Michael Jackson's Daughter Paris Says Father Was Her 'Best Friend' Despite Strict Childhood With King of Pop: 'Definitely Daddy's Little Princess'

Paris Jackson opened up about her strict upbringing and brief stay at Michael Jackson's Neverland Ranch.

Paris, 28, referred to her late father as her "best friend" in an August 12 interview on Alex Cooper's Call Her Daddy podcast.

"Really funny guy," she reflected. "That was my best friend! I was definitely daddy’s little princess!"

After years in the spotlight, Michael had strict rules for his children, including a rigid regimen of school and chores, despite practically living in a theme park.

Michael's Neverland Ranch in Los Olivos, Calif., was a nearly 3,000-acre property featuring a massive mansion and a private theme park where the pop singer was known to entertain young fans.

He left the ranch for good in 2005 after being acquitted on child sexual abuse charges and never returned. Paris would have been 7 at the time. Still, she had some recollection of the first few years of her life at the private compound.

"I didn't grow up there," the musician clarified. "It was only the first few years of my life that I was there."

Even as a young girl, she was forced to follow a strict set of rules.

"I'd wake up, and I'd go to school," she recalled. "I'd wake up, and we would go to the room that was our classroom and we would go to school."

According to Paris, she and her two brothers, Bigi and Prince, had a relatively normal routine.

"You do your chores, and you do your homework, and you do the things that you're supposed to do, then on the weekends you can go see some animals, and you can go ride some rides, and you can go to the movies," she explained. "It was made very, very clear that all of the attractions there were not for us, that did not belong to us."

"That was for, you know, underprivileged children and children that were terminally ill that couldn't go to like Disneyland," she added.

Michael was known to invite young children with cancer or other life-threatening illnesses to his ranch to meet him and enjoy all of its magical amenities. In many cases, the "Thriller" singer formed lifelong relationships with the families.

Police raided his ranch in 2003 in connection with sexual abuse allegations, some of which were from patients' families. The icon found that his beloved property was irretrievably changed.

Michael and his children moved frequently, relocating to various destinations, including Bahrain, Ireland and Las Vegas. But even while hopping around the globe, Paris followed Michael's disciplined routine.

"That continued even when we were, because at one point we wouldn't stay in one place for more than a year," Paris reflected. "And we'd hotel-hopped a lot."

Michael also had his children wear masks in public, another rule implemented to give them as normal a life as possible, despite being born into a music dynasty.

"It just made sense to me, because it was like, 'Oh yeah, if you do this now, then you can go to Chuck-E-Cheese and be normal this weekend because no one will know who you are'," Paris recalled. "That made sense to me."

Her father passed away in 2009 when she was only 11 years old. After that, she was under the legal guardianship of her grandmother, Katherine Jackson, at the Jackson Family Compound.