In an interview with Mike Tyson, Prince Jackson speaks for the first time about his father’s external changes.
Fourteen years after Michael Jackson’s death, his son Prince is on Mike Tyson’s podcast “Hotboxin with Mike” to guest. Ex-boxer Tyson recalls the physical changes of the “King of Pop”: “He changed his skin because he wanted to be white, he changed it because he wanted to shine. He wanted to be a light.”
However, Prince Jackson doubts this and says that the changes in his father’s skin color were due to the skin disease vitiligo, which his father suffered from – thereby confirming the official version. Vitiligo manifests itself as irregular white spots on the skin.
However, son Prince does not rule out that the need to “shine” may also have supported the decision, due to his father’s “visionary nature”.
The Mike Tyson and Prince Jackson video podcast:
Michael Jackson, who died in 2009, had already commented on his vitiligo disease in a talk show with Oprah Winfrey in 1993, in which he made it clear despite his changes: “I am proud to be a black American. I am proud of my origins. I’m proud of who I am.”
However, lightening his skin color wasn’t everything; Jackson reportedly underwent around 100 procedures that, among other things, significantly changed his lips, nose and jaw. The trigger for this was the bad relationship with father Joseph Jackson. Looking in the mirror always reminded him of his father, which he couldn’t bear. This emerged from notes by Michael Jackson’s long-time friend and manager Frank DiLeo, which were compiled into a biography.