The release of Michael was meant to celebrate the legacy of Michael Jackson, but just weeks after the biopic hit theaters, the King of Pop’s inner circle has reignited one of the most disturbing controversies surrounding his name.
In a bombshell interview that aired on Sunday, May 10, four members of the Cascio family, Eddie, Dominic, Aldo, and Marie-Nicole, who once spent decades fiercely defending Jackson, came forward with harrowing new claims of alleged a*use.
Highlights
- Four members of the Cascio family, once known as Michael Jackson’s “secret second family,” have publicly accused the late singer of years of alleged a*use.
- The siblings have come forward with detailed and disturbing allegations after spending decades publicly defending Jackson.
- Critics have accused the siblings of pursuing a “money grab” due to the timing of the claims and their reported $200 million lawsuit against the late singer’s estate.
But the shocking allegations were met with deep suspicion online, with many users questioning the timing of the interview and the motives behind speaking out now.
One skeptical commenter wrote, “If it was as horrific as they claim I find it hard to believe that not one spoke up before now including the parents.”
Four siblings from the Cascio family, once dubbed Michael Jackson’s “second family,” have made disturbing allegations against him
Image credits: Steve Granitz/Getty Images
Trigger Warning: This article contains disturbing allegations, graphic descriptions involving minors, and other highly sensitive material that some readers may find upsetting.
The Cascio family’s relationship with Michael Jackson reportedly began through their father, Dominic Cascio Sr., who served as the general manager of the Helmsley Palace Hotel in Manhattan during the 1980s.
The two struck up a friendship, and Dominic eventually invited Jackson to his family home in Franklin Lakes, New Jersey, where he met his wife, Connie, and their children.
What began as a chance connection eventually evolved into a close family bond that lasted more than 25 years.
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Jackson became a regular visitor to the Cascio home and famously referred to the family as his “secret second family.”
Reportedly, beginning in 1993, the Cascio children started staying at Michael’s primary residence, Neverland Ranch, and were sometimes allowed to travel there alone.
The family remained among the late singer’s most loyal supporters, firmly standing by him during the 1993 and 2005 misconduct allegations.
Image credits: 60MinutesAU
Now, after decades of publicly defending Jackson, four of the five Cascio siblings have accused the Billie Jean singer of serious misconduct in a 60 Minutes Australia "world exclusive" interview that aired yesterday.
According to one of the siblings, Dominic Cascio, “When you have the biggest superstar in the world in the ’80s that wants to be your friend, you’re vulnerable and easily manipulated.”
Eddie Cascio, also known as Edward, added, “My parents were young. 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.”
Eddie, Dominic, Aldo, and Marie-Nicole recounted graphic details about the alleged a*use they claim to have experienced as children
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Eddie reportedly alleged that the misconduct began when he was 11 years old, during Jackson’s Dangerous World Tour in 1993.
“That’s when my world started to change. We were on tour, and that’s when Michael started to get closer and started rubbing my legs. I was sitting on his lap, and that’s when the first kiss happened, where he kissed me on the lips,” Eddie said.
He further alleged that the late singer gave him the nickname “Angel” and would often have him stay in his room and sleep in his bed during tours.
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According to the lawsuit, the alleged a*use continued for more than a decade and extended into Edward’s adulthood.
“I would have to perform oral s*x on him, and vice versa. It’s pretty tough because my manhood was taken away, as well as my childhood,” Eddie claimed.
Meanwhile, Dominic alleged, “He would lay me on top of him with my g*nitals against his while he kind of pushed up against me. He would drink my urine and tell me, ‘This is how much I love you.’ I was maybe 12 years old at the time. I was a child watching this man do this.”
Image credits: 60MinutesAU
He added, “And I said, ‘Oh, I guess he really does love me. I mean, I would never want to drink someone’s urine, so he must really love me.’”
Marie-Nicole Cascio also alleged in her statement that the They Don’t Care About Us singer convinced her to remove her clothes for him when she was 12 years old.
“He just kept saying, ‘This is normal.’ He asked me to spread my legs, and he asked to look at my v**ina. He proceeded to get close to it, sniff it, and admire it, saying, ‘Wow,’” Marie-Nicole claimed.
“At the end of the day, he was the monster, not us,” reportedly shared Edward Cascio, also known as Eddie Cascio
Image credits: 60MinutesAU
She continued, “I had a secret code that anytime he wanted to have a meeting with me... he would m**turbate while looking at me exposed.”
The youngest sibling, Aldo Cascio, also alleged that he was first m**ested by Michael while lying in bed with him and playing a video game.
Aldo said, "He just pulled down my shorts, and started giving me oral s*x. And he'd [say] right away, 'Doesn't that feel good? See, I love you. I love you.'"
Image credits: 60MinutesAU
“I had no idea what s*x was. I had no idea that this was inappropriate. He r*ped me and masked it into love,” the youngest one alleged.
The siblings also claimed that Jackson supplied them with illegal substances and hard liquor in an attempt to lower their inhibitions.
Reportedly, they further alleged that Michael staged fake police interrogations as a form of psychological conditioning to ensure they would protect him during real investigations.
Dominic recalled, "He would instill a fear into you about, 'I'm going to go to jail, your family's life is going to be ruined,'" while Aldo claimed, "My mum asked me, 'Is Michael doing anything to you?' So I had to say what he trained us to say."
The interview aired just two weeks after Michael premiered last month and appeared, to many social media users, to be a response to what critics alleged was the biopic’s omission of detailed child s*xual a*use allegations against Jackson.
A few months earlier, the Cascio siblings reportedly filed a federal lawsuit against Jackson’s estate in Los Angeles Superior Court, seeking more than $200 million in damages.
Image credits: 60MinutesAU
As of this writing, the lawsuit remains ongoing, though it has reportedly shifted from the public court system into private proceedings.
Jackson’s estate and its lead attorney, Marty Singer, have strongly denied the latest allegations from the four siblings, dismissing the lawsuit as a "desperate money grab" and a "civil extortion scheme."
Marty reportedly said in a public statement, “Notably, these shakedown attempts come more than 15 years after Jackson's d**th, thus carrying no risk of being sued for defamation.”
The late singer’s estate and legal team dismissed the disturbing claims as a “desperate money grab” attempt
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“Sadly, in d**th just as in life, Jackson's talents and success continue to make him a target.”
Previously, in 2010, the siblings appeared on The Oprah Winfrey Show, where they categorically denied that any impropriety had occurred, a stance they now claim was the result of years of alleged “brainwashing.”
Members of the Cascio family also served as character witnesses and staunch supporters during Michael’s highly publicized 2005 criminal trial, in which he was acquitted of m**estation charges.
Image credits: UniversalPictures
The siblings further revealed that their understanding of their experiences allegedly began to shift after watching Leaving Neverland in 2019.
According to them, the experiences described by Wade Robson and James Safechuck mirrored their own so closely that it acted as a form of “deprogramming.”
Until then, they reportedly believed they were each “uniquely special” and that their experiences were isolated secrets.
Addressing their latest interview with 60 Minutes Australia, the siblings said they decided to come forward after decades of alleged trauma in hopes of “giv[ing] courage to other victims out there to come, come out and be, be strong with us.”
Eddie added, “Because at the end of the day, he was the monster, not us.”
Leaving Neverland chronicled allegations made by Wade and James, who claimed Jackson s*xually a*used them for years when they were children.
The documentary became a major cultural turning point, largely because it focused on the alleged psychological mechanics of gr**ming and manipulation rather than solely on the physical allegations themselves.
“I would hold the parents very responsible… being young at the time... and of course it's always the question of money,” one user wrote
