Michael Jackson's cosmetic surgeon pens book on the King of Pop

Patrick Treacy has had an interesting life So interesting that it almost sounds like the plot of a thriller Treacy 56 who hails from Garrison in County Fermanagh Ireland has worked with the poor in Africa fought off Saddam Husseinrsquos goons in Baghdad as a humanitarian worker and worked on the faces of Madonna JayZ and Bono But six years after Michael Jacksonrsquos death the pop icon remains Treacyrsquos most famous client and closest friend Excerpts from an interview with the doctor who is in India to promote his latest book Behind The Mask The extraordinary story of the Irishman who became Michael Jacksonrsquos doctorQ How important a role does MJ play in the memoirA Everybody thinks the book is about him but I didnrsquot set out to write about Michael Most authors know they are going to write a memoir years before they actually do The subject matter to be included becomes evident later on The core of my book is about the time recession hit Ireland the loss of love breakup with girlfriend Trish and surviving an HIV needle stick injury from a heroin addict in Dublin There is also stuff about my childhood Michael Jackson was the tail I put to the book Then the tail started waggingPicPradeep DhivarQ When did you start working on celebrity clienteleA When I started off in aesthetic medicine the field was nascent I was lucky that at the turn of the last century three things happened First Botox became popular Then Hyaluronic Acid wrinkle fillers came into being and finally Intense Pulsed Light IPL Photorejuvenation a treatment for brown spots redness age spots broken blood vessels and rosacea was invented I was one of the first to offer them all together And because I was a sort of a pioneer I received a flood of clients including celebrity Indians who I cannot name I remember coming here to see an Indian actor many many years ago I had to take off to Dubai because one of the papers got a picture of the two of us He had a hair transplant and he didnrsquot want anybody to know Hersquos probably one of Indiarsquos most famous actorsQ You mention your confrontation with Saddam Husseinrsquos son Uday Tell us moreA Uday had been shipped off to Switzerland because he had killed someone Then he was brought back into Baghdad just before the Gulf War One night at the Palestine Hotel I noticed him harassing one of the blonde nurses He was inebriated and being aggressive I went over to him and asked him to leave the lady alone and walked him over to his table When I sat down his security guards flashed their guns at me and Uday started picking a fight But then other men intervened and stopped it from snowballing into an ugly brawl We did not know who he was After the six of them left somebody said lsquoOh my god Do you know he is Uday Saddam Husseinrsquos son You were about to be killedrsquo It was a close shaveQ How did you meet Michael JacksonA In 2006 a young AfricanAmerican woman who I think was his Nani or the mother of his children was waiting in the green room of my clinic and told me she represented a celebrity After her Michael entered He wore a black fedora his curly hair was tied at the back and he flashed his infectious smile He came up to me and said ldquoHi Doctor Treacy Irsquom Michael Jackson Ive heard much about you Thank you for helping the people of Africardquo He was carrying with him an article I had written which I had received an award for He read it out to me ldquoIrsquod like you to be my doctorrdquo he said I remember during one of his visits to my clinic he picked up a medical book from my office and opened it to a picture of a black child with black and white skin He told me ldquoI know the pain that child feelsrdquo and then he pulled up his trouser leg and I saw his skin was black and white His whole body was like that He was suffering from vitiligoQ How did you bond over AfricaA I was jabbed by an HIV needle while drawing blood from a heroinaddict in a hospital in Dublin Luckily it didnrsquot connect but the incident inspired me to work with HIV patients in Africa At that time it was seen as a black personrsquos disease While I was working there in the 1990s MJ was working towards the same in America He went down to Africa to offer humanitarian assistance by scheduling a concert with Lionel Ritchie donated 24 million and was working with Nelson Mandela So it was almost like we both went and fought on the wrong side of the war but won the battleQ And then you became friendsA I think it was because he started trusting me over a period of time I wasnrsquot particularly star struck In fact I hadnrsquot even heard much of his music So when he realised that I wasnrsquot trying to get anything off him he opened up Michael I felt was a broken man He was let down by what America had done to him When Irsquod seen him with his kids I realised that the world had got him totally wrong He was a really a nice guy and he wouldnrsquot harm children in any way I felt he was in danger of being killed He mentioned to me on a couple of occasions that he was scared for his life Another side to him that people donrsquot know of is that he was a prankster He was joking and playing games all the timeQ Then what led to the implication of child abuseAWhen people said there was a childish element to Michael there was He seemed to like hanging around with children and play with them I think thatrsquos different from being sexually involved with childrenQ You say he was not a drug addict What do you think led to his deathA His death came as a shock because I remember him telling me that he wouldnrsquot be sedated without an anesthetist present In all the time I knew him he had not used any drugs If the defence lawyers are trying to say that Michael killed himself with an overdose of propofol it couldnrsquot work like that Itrsquos a drug that needs to be administered you canrsquot put a drip into yourself That was the line of defense which they quickly dropped because a lot of people like me with a knowledge of science and a bit of common sense began questioning the authenticity of that statement A part of me says it was either an accident by a bad doctor or was planned because he had often told me he was going to be killed Nobody investigated this angle Those questions were never askedQ You end the book with a chapter on himA If I had to write it again I would end the book differently with the bit about winning five awards for my work But the publishers almost didnrsquot let me finish it They almost took it away from me laughs