Did Michael Jackson want to be white?

By Natalie ClarkeLast updated at 11:23 PM on 26th June 3009

Photographs of the cute, fresh-faced child with the big Afro hairstyle bear little resemblance to the man Michael Jackson became in later life.

Was he trying to turn himself into a white man? It certainly seemed so.
His paranoia about his appearance stemmed from childhood. Apparently, one of his father's insults was to call him Big Nose.

Changing face of the King of Pop: Michael Jackson's Afro-American features receded further with every plastic surgery operation

The taunt stayed with him into adulthood and as soon as he could, he had his nose reshaped.
The cover of Thriller, the album that marked his ascension to global superstardom in 1982, was a turning point.

It shows Michael as a sweet-faced young black man with naturally curly hair and a full nose.
Five years later, his Diana Ross lookalike cover photo on the Bad album revealed a face that bore little resemblance to the Jackson everyone had known.

Five years after that, in 1992, even he had to acknowledge what everyone else had been saying and admitted his skin was becoming whiter.

There are two versions of what happened. According to Jackson, he had developed a rare skin-lightening condition called vitiligo.

1971: Teenage heart-throb

1986: At the peak of his fame

1992: The surgery starts to show

2002: Shocking signs of damage

2003: Pale shadow of himself

It is not entirely clear what causes vitiligo, but it is believed to be an auto-immune disorder where the body attacks the melanocytes, the specialised skin cells that manufacture the skin pigment melanin.

And in keeping with this diagnosis, Jackson's complexion did become steadily paler. But some critics have never believed the explanation that he was suffering vitiligo, preferring instead to believe that he was trying to turn himself into a white man.

Dr Pamela Lipkin, a New York surgeon, says Michael had been having plastic surgery since his teens, including alterations to his brow, chin and cheeks, as well as skin bleaching.

As a child, he had a classic shaped African-American nose, full and broad. In later years, no one can argue that at the time of his death the nose was thinner, daintier and rather feminine.