Paris Jackson is headed out of state and away from social media, say sources close to the Jackson family. The 15-year-old will be transferred to the Diamond Ranch Academy in Utah when she completes her psychiatric treatment at UCLA Medical Center sometime this month. The new treatment facility was chosen by her birth mother, Debbie Rowe, and grandmother Katherine Jackson, who are hoping to prevent another suicide attempt by Michael Jackson’s only daughter.
“Paris is doing good right now, but everyone is really worried she’ll do it again because she was so unhappy,” said a family member. “No one believes that changed in just a few weeks, even with the best of treatment.”
Jackson slashed her wrists and overdosed on pills early last month in the California home she shares with her grandmother and two brothers. Sources close to the family say the young girl was overwhelmed by the wrongful-death lawsuit her grandmother filed against AEG over Michael Jackson’s 2009 overdose. They add that her high-profile presence on social media, particularly Twitter, was another source of heightened stress for the high-school student.
“She was on Twitter nonstop, and a lot of what was coming back to her was very negative and critical,” said a family friend. “She was constantly being told she was ugly or funny looking, or told she came from a crazy family. She just couldn’t handle that and everything else going on in her life.”
Several family members, including her aunt Janet Jackson, worried that so much public interaction via social media and various television appearances would ultimately cause additional emotional harm to Jackson’s children, whom he sheltered from the public before his death.
“Let’s be clear there would have been no Twitter, no Facebook, and no movies if Michael were still alive,” said a family member. “He knew the dangers of letting too many people into your world too soon.”
Diamond Ranch Academy is a secluded $10 million treatment facility that caters to 12- to 18-year-olds struggling with depression and grief management. Family members say the teenager is still grieving the 2009 death of her father and the legal battles that surround his legacy. More claims of child molestation have been leveled at the late singing icon in recent months, and allegations that Jackson paid off other victims of child molestation have been discussed in the wrongful-death court proceedings.
“Everyone is clear that Paris has to be supervised and supported during this trial,” said a family member. “She can’t be near that trial or hear the horrible things being said about Michael. He was a saint to her, and she doesn’t believe anything bad about her father. She gets so distraught when she hears that stuff.”
The teenager also reportedly was being bullied at her high school in California and had hoped to a transfer to another school for the fall term. No one is clear how long she’ll remain at the Utah facility once she arrives, but sources say both Debbie Rowe and Katherine Jackson are convinced the troubled young girl needs as much time as possible away from the spotlight to heal.
“Paris wants to come home, but Katherine is so scared of what will happen if she does too soon,” said a family friend. “Katherine can’t handle anything like what happened last month again. She is over 80 years old, and all the blood and the commotion nearly gave her a heart attack. She would never forgive herself if Paris really ended up killing herself. She’d never get over that after Michael’s death.”