Michael Jackson arrives at the Pasadena Civic Auditorium in Pasadena, Ca. to tape his performance for Dick Clark’s “American Bandstand’s 50th…A Celebration”, Saturday, April 20, 2002. (Cover image source: Photo by Kevin Winter/ImageDirect | Getty Images

Throughout his life, Michael Jackson, well-known by fans as the ‘King of Pop’ underwent the knife several times. Over the years, Jackson’s physical appearance changed drastically as he had numerous plastic surgeries. For decades, Jackson’s ever-changing appearance was a hotly-debated topic among fans. While appearing on a February 2024 episode of ‘The Steven Sulley Study’ podcast, Jackson’s former bodyguard Matt Fiddes revealed the real reason behind Jackson’s cosmetic surgeries. At one point during the interview, Steven Sulley asked Fiddes about the changes Jackson made to his nose.

Speaking of the late pop star’s nose, Fiddes quipped, “He used to get teased by his family a lot over the size of his nose – being called big nose and all of this stuff. He used to say his dad used to be the main one – ‘you didn’t get that from me, you got that from your mom, you didn’t get that from my side of the family’ – it hurt him a lot.” However, Fiddes stated that the bullying from Jackson’s family wasn’t the reason why the iconic singer underwent nose surgery. In the episode, Fiddes disclosed that Jackson underwent his first rhinoplasty in 1979 after an injury he suffered during dance rehearsals. “He used to dance about three hours a day on average. At one stage, he was doing 50 spins in a row – it was unbelievable. He fell over and broke his nose, and he saw it as the perfect opportunity while he was under anaesthetic to just get a smaller nose,” Fiddes explained, as per LadBible.

While addressing the rumors suggesting that Jackson underwent multiple cosmetic surgeries throughout his life, Fiddes also mentioned that he never had an in-depth discussion with his former employer about the details of his surgery but specified that everyone knew about it. “I don’t know how many operations he had. It’s not a discussion I went into detail with him on, but clearly, he’s had operations on his nose. Back then, plastic surgery or Botox, we couldn’t talk about it. It just wasn’t a thing, so he had to maintain this image because he had record companies behind him who paid his billions,” Fiddes shared.

For those living under a rock, Jackson passed away at the age of 50 on June 25, 2009, at his Los Angeles home after an overdose of the anaesthetic propofol. After his autopsy report was published, it was found that Jackson’s body was covered in scars. Along with this, Jackson also had many puncture wounds all over his arms, which were believed to be the outcome of painkiller injections he took to cure his chronic insomnia. Jackson had two surgical scars behind his ears and two on the nostrils. In addition to this, the base of his neck, arms, and wrists were also covered in scars. Later on, doctors figured out that many of these scars were believed to be from various operations.

According to a report by The Mirror, Dr Christopher Rogers, the medical professional who supervised the post-mortem examination, also noted that Jackson suffered from vitiligo and quipped, “So, some areas of the skin appear light and others appear dark.” The autopsy also reflected that there was a desperate struggle to save Jackson after he was found unconscious at his home. The paramedics pulled all the stops to save Jackson, but unfortunately, all their efforts went in vain, as Jackson was later pronounced dead.