Paris Jackson is accusing the executors of her late father’s estate of using the King of Pop’s money to publicly insult her amid the messy legal battle over his billion-dollar estate.
The 28-year-old actor is the beneficiary of Michael Jackson’s estate, which is now estimated to be worth over $2 billion, along with her brothers Prince, 29, and Bigi, 24.
However, Paris raised concerns last July about executors John Branca and John McClain allegedly mishandling Jackson’s money after reportedly noticing irregular payments. She went on to accuse the attorneys of “skimming money” from her father’s estate
Branca and McClain have denied all allegations against them. After months of court hearings and filings going back and forth between the two parties, the co-executors recently submitted an 83-page status report dismissing Paris’s claims once again, which prompted her newest April 6 filing — where she accused them of trying to make her look bad in the public eye.
“This overlitigation is waste,” Paris’s filing said, according to court documents reviewed by The Independent. “At nearly every hearing… Executors try to avoid the merits by characterizing Paris’s concerns as lawyer-driven or in service of some purported desire for media attention. Neither is true. “
“This litigation is painful for Paris. It is a distraction from her own life and her own career. She would rather there be no press coverage of it whatsoever,” the filing said.
Paris’s attorneys claimed that “from the first day Paris dared to raise an objection,” Branca and McClain “have used her father’s money to attack her in the media.”
The filing called out a specific comment by the estate attorney, Jonathan Steinsapir, in which he said that Paris was “strutting” into a court hearing. Paris alleged the comment was sexist, and accused Steinsapir of making further patronizing comments, including one where he referred to himself, Branca and McClain as the “grown-ups” in the situation.
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“These attacks may serve Mr. Branca’s personal interest in attempting to bully Paris into submission, but they have nothing to do with the merits of the litigation and are not in the interests of the Estate,” the filing said. “The fact that Michael Jackson’s money is paying for these attacks makes them even more offensive.”
Steinsapir did not return The Independent’s request for comment.
The executors and their legal team have accused Paris’s lawyer, Craig Peters, of trying to “take control” of Jackson’s estate.
Steinsapir claimed to New York Post, “Ms. Jackson and her attorneys are once again abusing the courts and the legal system by making a series of false allegations as part of a media campaign to distract from their legal setbacks and the inherent weakness of their case.”
In her previous filings, Paris requested a judge intervene when she asked Branca and McClain to submit paperwork for legal fees that they requested be paid to third-party firms between 2019 and 2023. She claimed they paid themselves “lavish” fees and bonuses and failed to invest hundreds of millions of dollars as they worked with Jackson’s finances after he died with about $500 million in debt.
She alleged, “As painful as it is to say in print, the present records suggest a group of closely-knit, highly-compensated lawyers is exploiting Executors’ lack of oversight to skim money from the Estate, in plain view.”
Paris’s issues with her father’s estate extend to the forthcoming biopic Michael. In a November filing, she questioned Branca’s executive producer role in the movie, which stars Jackson’s nephew Jaafar Jackson. She has also publicly rejected actor Colman Domingo’s claim that she had any involvement in the film.
