"I haven't seen him as a patient so I don't know what it is," said [Neil Shear], head of Sunnybrook Health Science Centre's CosMedic Clinic, which annually treats hundreds for vitiligo, "but I don't believe it's a skin disease."

"If that's his true skin color, it's unlikely that it could have been achieved by any technique other than chemical," said [Daniel Sauder], who watched the live TV interview.

The condition is most often "seen on the skin as patchy lightening around the mouth, the eyes, or the body folds, such as the underarm areas," said Sauder. "But what we do not see is a uniform lighter shade gradually taking over."