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The King of Pop never wanted his kids to know he was the most famous performer on the planet, the youngsters revealed yesterday in their first TV interview.
“He tried to raise us without knowing who he was,” his 12-year-old daughter, Paris, told Oprah Winfrey.
“That didn’t go so well,” she added.
The blue-eyed 12-year-old said she and her siblings, Prince Michael, 13, and Blanket, 8, now understand why their father never let them go out in public unless they wore veils or masks.
“He did it because then nobody would really recognize us,” said Prince.
His sister said, “I appreciated it, [but] it wasn’t always comfortable.”
The kids recalled good times with their dad, like walks on the beach in Bahrain and hours on the roof of their Las Vegas home watching the glittering lights of the Strip.
“We saw the city of lights,” said Paris.
Paris said her best memories of Jacko are of times the two of them spent together.
“I just have to say spending ‘quality time’ with him — away from these two,” she said, nodding at the boys.
“Sometimes he would take me to an art museum, because we both loved art,” she said.
She revealed one little-known fact about her famous dad: He loved to cook.
“Everyone is all, ‘a cook?’ like they’re surprised to hear it,” said Paris.
“He was just a normal guy, except for he was, like, the best dad ever. He made the best French toast in the world.”
Prince agreed, “He just made the best breakfasts in the world.”
Blanket, the most shy, said Jacko was stricter with him than with Prince, who, he whispered, “could get away with anything.”
The interview took place in the back yard of their grandmother Katherine Jackson’s Encino, Calif., home, where the children now live.
Until Jackson’s memorial service last year, the kids had never appeared in public with their faces uncovered.
Katherine Jackson, the kids’ legal guardian, wanted them all to attend a regular school.
Both Paris and Prince said they were “nervous” at first about “everything” at school, but now like it.
“Do kids react to who you are?” asked Winfrey.
“My friend,” said Paris, “she didn’t know who I was.” And when she found out, “she didn’t care.”
Blanket, in fourth grade, prefers to be home-schooled.