Michael Jackson was a larger than life icon with billions of fans. But his youngest son is happy to live privately. So who is he? From being bullied over his nickname to family court drama, Blanket — now Bigi — Jackson has dealt with many struggles in his life.
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00:00Michael Jackson was a larger-than-life icon with billions of fans, but his youngest son
00:05is happy to live privately. So who is he? From being bullied over his nickname to family
00:11court drama, Blanket, now B.G. Jackson, has dealt with many struggles in his life.
00:18B.G. Jackson was born into fame owing to his famous last name. But as far as public interest
00:23was concerned, his distinction of being Michael Jackson's son was just one half of the story.
00:28When the world learned that the King of Pop became a father a third time in 2002, there
00:32was curiosity about the identity of the child's mother. By then, Jackson had been divorced
00:37two years from his wife, Debbie Rowe, with whom he shared his older children, Prince
00:41Michael and Paris. Conspiracy theories abounded over B.G.'s parentage, with Jackson coming
00:47forward to provide some clarity in the 2003 documentary Living with Michael Jackson.
00:52After Jackson's death in 2009, the Mirror published an explosive report claiming that
01:02a Mexican nurse by the name of Elena birthed B.G. Jackson apparently handpicked the surrogate
01:07from a list of women. Elena was paid a sum of $20,000 as her surrogacy fee and delivered
01:13the baby at Sharp Grossmont Hospital, California.
01:16The identity of the egg donor, however, remains undisclosed, with even B.G.'s birth certificate
01:21not reflecting the name of his mother.
01:24The whole world gasped when Jackson dangled a baby over a balcony back in 2002. The dangerous
01:30stunt quickly became one of the most bizarre acts polled by the pop icon, who had built
01:34up a notorious reputation for eccentricity.
01:37I love climbing trees. I think it's my favorite thing, having water balloon fights and climbing
01:43trees.
01:44The child, revealed to be 9-month-old B.G., could be seen flailing his legs as he swayed
01:49precariously from the balcony of a Berlin hotel as his father gripped him with one arm.
01:55Jackson's other hand, unbelievably, held down a towel that covered B.G.'s whole face. The
01:59antic may have only lasted a few seconds, but even the crowds below cried out in horror.
02:04The episode sparked outrage against Jackson, with many in the media even calling for his
02:08arrest for risking his child's life.
02:10Matt, why would I throw a baby off a balcony? That's the dumbest, stupidest story I've ever
02:15heard.
02:16Jackson had been in Germany to be honored for his philanthropic work toward children's
02:20welfare. After the incident, child welfare agencies told the public to avoid such actions,
02:26with child rights experts like Janice Spire saying,
02:28"...I would tell anyone who saw an adult dangling a child out of a window to call a child protection
02:33hotline and the police."
02:35Jackson ultimately acknowledged his mistake in a statement that read,
02:38"...I got caught up in the excitement of the moment. I would never intentionally endanger
02:42the lives of my children."
02:45Little B.G. was only 7 when Michael Jackson died of a drug overdose in 2009. Around the
02:50world, people grieved the loss of one of the most influential figures in music history.
02:55But the pop icon's youngest didn't yet have the language to process his father's sudden
02:59death.
03:00Even so, little B.G. was hardly immune to the consequences of the tragedy, and was invariably
03:05looped into the activities surrounding Jackson's death, from being named in court cases to
03:10being hounded by the press. As the youngest of the lot, B.G. had the protective presence
03:14of siblings Prince and Paris around him. They grew into a tight three-member unit
03:19that drew strength from each other over the years.
03:21"...I think it's only made us stronger as siblings to have that bond, to have that very
03:26real relationship and raw relationship with each other."
03:29Between his siblings, B.G. spent the least amount of time with his father, but the impact
03:33Jackson left on his youngest child was significant.
03:37B.G. and his older siblings were thrown into the deep end of the media spotlight after
03:41his father's death. All eyes were on the Jackson kids, with every move they made recorded
03:46in the press for a global audience. B.G. remained a constant but silent companion to Prince
03:51and Paris during their public appearances, and was exposed to more than his fair share
03:56of scrutiny far too early.
03:58One of the most unforgettable of such instances was when he attended his father's memorial
04:02service with tears in his eyes and a Michael Jackson doll in his hand.
04:07While B.G. never got the opportunity to watch his famous father perform live, he did enjoy
04:12Cirque du Soleil's Michael Jackson 1 production when it premiered in Las Vegas in 2013. He
04:17was spotted celebrating his father's legacy with Prince, who came to be one of his strongest
04:21supporters as he came to terms with his father's death.
04:24That said, the magnitude and aftermath of the tragedy barely made it easy for B.G. to
04:29deal with the situation, and according to insiders, he all but faded into the background
04:33at the Jackson household in later years. A source close to the family claimed to Page
04:37Six in 2017,
04:39"...this poor kid, he fends for himself, there's no one to make sure he's even eating right."
04:43"...he had a hard time adjusting after his dad's death, so it kind of makes sense that
04:48he would maybe prefer a life out of the spotlight."
04:52Despite only being in his early 20s, B.G. has lived through many identities over the
04:57years. He was born Prince Michael Jackson II, sharing his name in varying degrees with
05:01his father and older brother. But beyond serving as a mark of his famous bloodline,
05:06the title didn't stick. A distinct personality was instead carved out for him in the global
05:10media as Blanket.
05:12The far-from-usual nickname apparently came from an expression Michael Jackson admitted
05:17to using often, telling those around him to blanket a person with something.
05:21"...a blanket is a blessing. It's a way of showing love and caring."
05:28And so, the pop star's youngest was iconically christened, but B.G. himself wasn't pleased
05:33with the kind of recognition the name got him. In fact, if sources for Radar Online
05:38are to be believed, he resented his dad for calling him Blanket, and was apparently even
05:42bullied for it. An insider to the Jackson family told the outlet,
05:46"...growing up, his schoolmates have always been slightly mean to him because of their
05:49jealousy over who he is, and going by Blanket made him a much easier target for ridicule.
05:55The circumstances led to him changing his name once again, and when he joined the Buckley
05:59school after his father's death, he started going by the name B.G. Though his latest name
06:03is how he is often represented, his former nickname remains unforgettable.
06:09In recent years, among the only things that have been able to draw B.G. out of his privacy
06:13are tribute events for his father and his love of films. The latter has been an especially
06:18strong catalyst in giving B.G. an outlet to speak his mind. He showcased it most memorably
06:23on FilmFamily, a YouTube channel he started with his brother Prince and their cousin to
06:27review films.
06:28"...so we're hoping to bring an educated yet family-friendly vibe into the movie-watching
06:35arena."
06:36The channel premiered in 2019 with a review for Avengers Endgame, and over the course
06:40of one year, managed to publish over 100 videos and amass over 50,000 subscribers. B.G. emerged
06:47as an especially popular member of this film-reviewing troupe. Prince attested to it in an interview
06:52with Entertainment Tonight, saying,
06:53"...my brother has a really unique talent to be able to tell you even a movie he hasn't
06:57seen. He'll tell you what year it came out. He knows the director, the staff, the crew,
07:02everybody behind it that you wouldn't know."
07:04Though the channel went inactive in 2020, B.G. went on to pursue his passion for films
07:08in an even bigger way.
07:11In 2024, B.G. directed the short film Rochelles, a suspense drama that follows two friends
07:16as they compete for a restaurant job. True to form, B.G. kept things low-key when the
07:20film won Best Drama at the Santa Monica Film Festival. However, his older brother Prince
07:25did give a shout-out to his brother on his Instagram story, writing,
07:28"...bro is killing it, chasing his dreams and winning awards."
07:31Though information about B.G.'s life is scarce, cinema seems to be one of his more apparent
07:36interests. According to Prince, the creatively-oriented Jackson siblings were acquainted with films
07:41early on, courtesy of a teacher assigned to them for this very purpose. It clearly made
07:46an impact on B.G., who immersed himself in the world of film as he got older. Prince
07:50told ET Online,
07:51"...he really thinks and studies about film in a different way that you would notice,
07:55and that comes with his upbringing with my dad, encouraging him to study film."
08:00After his father's death, B.G. and his siblings came under the guardianship of their grandmother,
08:04Catherine Jackson. The family appeared to have shared a tight bond, with Catherine's
08:08lawyer stating in the years that followed that she had a great relationship with her
08:12grandchildren. The situation, however, doesn't seem to be as smooth as before, now that the
08:17Jackson children are adults.
08:19Things are especially tense between Catherine and B.G., who took his grandmother to court
08:23in 2024 over a dispute concerning the pop icon's estate. The confrontation is supposedly
08:29rooted in a highly publicized deal between Sony and Jackson's estate, wherein the music
08:33giant bought out half of the singer's catalog for $600 million. After some initial opposition
08:39against the transaction, B.G. and his siblings acquiesced to the court's 2023 decision of
08:44letting the deal proceed. Catherine, however, was not convinced, and filed an appeal against
08:49the co-executors of the Jackson estate for backing the transaction. She sought to rely
08:54on the estate for covering her legal fees, which B.G. said would be unfair, pointing
08:58to the high costs of legal proceedings that wouldn't benefit the estate. Catherine, in
09:02return, has claimed that her ask isn't significant enough to dent the Jackson estate, currently
09:07estimated to be valued at $2 billion.