, who changed his name from Blanket in 2015, on Feb. 21, 2002, with a surrogate whose identity is unknown. He has two older siblings — Paris and Prince — whom Jackson shared with his ex-wife Debbie Rowe.

While Paris and Prince have been more public over the years — with the former following in her father’s footsteps as a singer — Bigi has kept his life private, only giving the occasional rare interview.

However, in August 2023, he joined all three of his siblings in a celebration of what would have been his dad’s 65th birthday. He and Paris even hosted a Q&A for fans at Las Vegas’ Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino, the host of Cirque du Soleil show Michael Jackson ONE.

From his relationship with his siblings to his passions for comics and climate change, here’s everything to know about Michael Jackson’s youngest child, Bigi Jackson.

He was born in February 2002

Bigi was born Prince Michael Jackson II on Feb. 21, 2002. However, his dad quickly adopted the name Blanket for him after an expression he used with his family.

“I say ‘You should blanket him, you should blanket her with something,’ ” he said in an interview. “A blanket is a blessing, it’s a way of showing love and caring.”

When Bigi was 9 months old, his dad held him over a balcony in Berlin with a towel over his face to show off his infant to fans. He intended to make the announcement Lion King style, but received criticism for endangering his child.

“I offer no excuses for what happened. I made a terrible mistake,” Michael said in a statement to the Los Angeles Times. “I got caught up in the excitement of the moment. I would never intentionally endanger the lives of my children.”

After Michael died in 2009, Bigi was mainly raised by his grandmother, Katherine Jackson.

He is close to his older brother

Growing up, Bigi was close to both of his siblings but he has an especially tight bond with Prince.

"Prince and Bigi are best friends," a family friend told PEOPLE in 2019. "They share a lot of interests like science and sci-fi."

When Bigi turned 18 in 2020, he celebrated with both Paris and Prince at a sushi restaurant. In October 2019, Prince spoke to Access Hollywood about how growing up experiencing the same struggles brought the siblings closer together.

"I think with any siblings, you know, you grow up in a situation and factors that are very similar,” he said. "Just like in that situation you have a bond with them because nobody else really understands how you grew up or how you were raised. But they 100 percent understand you and it's a very raw, unfiltered relationship.”

He is an expert in film

After Prince graduated from college, he announced that he and Bigi would start their own YouTube channel where the two would review movies. They started off with a review of Avengers: Endgame, before going into other movies like Marriage Story.

During Prince’s 3rd annual "Thriller Night" Costume Party on Halloween in 2019, Prince expanded on his brother’s knowledge of film and comics in an interview with Entertainment Tonight.

"My brother has a really unique talent to be able to tell you, even a movie he hasn't seen, he'll tell you what year it came out. He knows the director, the staff, the crew, everybody behind it that you wouldn't know," Prince explained. 

He added, "He really thinks and studies about film in a different way that you would notice and that comes with his upbringing with my dad encouraging him to study film. We had a film teacher at a very young age. So it was really his idea and he was championing behind it.”

He is passionate about climate change and honoring his father’s legacy

Bigi’s passions and interests also include memorializing Michael. In a rare interview with Good Morning Britain in November 2021, he spoke about how his father’s legacy lives on through his children.

"There's a lot of really cool stuff here. There's a lot of history in this house and the studio here. That's what he was all about," he said, before referring to his siblings. "That's what each of us want to do — make things that people enjoy but also benefit their lives."

Bigi also shared his passion for addressing the impacts of climate change.

"I do think it's important we all know about it. We have some work to do but our generation knows how important it is," he said.

He got into an estate dispute with his grandma in March 2024

In March 2024, Bigi took his grandmother, Katherine, to court, asking that she should not be able to use Michael’s estate to fund her ongoing legal battle against the executors in an argument over an undisclosed "recent transaction."

Initially, both Bigi and Katherine were aligned in fighting the estate’s proposed transaction — which appears to be the estate’s estimated $600 million catalog sale to Sony. However, he argued in the court filings obtained by PEOPLE that the estate wouldn’t “benefit” from Katherine’s appeal after a judge ruled the transaction could move forward.

In December 2023, Katherine requested the estate to cover her legal bills in her appeal, which Bigi said would be “unfair.”

"It is readily apparent that a reversal on appeal would be an extreme longshot,” lawyers wrote on behalf of Bigi. “Given those odds, Bigi decided not to waste his resources to participate in an appeal. Nonetheless, Katherine has decided to appeal this court’s ruling. That decision is not for the benefit of the heirs.”