Paris Jackson admits to ‘really ugly behaviour’ during addiction struggle

Paris Jackson has admitted that she exhibited some “really ugly behaviour” when she was addicted to alcohol.

The 28-year-old, who celebrated six years of sobriety in January, opened up about her addiction to drugs and alcohol during an appearance on Jack Osbourne’s podcast Trying Not to Die.

Michael Jackson’s daughter revealed that she has been to treatment “several times”, both before and since starting her sobriety journey, and when she “got off” heavy drugs, she realised she was also addicted to alcohol.

Opening up about her conduct while drinking, the actress and musician confessed, “The behaviour is really ugly. It’s really ugly behaviour in a moral way, because I was raised to be kind. Not nice – I couldn’t give a s**t about being nice – but being kind and looking people in the eye and asking the waiter their name so you can write it down on the receipt later, just little things of, just like, how do you treat people?”

Paris shared that she went through “years and years and years of self-hatred” before hitting her current sobriety milestone, and divulged what she thought of herself during that time.

“‘Oh, I may be a liar, a cheater, a piece of s**t, a thief, whatever, but I do have a moral compass, like, I was raised right in that way,'” she recalled. “What happens when I drink is that goes away. That goes right out the window and I become a very vindictive person.”

The Gringo star pointed out that there were signs she was different from her peers when she was younger.

“I struggled with self-harm for a really long time before I ever had my first drink or drug. I had weird relationships with overeating and food as a young kid,” she candidly revealed. “There was this overall reachy, graspy energy that I only ever really see in other addicts. Reaching for something outside of yourself.”

In January 2025, Paris marked her fifth sober anniversary by writing on Instagram, “Hi, I’m pk, and I’m an alcoholic and a heroin addict. Today marks 5 years clean and sober from all drugs and alcohol.”

Around her sixth anniversary, the star admitted sobriety felt “very, very hard for what felt like an eternity” because she no longer had the tools she was “used to having to cope”.