April 24, 2026
Michael Jackson’s former defenders now allege he sexually abused four of their children over more than a decade, filing a $200 million lawsuit against his estate.
Michael Jackson faces a new legal reckoning as the Cascio family, who spent decades defending him publicly, now alleges he sexually abused four of their children over more than a decade starting when they were as young as seven or eight years old.
The lawsuit, filed in California federal court, accuses the late pop icon of grooming, drugging, and repeatedly assaulting the siblings at Neverland Ranch, on international tours, and at the homes of celebrity friends including Elton John and Elizabeth Taylor.
The Cascios’ reversal is particularly striking because they’d been Jackson’s most vocal supporters for over twenty-five years.
Dominic Cascio Sr. first met Jackson in the 1980s while working as a manager at a luxury Manhattan hotel, and the family became so close to the singer that they appeared on Oprah in 2010 to defend him against abuse allegations, insisting they’d never witnessed any impropriety.
Now, according to The Hollywood Reporter, the family claims they were coerced into silence through a confidential 2019 settlement agreement worth approximately $16 million over five years.
The complaint alleges Jackson used coded language to initiate abuse sessions, telling the children “Can I have a meeting,” “Yogi Tea,” “Neverland,” and “Go to Disneyland.”
He allegedly gave them wine he called “Jesus Juice” and hard liquor labeled “Disney Juice,” along with marijuana, cocaine, Xanax, Vicodin, and Viagra to make them more compliant.
Jackson’s estate lawyer Marty Singer dismissed the allegations as a “desperate money grab,” pointing out that the Cascios had spent decades attesting to Jackson’s innocence.
Singer noted that during their 2010 Oprah appearance, when asked if there were ever improprieties with Jackson, all three siblings responded in unison, “Never, never,” while shaking their heads.
The estate argues the family is now attempting to extract hundreds of millions of dollars through what it calls “forum-shopping tactics.”
The family says they were partly motivated by watching HBO’s 2019 documentary “Leaving Neverland,” which helped them process what they describe as years of abuse and “deprogram” themselves from Jackson’s influence.
They claim the settlement agreement they signed included language prohibiting them from reporting Jackson’s crimes to law enforcement or speaking negatively about him.
The Cascios are now seeking to void that agreement and are asking for damages that could potentially be tripled because they were abused as children.
As reported by the LA Times, the siblings allege Jackson showed them pornography and photos of naked children to desensitize them, and threatened to destroy their lives and their family members’ lives if they ever disclosed what happened.
The lawsuit arrives as the Michael Jackson biopic “Michael” opens in theaters this weekend, projected to set a box office record for a music biopic, creating a stark contrast between the film’s celebration of the singer and the serious allegations now being litigated in court.
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