Paris Jackson has been engaged twice, and both relationships ended before she reached the altar.

Now, at 28, the musician says those experiences have fundamentally changed what she is willing to accept from love.

Speaking candidly on the Aug. 12 episode of Call Her Daddy with host Alex Cooper, Jackson reflected on two very different engagements: one that remained largely secret and unfolded during a period of drug use, and a later, public relationship with music producer Justin Long that she ended in 2025.

The circumstances were different, but Jackson said both experiences taught her something important.

Wanting a relationship to work is not always enough reason to remain in it.

And someone being kind, faithful or fundamentally decent does not automatically mean that person is the right partner.

Her First Engagement Happened During a Darker Period

Jackson surprised Cooper by revealing that her engagement to Long was actually not her first.

There had been another one years earlier that the public largely did not know about.

Jackson did not identify the former fiancé, but she described the relationship as intensely emotional and complicated by drug use.

She said both she and the man were “strung out on drugs” at the time they became engaged. Even the ring carried a disturbing detail: according to Jackson, the man purchased it using her money without telling her.

Looking back, Jackson acknowledged that some people might question whether the engagement should even count under those circumstances.

For her, however, the feelings were genuine.

Whatever dysfunction surrounded them, she remembered the love itself as feeling real at the time.

That distinction is important to the way Jackson now looks at her past. She does not appear interested in pretending that an unhealthy situation meant she never cared deeply.

Both things could exist at once.

The relationship could have been troubled.

And the emotions could still have mattered to her.

Ultimately, that engagement ended.

Years later, Jackson would find herself preparing for marriage again — this time in a relationship that looked very different from the first.

Justin Long Became Her Second Fiancé

Jackson later became involved with music producer Justin Long.

Unlike her first engagement, this relationship was public.

The pair attended events together, and by 2025 Jackson was preparing for what appeared to be the next stage of their life.

Then she ended the engagement.

Jackson confirmed their breakup in July 2025 after photographs showed her emotional in public. At the time, she clarified that the tears were connected to the breakup.

A year later, she is offering a clearer explanation for why she walked away.

“It was a choice that I needed to make to be happy,” Jackson said.

That decision, however, did not come quickly.

She Kept Wondering Whether Things Might Get Better

Jackson described herself as someone who needs to feel certain before making a major decision.

That characteristic made ending her relationship with Long particularly difficult.

She said there were moments when she tried to break things off, only for doubt to pull her back.

One question kept returning: what if she stayed a little longer and the relationship eventually improved?

It is a fear that can keep people inside relationships long after they have begun questioning whether they are truly happy.

Jackson recognized that tendency in herself.

The possibility of future improvement made her hesitate even when part of her was already trying to leave.

People close to her eventually helped by asking questions she needed to confront honestly.

Jackson said that when she considered her own answers, they were no longer convincing enough.

That realization led her toward one of the clearest lessons she took from the breakup.

“A Good Person” Does Not Automatically Mean “My Person”

Jackson stressed that she was not ending her relationship because Long was inherently a bad person.

The problem was more complicated.

She had reached a point where being able to describe someone as good was no longer sufficient reason to build a life with them.

“Just because someone is a good person doesn’t mean they’re my person,” she explained.

She pushed the idea further.

A partner not cheating, for example, should not be considered such an extraordinary virtue that it becomes a reason to overlook everything else that may not be working.

For Jackson, ending the engagement required separating two questions she had once treated almost as one.

Is this person good?

And is this relationship right for me?

Her conclusion was that those questions can produce very different answers.

That realization helped her finally make the choice she had repeatedly considered.

She Has Become More Selective About Love

After calling off two engagements, Jackson says she is not giving up on romance.

But she is changing her standards.

She told Cooper that she no longer wants to overlook significant issues simply because other parts of a relationship feel compelling.

In fact, Jackson believes she can afford to become much pickier.

“The bar can be raised a bit,” she said, acknowledging that historically her expectations had been “very low.”

The comment was delivered with self-awareness, but it also captured the larger shift running through her reflections.

Her first engagement existed within a period of drug use and circumstances she now recognizes as deeply unhealthy.

Her second involved a man she could still call good, yet a relationship she decided was not making her happy.

The lesson from both was not simply to look for a “better” person.

It was to become clearer about what she herself needs.

Ending the Engagement Was About Choosing Her Own Happiness

Because Jackson grew up as the daughter of Michael Jackson, much of her personal life has unfolded under unusually intense public attention.

Breakups are no exception.

But she told Cooper that public coverage of her relationships no longer feels particularly shocking because she has already experienced strangers writing about her romantic life before.

The more difficult work appears to have happened privately.

It meant accepting that years invested in a relationship did not obligate her to stay.

It meant resisting the voice telling her that one more month or one more year might suddenly fix everything.

And it meant acknowledging that leaving someone does not require turning that person into a villain.

Long could be a good man, in Jackson’s view, and still not be the man she should marry.

That may be the clearest difference between the Paris Jackson who entered those relationships and the woman describing them now.

She is no longer judging a partnership only by whether love exists or whether someone treats her better than people did in the past.

She is asking whether the relationship actually fits the life she wants.

Two engagements ended before becoming marriages.

Jackson does not seem to view that simply as failure.

Instead, those endings have given her a new standard for whatever comes next.

This time, being able to say someone is a good person will not be enough.

She wants to be able to say something more important:

He is the right person for her.