A very good friend of the late Michael Jackson, Dr Arnold Klein, passed away in Palm Springs, California, on Thursday (October 22)

The late doctor was a long time friend and physician of Jackson, the plagued but brilliant King of Pop.

“Dr. Klein was admitted to a hospital in Palm Springs 4 days ago” TMZ reports.

“He was suffering severe abdominal pains, and remained in the hospital until he died Thursday evening. He was pronounced dead, of natural causes, at 7:50 PM.”

He was a dermatologist who was heavily involved in the substance abuse problems leading up to Michaels’ death, with their friendship leading to him prescribing drugs to the singer he could not get anywhere else.

“MJ and Klein were the best of friends, often vacationing and spending holidays together. But MJ used their friendship to help fuel his drug addiction.” The site further reports.

“Klein had injected Jackson with Demerol 51 times in the 3 months prior to his death; [and had also] given the singer prescriptions for various narcotic drugs including Demerol under a variety of aliases.”

He suffered a huge fall from grace after Jackson’s death, culminating in his declaring bankruptcy two years ago. In the past, there has been rumours of him being the biological father of Prince Michael Jackson.