The Paris Jackson versus the Jackson estate drama is adding another page to its saga. Paris and her legal team recently filed a new legal document against her father's estate, alleging that executors have pocketed large sums of money and have abused their roles for financial profit.
The 27-year-old daughter of Michael Jackson filed the document on Tuesday, November 18th, revealing that she and her siblings had only received their 2021 estate accounting in September of this year.
The legal document shares Paris' concern over the "enormous sums of cash" that have been uninvested by the estate's co-executors, John Branca and John McClain, two prominent figures in the music and entertainment industry who worked with Michael for years before his death. Paris' filing suggests that Branca and McClain's interests are not in alignment with the best interests of the estate.
“Paris is increasingly concerned the Estate has become the vehicle for John Branca to enrich and aggrandize himself, rather than serve the beneficiaries’ best interests and steadfastly preserve her father’s legacy,” reads the filing, as reported by PEOPLE.
The filing claims that in 2021 alone, Branca and McClain kept over 10 million in compensation from the state. She said that the sum was more than double the amount distributed to her family members. She also shows concern over the executors' decision to invest in entertainment projects, including the upcoming Michael Jackson biopic, where Branca, one of the film's producers, approved the casting decision of Miles Teller to play a fictional version of himself.
According to the estate executors, they claim that they took over the estate in 2009, following Jackson's death, and a debt of over $500 million. They claim they turned the struggling estate into the force in entertainment that it is today.
Paris and her brothers, Prince, 28, and Bigi, 23, are the beneficiaries of Jackson's estate.
More details about the upcoming movie
The highly anticipated biopic exploring Michael Jackson's life is called "Michael" and has been delayed over the past months. Directed by Antoine Fuqua and starring Michael Jackson's nephew Jaafar Jackson, Colman Domingo, and Miles Teller, the project is expected to premiere on April 24, 2026.
The movie has been in development since 2019 and has met a few hurdles. Early this year, it was reported that production was forced to rewrite and reshoot a significant portion of the film due to a legal roadblock that the film was made aware of after a large percentage of the film was ready.
Paris Jackson herself has opened up about the film, voicing her criticism. She called the draft of the script "dishonest" and sent her notes to the studio, with these remaining unaddressed. "A big reason why I haven't said anything up until this point is because I know a lot of you guys are gonna be happy with it," she said in a video shared on her Instagram stories.
"A big section of the film panders to a very specific section of my dad's fandom that still lives in the fantasy, and they're gonna be happy with it."