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Michael Jackson’s relationship with children is once again being called into question.
Prior to his death in 2009, the King of Pop was accused of child abuse at two separate points in his career. Once in 1993, a case which was settled outside of court, and again in 2005, when he was acquitted in court. But throughout it all, the Cascio family stood behind him.
The Cascio Family
If the name sounds familiar, it’s because they’re the bunch Michael dubbed his “second family.” Back in the ‘80s, he met patriarch Dominic Cascio while staying at the Helmsley Palace in New York. They quickly became friends, and Dominic introduced the Thriller singer to his family, which included wife Connie, and their two sons. The husband and wife went on to have three more children: two boys and one girl, and Michael remained an active presence in all of their lives.
Over the years, the family has been open about the dinners they shared with Michael in their New Jersey home, Christmas gift exchanges, shopping sprees, Disneyland trips, and stays at Neverland Ranch in California for the kids. All along they said it was innocent.
Related: Priscilla Presley Hit With Lawsuit Claiming She Lied To IRS About MILLIONS
The eldest boy, Frank Cascio, authored a book called My Friend Michael: An Ordinary Friendship With An Extraordinary Man — a 2011 memoir about the nature of his relationship with Michael, where he vehemently defended the singer. He wrote:
“I want to be precise and clear, on the record, so that everyone can read and understand: Michael’s love for children was innocent, and it was profoundly misunderstood.”
He continued:
“In all the years that I was close to him, I saw nothing that raised any red flags, not as a child and not as an adult.”
Frank went on to claim Michael “was being attacked by liars”, maintaining:
“There was nothing ambiguous about the whole thing. These people were after Michael’s money. But he was innocent, and we were going to destroy them in court.”
However, Frank’s tune has now changed.
The Accusations
Over the weekend, DailyMail.com reported that all five Cascio children came together earlier this month to file a bombshell suit in Los Angeles Superior Court accusing Michael of of grooming, sexually abusing, and “brainwashing” their family for 25 years. Of the alleged abuse, a source told the outlet:
“It was everything sexual: sex with under-age children. When they all realized what had been going on it was the most traumatic thing. Their story is insane.”
According to filings seen by the outlet, the siblings claim:
“From the early 1980s until at least 2009, Michael Jackson had intimate contact with the Cascio children. This abusive contact occurred over a span of decades and involved hundreds of instances. Each of the Cascio children were groomed, brainwashed and severely manipulated to believe that each was uniquely ‘special’ to Michael and that their relationship with him was exclusive.”
The docs continue:
“This emotional manipulation was designed to secure each family member’s loyalty and ensure their silence, making them feel indebted to Michael and isolated from any source of protection or perspective. Through years of psychological conditioning, Michael cultivated dependence and fear in the Cascios, making respondents believe they had no choice but to comply and no safe way to break free. The effects of this conditioning persisted into adulthood, leaving respondents with a deeply ingrained belief that speaking out would constitute betrayal — a dynamic the estate has continued to exploit in its dealings with them.”
Wow.
We know there are many MJ fans out there who never wanted to believe any of the allegations from longtime accusers James Safechuck and Wade Robson, who participated in the shocking 2019 documentary Leaving Neverland. But the Cascio family were some of his biggest defenders, and now even they’ve switched sides.
What Sparked The Lawsuit
Speaking of Leaving Neverland, multiple insiders tell DM it was the HBO doc that first sparked movement in the case. Safechuck and Robson, now both in their 40s, accused the Beat It star of subjecting them to years of abuse — Safechuck from 1988 to 1992, and Robson from 1990 to 1996. The doc changed things for the general public AND for the Cascios.
According to sources earlier this year, when the Cascio family raised alarms, the Jackson estate attempted to get ahead of more public accusations in January 2020. Instead they tried to settle behind the scenes.
The involved parties reportedly reached a confidential settlement that included payouts over five years. However, the Cascio family’s attorney allegedly demanded an additional $213 million in 2024 against a threat the family would “expand the circle of knowledge” to negatively impact the Jackson estate’s business dealings, per the New York Post. The estate has since responded by calling the case a “civil extortion scheme” before initiating arbitration in September 2024, accusing the family of breach of contract and civil extortion.
However, the filings further accuse the Jackson estate of “exploiting the same patterns of trust, fear and conditioned loyalty” employed by Michael in order to get them to sign the agreement in 2020.
Family Fallout
This shocking about-face from the Cascio family follows an implied change even closer to home. Fans noticed Paris Jackson recently got her MJ tattoo covered up. And she’s since raised even more suspicion that she believes the worst allegations against her father.
When one of the actors in an upcoming Jackson Family biopic said Paris and her family were “very much in support of our film,” she hit back hard! She not only said she “wasn’t involved at all,” she told everyone why:
“A big reason why I haven’t said anything up until this point is because I know a lot of you guys are gonna be happy with it. A big section of the film panders to a very specific section of my dad’s fandom that still lives in the fantasy, and they’re gonna be happy with it.”
The fantasy… of his innocence? Did things change for her because of the documentary? Because of the Cascios?? Will she speak out against him, too??
This is some seriously troubling stuff! What do YOU make of it? Let us know in the comments down below!
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Perez Hilton
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