In December 2010, Oprah Winfrey invited Dominic and Connie Cascio and three of their five children onto her talk show to discuss Michael Jackson.<\/p>\n
The pop star and Dominic, a manager of a Manhattan hotel where Mr. Jackson often stayed, had become good friends. For more than two decades, Mr. Jackson had eaten at the Cascios\u2019 New Jersey home, brought them to his Neverland Ranch, took them along on tours around the world and celebrated with them on holidays.<\/p>\n
The Cascios had become, as they often said, Mr. Jackson\u2019s \u201csecond family.\u201d<\/p>\n
So a year and a half after Mr. Jackson\u2019s death<\/a>, the family came forward to talk to Oprah at length about their special relationship \u2014 and also to shield their friend from the ugly sexual abuse accusations that had long trailed him.<\/p>\n \u201cWere there ever any improprieties with you and Michael Jackson?\u201d Ms. Winfrey asked the Cascio siblings, Eddie, Frank and Marie Nicole, who were now adults, at the interview<\/a>.<\/p>\n They responded in unison: \u201cNever.\u201d They each shook their heads.<\/p>\n Their friend Michael, Eddie asserted, \u201cwas a target.\u201d<\/p>\n More than 15 years later, the Cascios now say that was a lie. All five of the Cascio children say they were groomed to protect Mr. Jackson and became, as they call it, his \u201csoldiers\u201d \u2014 the front line of his defense.<\/p>\n Four of the five siblings now say in a lawsuit and in an interview with The New York Times that, in fact, Mr. Jackson had repeatedly sexually assaulted each of them. (The fifth sibling told The Times he was abused, but for legal reasons, his lawyers say he cannot join his siblings\u2019 suit.)<\/p>\n Some of the siblings say they recognized at an early age that Mr. Jackson\u2019s behavior was wrong but felt too overwhelmed by his celebrity and signs of affection to come forward publicly, or to one another. Others say they did not recognize that what had happened to them was abusive until they watched a 2019 documentary containing allegations by two men<\/a> who said Mr. Jackson had molested them.<\/p>\n Aldo, now 35, said he was around 7 and in bed with Mr. Jackson one day, playing a Game Boy, when Mr. Jackson began giving him oral sex. He said the sex acts continued for years, and he eventually became aware that what he was enduring was wrong. But he said he so convinced himself that he could never disclose it that he came to believe: \u201cI\u2019m just going to live to die.\u201d<\/p>\n Court documents say the abuse happened at a variety of places, including Mr. Jackson\u2019s home, on trips and during tour stops. Just days before the pop star died in 2009<\/a>, Aldo said, Mr. Jackson requested they go to \u201cDisneyland\u201d \u2014 which he described as a coded request for sex.<\/p>\n Mr. Jackson and, since his death, the Jackson estate have consistently denied all allegations that the pop star molested children. Marty Singer, a lawyer for the estate, characterized the lawsuit as \u201ca desperate money grab.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThe family staunchly defended Michael Jackson for more than 25 years, attesting to his innocence of inappropriate conduct,\u201d Mr. Singer said in a statement. \u201cThis new court filing is a transparent forum-shopping tactic in their scheme to obtain hundreds of millions of dollars from Michael\u2019s estate and companies.\u201d<\/p>\n Debate over the truth of Mr. Jackson\u2019s life has been revived not just by the lawsuit, but also by a biopic, \u201cMichael,\u201d set to debut on Friday. The film, which is expected to have a sequel and was produced in partnership with the estate, ends in 1988, before the first of the allegations surfaced.<\/p>\n Years before filing their lawsuit, the Cascio siblings told the estate that, actually, they had been abused by Mr. Jackson. But the parties reached an agreement in 2020 and the siblings received, in total, roughly $16 million in payments over five years. The accusations were never aired. In the estate\u2019s view, Mr. Jackson\u2019s family avoided being confronted by more \u201cfalse allegations.\u201d<\/p>\n But the payments ended in 2025 as the siblings were seeking additional compensation, and negotiations became strained. Now what was once a quiet dispute has erupted into bitter litigation.<\/p>\n Four Siblings, Now Plaintiffs<\/p>\n In an interview this month, the Cascio siblings suing the Jackson estate each provided grim details of what they say they endured.<\/p>\n Marie Nicole Porte, now 37, said she was 12 the first time Mr. Jackson abused her inside her family home, where he stayed for months following the Sept. 11 attacks. Mr. Jackson, she said, would have her spread her legs and sometimes masturbated while looking at her naked.<\/p>\n Dominic, 39, said he was on a trip to Euro Disney with Mr. Jackson when he was about 8 years old when the pop star began having them lie nude in bed together. In later encounters, he said, Mr. Jackson would have him suck and manipulate his nipples while Mr. Jackson masturbated.<\/p>\n The Cascio family\u2019s relationship with Mr. Jackson led its members, by their accounts, into a world of closely guarded secrets. None of the children told their parents or one another what was happening, they said. When their parents did ask about their relationship with Jackson, the children said they denied that anything untoward had occurred.<\/p>\n The parents, Connie and Dominic, declined to be interviewed through the family\u2019s lawyer, Howard King. But in a prior interview they described a mix of feelings \u2014 betrayal, remorse and responsibility \u2014 for what their children say they encountered.<\/p>\n \u201cI should have known, and I didn\u2019t,\u201d Connie told GB News<\/a> last month. \u201cHonestly, God knows, I didn\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n Why did the children stay quiet? Several said that Mr. Jackson stressed to them that their relationship with him was special, the only one like it, and that if anyone found out, his life \u2014 and their lives, too \u2014 would be destroyed.<\/p>\n \u201cWe were brainwashed, we were groomed,\u201d said Eddie, who said that Mr. Jackson, whom he described as \u201cthe biggest star in the world,\u201d taught the siblings to defend the pop star against the allegations.<\/p>\n But the siblings said that in 2019, after they watched the \u201cLeaving Neverland\u201d documentary<\/a> about Mr. Jackson, they were struck by how closely the allegations of child abuse in the film matched their own experiences.<\/p>\n Aldo was the first to approach his family to say he had been abused. A few days later, Dominic, the son, said he told Eddie that Aldo was telling the truth \u2014 because it had happened to him. Eddie said he then also came forward. And finally Marie Nicole.<\/p>\n \u201cI felt like he took my manhood away,\u201d Eddie, 43, said in the interview, beginning to cry. He said he had sexual encounters with Mr. Jackson into adulthood. But when they began, he said his penis was so small that Mr. Jackson held it using only three fingers.<\/p>\n The Cascio siblings began meeting with representatives of the estate in 2019, according to court documents. And eventually, after they shared \u201cexplicit details about Jackson\u2019s abuse,\u201d the court papers say, the estate eventually agreed to pay each plaintiff what the family called \u201cthe wholly inadequate sum of five annual payments of approximately $690,000.\u201d Lawyers for the estate say in their own filing that it \u201creluctantly\u201d entered into the agreement \u201cto prevent Michael\u2019s family, particularly his children, from having to be subjected to any further false allegations.\u201d<\/p>\n But as the payments were nearing their end in 2024, the estate says in court papers that one of the siblings, Frank, through his lawyer, had demanded that he and his brothers and sister be paid $213 million more, and that he had threatened to file a \u201cbogus public lawsuit.\u201d<\/p>\n Frank said in an interview that he too was abused. But because he is involved in an arbitration proceeding with the estate over the original agreement and other matters, his lawyer said Frank was barred from being a party to the federal lawsuit filed by his siblings.<\/p>\n Mr. Singer said that all of the siblings were involved in the pending arbitration proceeding and that their lawsuit is an effort to try to evade their obligation, under the prior agreement, to arbitrate any disputes. The estate plans to ask the court to dismiss the federal case or to put it on hold while the arbitration goes forward.<\/p>\n Asked to address the specific accusations leveled by each of the siblings, Mr. Singer said: \u201cThe Cascios are the epitome of unreliable sources. Their stories have repeatedly shifted and changed to suit whatever their current agenda happens to be.\u201d<\/p>\n Bringing Home a Pop Star<\/p>\n When Mr. Jackson stayed at the Helmsley Palace in Manhattan in the 1980s, it was Dominic Cascio, the general manager of the towers and the suites, who took care of him. Their friendship built to the point where one night, Jackson showed up at their home in Hawthorne, N.J.<\/p>\n Frank later recounted the evening in a fawning book, \u201cMy Friend Michael: An Ordinary Friendship With an Extraordinary Man,\u201d in which he repeatedly denied that Mr. Jackson ever acted inappropriately with children. \u201cMy brother and I sprang out of bed to greet him,\u201d Frank wrote of himself and Eddie.<\/p>\n Mr. Jackson would visit the home many more times, helping their mother clean and enjoying her turkey dinners, Frank wrote. The Cascios sat on the side of the stage at Mr. Jackson\u2019s concerts. They had a sleepover at F.A.O. Schwarz. Mr. Jackson covered these expenses and the family installed a phone line at their home just for him.<\/p>\n By 1993, the Cascios had begun to visit with Mr. Jackson at Neverland, his estate in Santa Barbara County that was outfitted with a movie theater, a zoo and even amusement park rides. Frank and Eddie were later permitted to go alone, Frank wrote in his book.<\/p>\n \u201cHe made us feel like he was everything: a friend, father, like every sort of emotional support,\u201d Eddie said in the interview. \u201cAnd he was.\u201d<\/p>\n When Mr. Jackson was accused of molestation by the family of a 13-year-old boy in the 1990s, Frank recalled in his book how, he, Eddie and their father flew to join him on tour in Tel Aviv in a sign of support. When their father had to return home, he allowed his sons to stay. Eddie says now that it was the time when Mr. Jackson first began to molest him.<\/p>\n A year later, in 1994, Mr. Jackson reached a roughly $23 million civil settlement<\/a> with the boy\u2019s family that had accused him of molestation. Mr. Jackson denied any wrongdoing.<\/p>\n A decade after that, prosecutors in Santa Barbara County brought charges against Mr. Jackson that included<\/a> several new counts of child molesting and serving alcohol to minors. \u201cAll bullshit,\u201d Frank wrote. \u201cThese people were after Michael\u2019s money.\u201d<\/p>\n Frank recalled in the book that he went on \u201c20\/20\u201d and \u201cGood Morning America\u201d to defend Mr. Jackson. The rest of the family flew to California to testify on the singer\u2019s behalf, the siblings said, but once they got there, they were told they were not needed.<\/p>\n The demos were included by Sony Music in an album released after Mr. Jackson\u2019s death. But their authenticity came under scrutiny, and Sony Music removed the tracks in 2022 amid a court battle. It ended in a settlement with the defendants, including Sony, the Jackson estate and Eddie, according to court documents.<\/p>\n Sony and the estate did not concede that the songs had been sung by an impersonator, as had been contended, but said that removing them was \u201cthe simplest and best way to move beyond the conversation associated with these tracks once and for all.\u201d<\/p>\n When the siblings saw the \u201cLeaving Neverland\u201d documentary, they were suddenly \u201cdeprogrammed,\u201d their lawsuit says \u2014 forced to confront the reality of their experiences with Mr. Jackson. Released by HBO in 2019, the film focused on the accounts of two men \u2014 Wade Robson and James Safechuck \u2014 who came forward with separate lawsuits a few years after Mr. Jackson\u2019s death that accused him of having abused them as children.<\/p>\n The Jackson estate<\/a> denied all of the allegations and sued the network. Court documents show that the case was dismissed in 2024 after what a spokesman for HBO described as an amicable resolution. Civil cases for both Mr. Robson and Mr. Safechuck are ongoing in Los Angeles<\/a>.<\/p>\n After the documentary\u2019s release, the Cascios say in court papers that representatives of the estate sought them out, falsely representing that they were trying to help get them fair compensation \u201cfor the suffering Jackson had caused.\u201d This, they said, led to the settlement agreement that involved the annual payments.<\/p>\n The Cascio lawsuit says that two years ago, the estate\u2019s representatives began discussing the possibility of additional compensation and \u201cfurther arrangements to ensure plaintiffs\u2019 continued silence.\u201d<\/p>\n But the lawsuit says that, after the siblings hired lawyers and demanded more compensation, the estate and its representatives started leaking \u201cfalse and defamatory statements\u201d saying that the estate was being blackmailed by the siblings.<\/p>\n The estate\u2019s court filings present a starkly different narrative. They paint the Cascios as opportunists who are seeking to extort the estate by lying about Mr. Jackson\u2019s alleged abuse. The siblings are said to have used the negative publicity of \u201cLeaving Neverland\u201d as an opening to \u201crepudiate their prior support of Michael and manufacture false and specious allegations against him unless they were paid money.\u201d<\/p>\n The Cascios say that, actually, their goals now are about more than money \u2014 they are about telling the truth about Mr. Jackson to the world and to some they hold close.<\/p>\n Like Eddie\u2019s daughter, who is 16 and was born just months after Mr. Jackson\u2019s death. For years, she too lived under the impression that the pop star had been a great friend to the family.<\/p>\n After all, her middle name is \u201cMichael.\u201d<\/p>\n Kitty Bennett and Georgia Gee contributed research.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In December 2010, Oprah Winfrey invited Dominic and Connie Cascio and three of their five children onto her…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":397212,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[205263,205262,430,205261,205264,205265,156,205266,30641,205269,205268,5494,574,111,139,69,205260,205267,203984],"class_list":{"0":"post-397211","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-celebrities","8":"tag-aldo-1991","9":"tag-cascio","10":"tag-celebrities","11":"tag-compensation-for-damages-law","12":"tag-dominic-1986","13":"tag-eddie-1982","14":"tag-entertainment","15":"tag-frank-1980","16":"tag-jackson","17":"tag-leaving-neverland-movie","18":"tag-marie-nicole","19":"tag-michael","20":"tag-new-jersey","21":"tag-new-zealand","22":"tag-newzealand","23":"tag-nz","24":"tag-pop-and-rock-music","25":"tag-porte","26":"tag-suits-and-litigation-civil"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/397211","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=397211"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/397211\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/397212"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=397211"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=397211"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=397211"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}