Washington, July 15 (ANI): Late King of Pop Michael Jackson had reportedly become addicted to painkillers after his doctors used acid treatments to burn and whiten his skin, leaving him in a lot of pain.

According to a former nurse, Jackson underwent countless laser facial peels and bleaching treatments, as he was obsessed with peeling back layers of skin.

But the processes were so painful he took a cocktail of drugs, including tranquilliser Diprivan to numb his senses, and allegedly begged doctors to sedate him for three days at a time.

Kathryn Buschelle, the long-term partner of one of Jackson’s plastic surgeons, even claims that the star once cheated death when he struggled to come round from a drug-induced sleep.

“Michael’s obsession with his appearance led to more and more skin treatments, and his subsequent addiction to Diprivan led to even more. It was an insane cycle,” Contactmusic quoted her as having told the Sun.

“He was literally burning his skin off and then being knocked out like a zombie. It reads like a horror movie script. Towards the end of the 90s he was a dead man walking, that’s how zoned out he was,” she added.

Buschelle revealed that Jackson’s fixation with surgery grew after he received a skin graft following damage to his nose.

“There were many more grafts, during which Michael could see that he could achieve a lighter skin tone through peeling layers and layers of skin along with lightening agents,” she said.

“Michael, I was told, spotted the white skin beneath, which excited him. It prompted him to progress on to bleaching, acid facial peeling, and then on to laser treatments,” she added. (ANI)