Prince Jackson Reveals Dad Michael Jackson Was Insecure About His Skin
More than a decade following the passing of his father, Michael Jackson, Prince Jackson is opening up about how his superstar dad suffered from the vitiligo skin condition, which caused patches of skin to lose pigmentation and have a milky white appearance.
“When I was younger, he was always explaining to me, speaking about that,” Prince said during a recent appearance on the “Hotboxin’ With Mike Tyson” podcast, “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.”
Mike Tyson mentioned that people thought Michael “was changing his skin because he wanted to be white, he was changing it because he wanted to glow. He wanted to be a light, he wanted to shine.”
The King of Pop’s eldest child, 26, added that the condition caused his father anxiety.
Michael Jackson's Kids, Paris, Prince and Blanket: Where Are They Now?
Michael Jackson left more than an extensive musical legacy and his former estate of Neverland Ranch behind when he died at the age of the 50 on June 25, 2009 — the “Billie Jean” singer also had three children. Michael’s first child, Michael Joseph Jackson Jr., was born to the musician and nurse Debbie Rowe, […]
“He had a lot of insecurity around, kind of looking blotchy in his appearance,” said Prince. “So he wanted to see if he could smooth out his appearance, to help with his security on his physical appearance.”
Michael was diagnosed with vitiligo in 1983. The 13-time Grammy winner used fair-colored makeup and creams to cover the blotches, causing a very pale appearance.
Michael first addressed the condition in a 1993 interview.
“I have a skin disorder, the pigmentation of my skin. It is something I cannot help,” the singer said at the time. “When people make up stories that I don’t want to be who I am, it hurts me. It’s a problem for me. I can’t control it. But what about all the millions of people who sit in the sun to become darker, to become other than what they are? Nobody says nothing about that.”
Michael Jackson and Lisa Marie Presley: A Timeline of Their Brief Marriage
When Neverland and Graceland collide! Michael Jackson and Lisa Marie Presley shocked the world with the news of their brief romance in the mid-1990s. The King of Pop and the daughter of Elvis Presley briefly met in the 1970s at a concert in Las Vegas but did not get to know each other until nearly […]
He added at the time: “It’s in my family, I can’t control it. It makes me very sad,” Michael added, denying that he was bleaching his skin. “I try to control it, and using makeup evens it out because I have blotches on my skin and I have to even it out. But you know what’s funny? Why is that so important? That’s not important to me.”
Michael died in 2009 of cardiac arrest.
