Multiple siblings claiming to be part of Michael Jackson’s “second family” are suing the music icon’s estate over sexual abuse and grooming allegations.
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During a recent interview with The New York Times, four out of the five siblings of the Cascio family – Aldo, Eddie, Dominic, and Marie Nicole – shared details about their alleged abuse and grooming by Jackson.
The siblings notably met Jackson through their father, Dominic Cascio Sr., who was the manager of the Helmsley Palace in Manhattan, where Jackson often stayed in the ’80s. They previously denied the singer had done anything to them during a 2010 interview with Oprah Winfrey.
The fifth Cascio sibling, Frank, denied the allegations in his 2011 book My Friend Michael: An Ordinary Friendship With an Extraordinary Man. He did not join the lawsuit alongside his siblings due ot “legal reasons.” However, he claimed that Jackson had groomed them as his “soldiers” to defend him against other accusers.
“We were brainwashed,” Eddie claimed during The New York Times interview. “We were groomed. He made us feel like he was everything: a friend, father, like every sort of emotional support. And he was.”
The Siblings Didn’t Think About Suing the Estate Until the 2019 Documentary ‘Leaving Neverland’
Meanwhile, some of the other siblings admitted they realized early on that Jackson was abusing them. However, they felt “too overwhelmed” to go public about their experience.
Other siblings explained they didn’t fully comprehend the reality of their abuse until after they watched the 2019 HBO documentary Leaving Neverland. The film was about two of Jackson’s alleged sexual abuse victims.
The siblings further explained that they thought about the lawsuit shortly after the HBO documentary was released. At that point, the estate had reached out to them. The siblings said the estate wanted to give them compensation for ‘the suffering Jackson had caused.”
They reached a settlement agreement in 2020 and received $16 million from the estate. The funds were to be distributed over the course of five years. However, just before the payments ended, the estate, through its attorney, accused Frank of demanding that he and his siblings be paid more. He requested an additional $213 million. Then he threatened to file a public lawsuit if the demand wasn’t met.
After the funds were officially distributed in 2025, the siblings claimed the negotiations with the estate for further compensation were contentious. They elevated the private legal dispute to public litigation.
The estate’s attorney, Marty Singer, has spoken out about the allegation in a statement to PEOPLE. He called the situation a “desperate money grab.”
“The family staunchly defended Michael Jackson for more than 25 years, attesting to his innocence of inappropriate conduct,” he said. “This new court filing is a transparent forum-shopping tactic in their scheme to obtain hundreds of millions of dollars from Michael’s estate and companies.”
The Cascio siblings said the new lawsuit was about “more than money.” They noted it was an opportunity to reveal the “truth” about Jackson.