Spiritual teacher and medical doctor Deepak Chopra tells PEOPLE Magazine that his longtime friend Michael Jackson suffered from lupus, an autoimmune disease, and a skin disorder for many years.

"He had been diagnosed with lupus and he had vitiligo," Chopra says. "There’s some recent research that suggests that if children have experienced either physical or verbal, mental, emotional or sexual abuse, then 20, 30 years later they can develop these autoimmune diseases including lupus."

He adds, "Michael, he was never sexually abused but according to him, he was traumatized verbally and physically in his childhood, and it was a big issue with him."

There is also a rumor that Michael Jackson was secretly suffering form skin cancer.