When Michael Jackson died from a painkiller-induced cardiac arrest in 2009, the internet was flooded with pictures of the emaciated star lying dead in the mortuary.

Covered in marks and puncture wounds, paramedics reportedly mistook the fifty twelvemonth old for a hospice patient because he weighed so little.

And witnesses claimed that Jackson'southward 'prosthetic nose' was absent, exposing the true country of his nasal crenel later on decades of surgery.

"The prosthesis he ordinarily fastened to his damaged olfactory organ was missing, revealing $.25 of cartilage surrounding a minor nighttime hole," the onlooker told Rolling Rock magazine of the horrifying scene.

Michael Jackson is said to accept worn a faux nose later his own collapsed (

Prototype:

AFP/Getty Images)

The source added: "Jackson's face which he had and so painfully reworked and concealed from the public for decades now lay out in the open undisguised under the harsh lights."

For years Jackson denied having anything other than two rhinoplasty procedures - the first being in 1979 when he cruel while dancing and broke his nose.

Delighted with the results, the star debuted his slimmed-downward nose on the cover for his Off The Wall anthology, and in 1981 he underwent a second surgery.

Michael poses for the Off the Wall cover shoot afterwards his beginning surgery (

Prototype:

Michael Salisbury)
A young Michael, bottom left, with his brothers in the Jackson five (

Epitome:

Getty)

But despite his denials, by the early nineties his nose had changed considerably, becoming increasingly thin and with a forever-narrowing tip that turned upwards at the end.

Those close to the star claimed that he'd turned to steroids instead of surgery, with the drugs causing skin thinning. Delievered by painful injections, patients are oftentimes anesthetized first with propofol - the drug he would after rely on equally a sleep help before it killed him.

By 2002, rumours were rife that Jackson's real nose had completely collapsed, forcing him to wear a prosthetic.

Jackson's nose was thinner still by his Bad era (

Epitome:

The LIFE Motion picture Drove via Getty Images)

Music video managing director Rudi Dolezal alleged that when he was filming the Unsafe tour in Munich in 1992, he was told Jackson refused to announced on camera if he wasn't performing because, "on those days, he doesn't accept a nose."

"He needed a plastic nose that took hours to put on with putty and makeup," he told the New York Post's Page Six, challenge Jackson'due south entire transformation was sparked by not wanting to look similar his begetter Joe who he 'hated'.

All the same Jackson connected his denials, telling Martin Bashir he'd merely had two nose jobs - as he can remember'.

Pictured in the video for Smooth Criminal, the singer insisted he'd only always had two operations

"I've had no plastic surgery on my face. Just my olfactory organ. It helped me exhale better then I can hit higher notes," he insisted.

But Dr Pamela Lipkin, a surgeon specialising in rhinoplasty, said Jackson was likely suffering from a 'nasal cripple' and that what remained of the characteristic was beyond repair.

"What I think has happened is that something in his nose, a graft, an implant, something has now come out through the pare," Lipkin told Allure.

"And that'due south why he'southward probably got a hole in his skin.... They're called nasal cripples. People whose nose has been done so many times that at that place is no olfactory organ really to breathe through.

"Michael Jackson has what we call an end-stage nose, a crucified nose, i that'south beyond the betoken of no render."

Pictured in 2005, his olfactory organ is said to accept 'collapsed' 3 years before (

Image:

Getty Images)

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The most damning account came from Jackson'southward former housekeeper Adrian McManus, who claimed that star had an entire jar of imitation noses he would chose from.

"In his cupboard he had a jar of false noses and stage glue, which he told me he used for disguises," he told Rolling Stone.

"But some were similar to his real nose, but without the hole."