Unfortunately, Michael Jackson’s plastic surgery is widely viewed as an example of plastic surgery gone badly. The Daily Mirror newspaper ran a large picture of his face, calling it ‘hideously disfigured’ due to the surgery he had.
As an example of celebrity plastic surgery gone wrong, the alterations to Jackson’s face received a lot of media attention, with thousands of column inches and articles written to speculate on a possible addiction to plastic surgery.
Michael Jackson Talks To Oprah: Denied Surgery
There were also rumors that he had taken to wearing a false nose tip, as the tissue of his nose degraded through multiple surgeries. By the time of his death, the appearance of his face was highly unnatural.
Michael Jackson: Most Famous Plastic Surgery Celebrity?
It is not uncommon for mega-stars to be followed by rumors of cosmetic surgery.
For Madonna’s cosmetic surgery rumors followed her throughout the 1990s; for Joan Rivers cosmetic surgery rumors have been persistent throughout her career.
Michael Jackson is perhaps the most famous case of celebrity plastic surgery in modern pop culture. According to Jackson’s biographer, J. Randy Taraborrelli, Jackson underwent his first corrective surgery, rhinoplasty, in 1979 after breaking his nose while dancing.
The surgery was only partly successful and subsequently caused breathing problems, so he underwent a second rhinoplasty during 1980.
Jackson reported in his autobiography that he had a dimple inserted into his chin, and he regularly underwent dermal filler injections.
However, he denied that he had alterations to his eyes. Dr Arnold Klein reported that Jackson had relied on him to treat his vitiligo, which produces uneven patches of skin in varying tones.
Michael Jackson was addicted to plastic surgery, his mother says
Michael Jackson's mother has admitted he was addicted to plastic surgery.
Katherine Jackson spoke frankly about her late son's obsession with changing his looks, saying he first turned to plastic surgery because he didn't want skin condition Vitiligo to leave him "like a spotted cow" in a frank interview on US TV show Oprah.
Katherine told host Oprah Winfrey: "He didn't want to start 'looking like a spotted cow', he said. I don't know what in the world he did to change that, but he did.”
Michael is reputed to have undergone a range of surgical procedures, including repeated Rhinoplasty, and, after being diagnosed with Lupus and Vitiligo, a number of treatments for his sensitive skin, which led to it lightening in colour.
In 1993 Michael claimed to have only undergone two cosmetic procedures in his life, something Katherine denied.
She continued: "He had more than two, he was just embarrassed. I hear that people get addicted to plastic surgery, and I think that's what happened to him. I said, that's enough."
Later Katherine was joined in interview by Michael's father, Joe, whom she pushed to admit that he had beat Michael and their other nine children as they grew up.
When Oprah asked Joe about how he punished his children, he started to deny it, before Katherine interjected, saying: “You might as well admit it, that's the way black people raised their children. He used a strap."
Joe defended himself, however, adding: “I don't regret the beatings. It kept them out of jail and kept them right."
Katherine also talked about Michael's struggle with prescription drugs, and how she felt when she heard the news of his death on June 25 last year, from acute Propofol intoxication, for which his person physician Dr Conrad Murray faces charges of involuntary manslaughter.
She said: "I spoke to Michael about drugs once, when I had heard it and he denied it. I was telling him I didn't want to one day hear that he had overdosed because it would break my heart."
“He kept saying, 'My own mother don't believe me. Part of me wanted to believe him, but I didn't believe him."
Of Michael's passing she said: "It was the worst day of my life. My heart dropped. I kind of felt it, but I was wishing that it wouldn't be.
“I can't accuse Dr Murray of murder, I don't know if it was accidentally done or it was intentionally done. I don't want to get into that, but I have my thoughts. I don't think I'll ever, ever be healed. It hurts.”
