While the nickname stuck with him for almost a decade, he decided to change it in 2015 and adopted a new one, now going by ‘Bigi’ or, in full, ‘Bigi Jackson’.
However, there is a precise reason why the pop singer would’mask’ his children’s faces and grab a blanket or another material to do so, as recounted in greater detail by his first kid, Prince, whose mother is the singer’s ex-wife Deborah Jeanne Rowe.
In a 2006 interview with The Los Angeles Times, Prince revealed that Michael’spoke to [him] like an adult’ and informed him of their decision to conceal their faces.
“He told us the reason for the masks was that he wanted us to live our own lives without him,” he said.
When the kids weren’t with their father, they could be in public without being identified. However, the reaction they received while they were with Michael made it plain that they were not like ‘normal’ families.
“I don’t think I ever considered whether other kids lived like that when I was younger.” But once I learned who he was, I recognized something wasn’t right,” Prince explained.
Michael’s eldest child then recounted a specific incident in which he discovered how famous a musician his father truly was.
Rince Jackson said his father spoke to him about why he concealed their faces from photographers (Rodin Eckenroth/Getty Images)
Prince recalls visiting Disneyland and stepping over to ‘the window’ of a room.
He remarked, “There were so many fans waving and snapping pictures of me. I felt it was typical, so I simply waved back.”
“It wasn’t until I saw a video of him performing and people were fainting and passing out, when I realized the work he did meant a lot to people.”
