The ‘King of Pop’ has finally succumbed to the ‘King of Kings’; and ever since, newspapers, tabloids and magazines have rolled out pages of news proclaiming that Michael Jackson suffered from skin cancer which could have been the cause of his death.

There are plenty of rumors circulating that he had cancerous spots and pre-cancerous lesions on his face. He could or could not have but none of us will probably ever know the truth of this statement as he always led a highly secretive and well-guarded personal life.

But we do know one thing for sure; Michael did suffer from Vitiligo and Systemic Lupus Erythematosus. In a rare interview with Oprah Winfrey, he disclosed this information as the real reason for his skin color unlike popular belief that he had gone in for skin bleaching procedures to lighten his skin tone. There are many health experts who believe that Michael Jackson could have suffered from skin cancer since he had these skin problems.

Vitiligo is quite a common skin disorder in which one can notice white spots or patches on the skin surface. Human skin produces a pigment called melanin which is responsible for our skin color. People with a darker skin tone have more melanocytes than people with a lighter skin tone. In people with Vitiligo, the melanocytes which are the melanin producing cells, get weakened or destroyed causing less or no production of this pigment which leads to the formation of these white spots or patches. Michael Jackson also suffered from discoid lupus, a form of Systemic Lupus Erythematosus, in which red and scaly patches appear on the skin.

Michael mentioned in his interview that in the initial stages of the disease, when he only had a few white patches, he used to cover it up with heavy makeup to match his dark skin tone. But as time went and he developed the patches all over the body, it was easy to apply makeup to lighten his skin tone than to darken it. He always appeared covered from head to toe and hardly revealed his skin in any of his music videos. He finally went in for depigmentation therapy to even out his skin tone when full-bodied makeup became too hard to handle on a daily basis.

Because of the presence of these two diseases, there is a very strong possibility that Michael Jackson could have suffered from skin cancer in his last days. He had been suffering from Vitiligo for the past twenty years; this combined with the heavy use of cosmetics and treatments could have finally taken a toll on his health. It was reported by a leading newspaper that Michael had a surgery to remove a cancerous lesion from his nose and was under therapy to cure his cancer. Apparently, he had a form of skin cancer which was treatable and not dangerous.

Like his entire life, the stories of his skin cancer remain highly speculative. All his fans can hope for is that the autopsy report will finally reveal how ‘Michael Jackson – The Biggest Entertainer of the World’ actually died.