Photo Credit: 60 Minutes Australia (@60MinutesAU / YouTube)
Amid the success of the new Michael Jackson biopic, four siblings alleging child sex abuse double down on their claims in a new interview.
The Cascio family, four siblings who filed a lawsuit against the Michael Jackson estate in February, doubled down on their claims of child sexual abuse in a new interview with “60 Minutes Australia.” The siblings described how Jackson allegedly sexually abused all four of them as children, supplying them with drugs and alcohol while wooing their family with lavish gifts.
Dominic Sr., the Cascios’ father, met Michael Jackson in the ‘80s while working at the Helmsley Palace Hotel in New York City. Soon, he became part of the musician’s inner circle, and his family would spend holidays at Neverland Ranch, as well as traveling on tour with Jackson.
Eddie Cascio, now 43, recalled in the interview having met the King of Pop when he was only two years old, when Jackson began dropping in unannounced at the family’s New York home. Jackson would take Eddie, alongside his siblings—Aldo, Dominic, and Marie-Nicole—on lavish trips on his private jet, on tour with him, and even to meet world diplomats.
But such luxurious gifts and treatment were, according to the siblings, a facade for the decades of grooming and abuse that followed.
“My parents were young,” said Eddie. “For them to have such a big celebrity want to be friends with them… they definitely felt special, and so did we. He made us feel like we were his family, his kids, his everything.”
The siblings claimed that the abuse took place over 25 years, including at Jackson’s Neverland Ranch, at the homes of his celebrity friends like Elizabeth Taylor, and during his world tours.
Eddie said that Jackson started molesting him when he was 11 years old, during the Dangerous Tour in 1993. He alleged that the abuse took place every night on the tour while the two shared a bed, and continued well into his adulthood.
In addition to claims of rampant sexual abuse, the siblings also said that Jackson supplied them with prescription drugs and alcohol at a young age. This included “Jesus juice,” which was wine, and “Disney juice,” which was hard liquor.
“He gave me Xanax and Vicodin at 11 years old and told me I’d be floating and I would love it,” Marie-Nicole claimed.
The Cascio siblings also alleged that Jackson trained them for interrogation by their parents and police, which caused the kids to believe that nothing abnormal was happening to them.
However, as the siblings’ allegations have come nearly 20 years since Jackson’s death in 2009, a lawyer for the Jackson estate asserts that the claims are nothing more than a “money grab.”
“Notably, these shakedown attempts come more than 15 years after Jackson’s death, thus carrying no risk of being sued for defamation,” said attorney Marty Singer. “Sadly, in death just as in life, Jackson’s talents and success continue to make him a target.”
