Fixed this setting a unique StatusBar colour for the whole app instead of doing it for each ViewController. It took only 2 steps:
Defined “View controller-based status bar appearance” = NO on MyAppName-Info.plist
Added the following line to my - (BOOL)application:(UIApplication *)application didFinishLaunchingWithOptions:(NSDictionary *)launchOptions AppDelegate function
[[UIApplication sharedApplication] setStatusBarStyle:UIStatusBarStyleLightContent];
It worked for me =)