Prince Jackson, Michael Jackson’s eldest son, spoke candidly about his late father’s insecurities despite being at the pinnacle of his career. The Thriller star enjoyed the kind of fame one could only fathom in a lifetime. However, his son revealed the ‘King of Pop’ wasn’t content in life mainly because of his chronic skin condition Vitiligo which shook his confidence.
The 27-year-old appeared on the Hotboxin’ with Mike Tyson podcast and recalled, “When I was younger, he was always explaining to me, speaking about that. I think it was even in the autopsy report. I think the cause of it is up for speculation, but it’s either vitiligo or some form of lupus contributed to the vitiligo.” The condition, as Prince told host and boxer Mike Tyson, caused his father anxiety. “He had a lot of insecurity around, kind of looking blotchy in his appearance. So he wanted to see if he could smooth out his appearance, to help with his security on his physical appearance,” added Prince.
According to the Cleveland Clinic, Vitiligo is a skin condition that causes your skin to lose its color or pigment. This causes your skin to appear lighter than your natural skin tone or turn white. The condition occurs when your body’s immune system destroys melanocytes. Melanocytes are skin cells that produce melanin, the chemical that gives skin its color, or pigmentation. It is either triggered by genetics or a change in the immune system.
The late pop icon was infamous for his obsession with plastic surgeries. Throughout his life in the limelight, Jackson’s looks changed drastically, and despite his unprecedented fame and talent, he was scrutinized for his ever-evolving face, including the bleached skin. Many speculations arose at the time with some suggesting he’s deliberately doing it to become white. However, Jackson denied the rumors and addressed his medical condition.
In a 1993 interview with Oprah Winfrey, the singer and dancer said, “I have a skin disorder that destroys the pigmentation of the skin. It’s something that I cannot help.” Winfrey then asked him if he didn’t like being Black, “I’m a Black American. I’m proud to be a Black American,” but I am “using makeup [that] evens it out because it makes blotches on the skin – I have to even out my skin. It’s a problem for me, OK, I can’t control it.”
After Jackson passed away, the narratives of his fetish for plastic surgeries continued to dominate the tabloids. While he no longer was alive to tell his side of the story, his mother Katherine Jackson recalled her son’s insecurity about his physical appearance and would tell his mother he felt “so ugly.” In an emotional sit-down in 2010, the Jackson matriarch told Daily Mail, “He’d say ‘I’m just so ugly, I don’t want to go out there.’ One day he just got up and decided ‘I’m going to get my nose done. It’s too big.'”
“One day he just made up his mind and he just left. When I enquired about where he was, he had gone down to get his nose done. He thought I might try to talk him out of it I think. He was so unhappy. He thought he was so ugly,” Katherine said.
