Michael Jackson’s firstborn son Prince has joyfully announced that he is engaged to his girlfriend of eight years Molly Schirmang.
Prince, 28, started dating Molly in 2017, and although they have kept their romance largely private, they have walked the occasional red carpet together.
He fired up his Instagram page this Tuesday to reveal to the public that he and Molly are now planning to walk down the aisle.
In his caption, he wrote: ‘8 years down [infinity] to go. Molly and I have spent a lot of time together and made incredible memories.’
Alongside an album that included a snap of them celebrating his college graduation, he wrote: ‘We’ve traveled the world, graduated and grown so much together.’
The suite of images included one of Molly and Prince sitting together with his grandmother – Michael’s mother Katherine Jackson, 95.
Prince concluded his caption by writing: ‘I’m excited for this next chapter in our lives as we continue to grow and make great memories. I love you babs.’
His cousin Taryll Jackson – son of Michael’s brother Tito of the Jackson 5 fame – leapt into the comments and exclaimed: ‘Congrats!!!’
Prince’s album was filled with photos of him and Molly through the years, kayaking together, enjoying a rainbow and posing at red carpet events.
A couple of the events were for the foundation named after Tito’s late ex-wife Dee Dee Jackson, whose last boyfriend Don Bohana was found guilty of her drowning but has staunchly maintained his innocence.
Prince’s announcement comes less than a month after his sister Paris Jackson revealed she had split from her fiancé Justin Long, whom she had gotten engaged to last December.
Molly and Prince started dating when he was 20, and one year later he gave an interview waxing rhapsodic about her, although at that stage he did not reveal her name.
‘I think in everything there’s an important balance. I think that I’m a certain way, and she’s very — I don’t want to say opposite — but complementary in a way that we balance each other out. I’m more aggressive, she’s a little softer,’ he told People.
He added that their relationship ‘helps us stay well-rounded’ in that she urged him to ‘see things through a different light’ and he did the same for her.
Three years ago, Prince marked his fifth anniversary with Molly by posting a string of Instagram images and gushing in the caption: ‘Lots of trips, miles, smiles, meals, desserts and all kinds of adventures in between. Love you babs.’
His songstress aunt La Toya Jackson commented: ‘Sending you guys much love!!!’ while his cousins Taryll and TJ reacted with heart emojis.
Michael welcomed Prince and his daughter Paris, 27, with his second wife Debbie Rowe, whom he met when she was working as an assistant to his dermatologist Arnold Klein during the King of Pop’s treatment for his skin condition vitiligo.
The late singer also had a son via surrogacy called Bigi, 23, who was formerly known as Blanket and whom Michael infamously once dangled over a fourth-floor hotel balcony when he was a baby to show him off to the fans below.
‘Arnie’ Klein, a top Hollywood doctor nicknamed the ‘father of Botox,’ hinted multiple times in public that he was actually Prince and Paris’ biological father.
In 2015, Prince responded to the rumors about his paternity that were circulating on Twitter by writing: ‘The blood of the covenant is thicker than the water of the womb … I was raised by my dad with my brother and sister.’
Michael died at the age of 50 in 2009 from a cardiac arrest he suffered after having the powerful anesthetic Propofol administered as a sleep aid.
His legacy has fallen under renewed scrutiny in recent years because of the long-running allegations that he was a child molester.
Although Michael was acquitted of the claims in court in 2005, the accusations have persisted in the public square, including in the 2019 docuseries Leaving Neverland.
