During her interview with Portia Bruner on the Portia TV Show, Joh’Vonnie Jackson shared that she was proud of her nephew, Jaafar Jackson, for his portrayal of her late brother, Michael Jackson. She said the performance brought the love full circle around the world and expressed how overjoyed she was with his portrayal of her iconic brother.
Joh’Vonnie also addressed how her father, Joseph Jackson, was portrayed in the film, saying that the depiction was not the Joseph Jackson she experienced. She explained that she did not like the way he was represented. However, she acknowledged that she wasn’t around to witness everything that happened during her older siblings’ childhoods.
“I was not born. I didn’t have to deal with a young Joseph. So, I wasn’t there,” she told the Fox 5 reporter while acknowledging that she could only speak from her own experience.
She added that Joseph was strict because of his upbringing, particularly being raised in the South during the Great Depression. Joh’Vonnie said she received her fair share of spankings as well, but noted that her mother was actually more of the disciplinarian than her father. The Jackson patriarch grew up in Fountain Hill, Arkansas, before he moved to Oakland, California, to live with his father, according to St. Martin’s Press.
A young Joh’Vonnie pictured with her father, Joseph Jackson; Courtesy of Joh’Vonnie Jackson
When Bruner asked whether her mother was similar to Katherine as portrayed in the movie, particularly in looking like she wanted to protect the children from Joseph’s whoopings but could not, the 52-year-old shared that her mother was more of the disciplinarian than Joseph.
“She was anywhere around when I got in trouble with my father. To be perfectly candid and honest, my mother got after me more than my dad. My mother had me go picking the switch off the tree,” she said.
Joh’Vonnie is the daughter of Joseph Jackson and Cheryl Terrell and the youngest of Joseph’s children. Her memoir, Bastard Child, published in 2017, chronicles her experience growing up as the child born outside of Joseph’s marriage to Katherine Jackson and her complicated place within the famous Jackson family. She said that she was referred to as a bastard child, and out of anger, she titled the book Bastard Child as a release. She also admitted to writing the book at the age of 15 and struggled to release it because of inner fears and doubts. She was able to release the book in her mid-40s after she came to the realization that she doesn’t care. She said that it was her story, her grievances, and that she was cleansing herself.
Katherine filed for divorce from Joseph in 1973 and again in 1982, but withdrew the proceedings both times. Although the couple later lived separately, they remained legally married until Joseph’s death in 2018.
