Why Michael Jackson’s Skin Turned White as He Got Older
Many scandals marred Michael Jackson’s personal life, overshadowing his otherwise remarkable musical career. One such scandal was the obvious change in his appearance, especially his skin color, which started from the mid-eighties to slowly but surely turn from dark to white.
By the mid-nineties when Jackson released his album History (1995), it was more than obvious even to his most dedicated fans that the man of Thriller (1982) looked nothing like the man who had recently married Elvis Presley’s daughter, Lisa Marie. By this time, Michael Jackson was milky white; a skin-color transition that started almost a decade earlier was more or less complete. So what happened?
According to his family and Jackson himself, the “King of Pop” had vitiligo, a condition that causes depigmentation of parts of the skin, which usually results in white spots on the patient’s body; these are even more noticeable if the person has a dark complexion as in Jackson’s case. The 1 in 250 or so people who have this condition typically first start seeing signs of it beginning between 10 and 30 years old. Approximately 30% of the people who have it also have it run in their family, which is true of Jackson.
In addition to this skin disorder, Jackson also reportedly suffered from systemic lupus erythematosus, which besides potentially being a very serious condition can also cause loss of skin pigmentation.
When the controversy about his changing skin color hit its zenith, Jackson spoke openly about his vitiligo for the first time in an interview he gave to Oprah in 1993. He said among other things,
It is something I cannot help. 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.
In the days after, at Jackson’s request his condition was publicly confirmed by his dermatologist, Dr. Arnold Klein, who also stated Jackson was first diagnosed with the condition in 1984. It was also confirmed that he had lupus erythematosus, but that it was in remission.
Conspiracy theorists propose that there was much more to it than this. That in fact Jackson had no such disease and that he, instead, systematically bleached his skin using Benoquin cream and other medical cocktails in his quest to look like a white person.
The obvious and extensive cosmetic surgeries he had on his eyebrows, eyelashes, lips, and nose only served to enforce the theory that he was simply purposefully tweaking his appearance even more by bleaching his skin.
So is there any truth to this? Dr. Christopher Rogers, deputy medical examiner at the Los Angeles Coroner’s Office and the man who conducted Michael Jackson’s autopsy, chimed in on this after performing the autopsy on Jackson. Dr. Rogers confirmed that Jackson indeed suffered from vitiligo, most noticeably with patches around his face, chest, abdomen, and arms.
So did he also bleach his skin? According to dermatologist Dr. Hanish Babu, Jackson did; this is sometimes a treatment used for those with vitiligo.
When these white patches first started appearing, you can see from certain of Jackson’s concert footage that he was trying to mask them with makeup matching his original skin color. Once the patches became too numerous to easily hide with makeup (and he supposedly became tired of the extensive time needed to apply the makeup every day), he switched strategies and began the process of bleaching his skin, supposedly under the care of his dermatologist and using 20% monobenzyl ether of hydroquinone (Benoquin Cream). Much later, in June of 2009 after his death, tubes of Benoquin and hydroquinone were found in Jackson’s home. As Dr. David Sawcer said, “some patients with vitiligo get to the point where it makes more sense to remove the brown bits because so much of the skin is pale.”
Besides giving him a white complexion, this also results in being prone to sun burns, which is why in later years he often kept himself nearly completely covered when outside in the sun. (See What Causes Sunburns and How Sunscreen Prevents It)
In the end, only Jackson knew his true motivation for ultimately choosing to bleach his skin, whether as a treatment for his vitiligo to even out his skin color as reported, or as the conspiracy theorists claim, to further change his appearance to more of a Caucasian look, though one would think the latter would be an odd move for the co-author of the line (with Bill Bottrell), “It don’t matter if you’re black or white.”
If you liked this article, you might also enjoy our new popular podcast, The BrainFood Show (iTunes, Spotify, Google Play Music, Feed), as well as:
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Bonus Facts:
- Thanks to his vitiligo and needing frequent care from a dermatologist, Jackson met Debbie Rowe, a nurse of his dermatologist. The two became fast friends and over a decade after they first met, they married in 1996. They divorced three years later, but reportedly remained friends for the rest of his life.
- The autopsy also found that Jackson’s lips were tattooed pink, while his eyebrows were tattooed a dark hue. The front of his scalp was also tattooed black, apparently to blend his hairline in with the wigs he wore (he was balding). Also according to the autopsy, Michael Jackson was 5´9˝ and 136 lbs at the time of his death.
- Vitiligo
- Michael Jackson’s Biography
- Michael Jackson’s health and appearance
- The History Of Michael Jackson’s Face
- Autopsy Shows Micheal Jackson Had Vitiligo
- What Vitiligo Is?
- Chemical leukoderma (Occupational Vitiligo)
- Best-Selling Albums Of All Time
- Doctor Says Michael Jackson Has a Skin Disease
- Best-Selling Music Artists Ever
- Michael Jackson’s Skin
- Non-Segmental Vitiligo of the Hand
- Vitiligo-Picture 2
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TNX FOR SETTLING THIS DEBATE. TILL DATE, I WAS NOT CLEAR ON THIS, HAVING READ NUMEROUS CONFLICTING ACCNTS. U AV NAILED IT FINALLY.
Why is your post in all caps?
It’s amazing how rumors can take the place of truth. People need to stop assuming and consider that some things happen – and people do the best they can with the situation .
i agree michael jackson was such a good peson and effected many peoples life deeply he was a beloved man and a friend to all
He obviously was trying to turn into a white person and tried to change is skin color. He just said that he was in a skin condition
Eh?
And you obviously haven’t read the article.
As I posted on Facebook, his condition was already shockingly clear in 1987 when Bad debuted. I don’t think it helped when he started straightening his hair. I don’t think it ever bothered me one way or another, though the excessive plastic surgery was difficult to witness (and also contributed to the rumors), but this was probably a result of the self-consciousness incurred by all the pressure about the vitiligo. He had a rough life, every way he turned. 🙁 The escapism he engaged in, the spending sprees, Neverland, etc. Totally understandable. Oh yeah, when Bad came out, I think I was more focussed on that awesome outfit! lol
very true why do people judge people with disorders? it just isn’t fair.
And he never had plastic surgery. He wanted to look white just like his sister has tried. PERIOD
Having plastic surgery doesn’t mean you want to look white otherwise why do white people do it? Also, there are pictures of MJ with the skin condition as well as performance videos where you can the disorder when his make up sweated off. On trial his dermatologist, under oath, talked about and provided medical records that revealed not only the disorder but the painful treatments he under went to even his skin tone.
If it was me I would rather apply brown foundation products. Not bleach. I would not go further and change my African appearance and make it look more European. Straightening of the hair, surgery to reduce nostril and bridge of the nose. Thin the lips and other stuff. Michael like anyone when you go under the knife for cosmetic surgery do it because they believe it will improve their looks. Obviously in Mike’s mind it was better in my opinion to appear as a zombie than to make any effort to hold on to his African appearance. I’m sure if a white person skin was turning too black, they would not go under the knife to enlarge their nostril and find chemical treatments to make their hair thick like wool. At the end of the day I will have to except that there will be people who wants to change their appearance.
Well we all have our own ways of dealing with our issues and Mike’s way of dealing with his own doesn’t make him less of a man. And he is the world’s greatest entertainer. Period.
It’s mighty funny that everybody on this blog don’t know Michael Jackson personally. In saying that, how do you really know what happened to him or what he was going through. Media is equivalent to hearsay, especially mags and newspapers. You make your assumptions on what you think is going on because of what you hear and see. It may seem obvious to you, but you really don’t know. Let this magnificent human being rest in peace.
1.you are normal human while he is incredible
2.his scheduele was very strict like how many foundation would he used in just a day? the white patches are not just like dots you know? i have some friend which have vitiligo and the white patches are almost 80% of their skin. like of course its make more sense just to bleach all of it since mj is a performers it would seem bit weird he have half black and half white even he’s not like that he already received so much hates what would happened more if he didn bleached it?
You can hate all you want. Mike was a wonderful human being.
If he never had plastic surgery, how exactly did his nose change shape like that?
I’m white – very fair skinned, actually – and I have vitiligo, mostly on my hands, tops of my feet, knees and thighs. If I get just a little bit of sun, I end up looking as spotted as a giraffe. Fortunately I’m in my 50s and honestly don’t care what people think. But if this had hit me earlier in my life, and if my skin were darker – yeah, it would have been *very* hard.
Yes Vitiligo runs in the family i have it all over ,Now my Son has it and get Sun Burnt in 5 Minutes
“It don’t matter if you’re black or white”, but it sure sucks to be both black AND white. Especially in patches.
I wonder if he was thinking of this when that line was written.
That’s a good one Dainel(If your name is not a typo lol), pretty sure it was inspired.
Jackson may have had a skin condition, I don’t know. I do know he dangled a baby out of a hotel window and got pre-teens drunk on wine before doing, shall we say, inappropriate things. He had a great voice but I don’t think he was a “wonderful human being”. It’s possible to make great records and still be not such a nice guy.
He was not proven guilty for any rape or pedophile related things. Those were allegations and when he died the boy from the first allegation came out and said that is was all a plan divised by his father and that Michael was one of the nicest men he ever met.
A) Maybe you don’t know if Jackson had a skin condition, but I think the fact that it was in his autopsy report and that it was what he’d been saying all along is pretty convincing.
B) How do you know these things? Tthe footage I saw was not “dangling” a baby out of a window by a finger or a toe or somesuch. Yes, he held his baby out for his fans to see and it so happened that this was in front of a window. Was it the best judgment call? Clearly not. Does a bad judgment call make someone a bad human or parent? Everyone makes mistakes, including, and perhaps especially parents – and I’ve seen a lot of other parents do far worse. Further, after doing a considerable amount of research, reading trial transcripts, etc. I haven’t come across any reliable evidence that he got any pre-teens drunk or did any other inappropriate things to them. Perhaps you would care to share the evidence you seem to have.
C) Is there anyone who, if we knew all the intimate details of their lives, if we knew the “real” them and not just the public persona, would still hold up as a “wonderful human being”? Everyone’s flawed. If being a “wonderful human being” is a prerequisite for appreciating those with great talent I’m not sure there’d be anyone left to appreciate.
D) Even if Michael Jackson, the individual was not a “wonderful human being,” Michael Jackson the entertainer and icon very much was. Very few people knew Michael Jackson the individual so I don’t understand how and why people can make such assumptions about his personal character – or any famous person, for that matter. The values of the public persona he presented were, for me at least, incredibly inspiring, uplifting, and motivating and made a positive impact on the lives of millions of fans across the globe. Even if we were to discover that he wasn’t a good individual, he still did a lot of good in the world. Plus he was among the most talented people to ever walk the earth (possibly THE most). Doesn’t that count for something? Or, at least, isn’t that enough to not automatically discount him as so many people seem to like to do?
Elvis Presley’s daughter married Michael Lockwood, not Michael Jackson. wtf? lol
@hailee: She married Michael Jackson in 1994 and they got divorced in 1996. A decade later is when she married Michael Lockwood.
do you realize how hard it is to prove a rape or molestation? especially when the accused rapist is famous and filthy rich?
jordan was 13 and michael and him were having sleepovers and half-week long visits.
I cannot believe how ignorant people are about Michael Jackson. Michael had three nose jobs and a cleft put in his chin. That is it for plastic surgery. He hated his nose and had nose jobs like everybody else who hates their nose. He did not want to be “white”. He was proud of his race.
He did not dangle his baby out of a hotel window. He was waving to fans from the hotel balcony and they wanted to see the baby. He showed the baby for ONE SECOND not ONE HOUR like the media made it seem.
Don’t comment on Michael if you know nothing. He was a great talent with a heart full of love.
Also Michael was NOT a child molester. All you have to do is research the two families who accused them. Both families had a mentally ill parent and both families needed and wanted MONEY. After you research these two families you will understand why Michael was always innocent.
Truth of the matter is we don’t know if Jackson was a child molester or not. He was a fabulously talented man with a horribly screwed up life. I’d say he found art in tragedy and leave the rest to God.
I believed him when he said he didnt, I love him with all my heart and I will defend him with all my life. He had a skin condition and its very disturbing to have an uneven skin especially if you are a cery popular person and your face is all over the media. He just decided to bleach because makup takes too much time and he is a very busy person. He also had his nose done because he was very insecure about it. Who woudnt be when his very own father told him he’s ugly. That is the most hurtful thing, being discriminated by your very own father. For me, his tranformations made him even more unique than any other artists and made him more exiting. I love U Mj
No skin condition. He was mentally instable (as evident when he hung his child from balcony). He had problems. The man sang well but had serious problems.
A very special and unique legend!Michael Jackson still lives and that’s why we all still talk about him.Loved him to bits,still do and don’t care what negative people think of him,can’t take the fact that it takes a blessed talent like him to keep tongues wagging!He fought his personal problems(which we all do)but had to do his in the eyes of the public!
We can never fully explain what he thought when MJ had all the surgery done (YES he did) to his face but it’s quite sad to think that he felt a need to look “white”..we can be sure that he wouldn’t have done it thou had he not seen it necessary to do #NoToHate
i never cared if he bleached his skin or he had vitiligo but the only thing is that if u have a brain u can see he had vitiligo obviously.he was and will be the most adorable entertainer.
He did have too much public pressure in his life, yet maybe, if he had not concealed his condition from the beginning, he would have avoided many rumors… Pitifully he was not so stable person, he had great songs and was a great dancer.
You people need to stop with the bashing, due to MJ’s changes in he’s appearance. You see many white people , tan their skin in the Sun or tanning salons but no one says that’s wired. Are they shamed of their whitness? I don’t think so. Many use botox or fillers to make their lips bigger. Are whites note satisfied with the lips they born with? Doing these are a personal choice, and between them and their God , if they believe in such . Why is it always blacks must hate themsleves by making changes to their appearance, can’t the same be said for whites , who also make these changes?
Michael didn’t hate himself it’s just there was no other way to deal with it so he bleached what was left of his dark skin. And yeah people didn’t like it but they didn’t know what he was going through so it made the problem so much harder for him to deal with and people started questioning wether he hated his dark skin or if something was really up.
Michael did what was necessary for his career and to deal with the condition he had.
He was always in the public eye,makeup was not going to cut it.
Michael Jackson did not bleach his body to become white he had a skin infection that went all over his body
Why do people chose to ignore the most important issues to be discussed about Michael Jackson and engage in the trivia issues?
1. MJ was the greatest entertainer that ever lived and remains the greatest entertainer in death.
2. MJ was humanitarian with a guiness record of over 8 charities set up for different causes.
3. MJ preached Love
4. MJ broke racial barriers with his works and not by crying victim
5. MJ was human
I absolutely agree!
The man wanted to be white. No one says anything about famous folks that want to be black–can you say m&m?!?!?!
I don’t think you can say what he wanted to be when you don’t know him personally and he never documented anything that said “I want to be white” or anything along those lines. It’s pretty ignorant to just say what you think this man wanted rather than actually hearing him tell you what he wanted. He isn’t hear to tell us exactly why he did everything he did. You can’t just say he didn’t have problems like vitiligo to cope with.
Why would he want to white?
You’re a fucking idiot… It’s Eminem and he’s a rapper… You don’t see him actually going far enough to change his entire face or skin to look black. He just grew up with ghetto black kids and that’s what happens. You adopt their way of being. Also, MJ didn’t want to be white, he suffered from a disease JUST LIKE THE ARTICLE SAID! The autopsy proved he had this disease…
I doesn’t matter either way because he’s gone and dead. He wasn’t anything more than a normal guy that loved music and his family. People made so many retarded claims about MJ that it drove him deep into depression and it’s really sad that he died the way he did. I’m not a fan of MJ and I thought he was a pedo like everyone else did because that’s all that was in the news back in the 90’s. It’s sad to find out he was just a normal dude that whacked it to normal hetero porn like the majority of guys…
The skin condition became clear around 1987 (When Bad Dropped) but he was able to maintain his brown skin until early 1991, then after that he couldn’t mask it anymore so he turned fully white.
I felt bad for him. He really went through a lot. He seemed a lot different than any other celebrity. He truly loved his fans and he was thankful for them. Many celebrities seem to forget that if it weren’t for fans, the normal person, that they’d never have the millions of dollars they have & celebrity status (they can be snobs & snub fans, but not Michael). He never forgot that. He knew! He cared! I wish he were still around. Of all the celebrities that have passed away, he is the only one that really gets to me. I liked him & his music, but to be honest, he wasn’t my absolute favorite. I didn’t go crazy over him. I did really enjoy his music & videos. He seemed very genuine. And after all I just said, I’m about in tears thinking of him being gone. It’s so very sad. I hope to meet him in heaven one day! I really do. His kids & family will forever be in my prayers. I am sure he is looking down at them and he is very proud of them. He was probably the most genuine & caring celebrity when it came to his fans!! There will never be another like him.
He very well could have had vitiligo. And he very well could have bleached his skin to cover it up. But what you failed to point out is that in that same interview with Oprah, Michael stated that he didn’t know that skin bleaching/whitening was a thing and that he had been using make up to cover the splotches. However, after Jackson’s death, police investigators reported that they had found tubes of skin whitening creams in the pop star’s home: 19 tubes of hydroquinone, 18 tubes of Benoquin.
True, true
People! Leave the King of Pop to Rest In Peace! He was a fabulous man and people need to stop hating! Ok sure, we may not know the truth but why would he (and his dermatologist and his family) lie about his condition? As for everything else, why don’t you go research it? (Ps Go listen to his songs because they are amazing!)
All these hater’s remind me of his songs..earth song.. they DNT really care about us ..he always knew how rotten this some people are..n I love children I can’t resist thier smiles that doesn’t mean I want to hurt them..MJ was a sweet boy whom only knew stage life of course he wanted to be a kid.. he never got that chance wit grumpy Joe.
i guess once you go black, sometimes you come back…
He very well could have had vitiligo. And he very well could have bleached his skin to cover it up. But what you failed to point out is that in that same interview with Oprah, Michael stated that he didn’t know that skin bleaching/whitening was a thing and that he had been using make up to cover the splotches. However, after Jackson’s death, police investigators reported that they had found tubes of skin whitening creams in the pop star’s home: 19 tubes of hydroquinone, 18 tubes of Benoquin.