Warning: This article contains discussion of child abuse which some readers may find distressing.
Michael might well be rocketing to hundreds of millions in box office sales but the legendary musician's name continues to be tainted by allegations made against him.
Child sexual abuse allegations have been aimed at the King of Pop for the past 30 years but have only intensified following his death in June 2009.
Jackson was the subject of the 2019 documentary drama Leaving Neverland, in which two men claimed that they had been sexually abused by Jackson while staying with him on his Neverland ranch when they were young.
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Another man, who was at the centre of 1993 child abuse allegations, also recently described a detail on Jackson's body which suggested he'd seen him naked, according to a cop involved in the case.
And now, a family who were so close with the Man in the Mirror singer that they described themselves as his 'second family', have launched a lawsuit of their own, despite defending the performer on The Oprah Winfrey Show shortly after his death.
Dominic and Connie Cascio and three of their five children, in December 2010, unanimously agreed that the pop star had 'never' acted inappropriately around them but now they suggest that was a lie, claiming instead that they had been groomed to become Jackson's 'soldiers' and to defend him on the front line amid the allegations that had been launched against him.
Four of the five siblings now say in a lawsuit and in an interview with The New York Times that, in fact, Mr. Jackson had repeatedly sexually assaulted each of them, with the fifth also claiming sexual abuse, although they cannot join the same lawsuit for legal reasons.
Aldo, now 35, was just seven when he suggested that the musician would perform oral sex on him in bed, while some of his siblings suggest that they didn't even realise what allegedly happened to them was wrong until they watched Leaving Neverland.
Court documents classify some of the code words which were supposedly used by Jackson, including going to 'Disneyland' as a code for having sex, and 'Disney juice' as a code for having wine.
It also claims that both Jackson and the children that he hosted at his ranch were frequently under the influence of drugs and alcohol.
Marty Singer, a lawyer for the estate, characterised the lawsuit as 'a desperate money grab'.
“The family staunchly defended Michael Jackson for more than 25 years, attesting to his innocence of inappropriate conduct,” Mr. Singer said in a statement. “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.”
If you’ve been affected by any of these issues and want to speak to someone in confidence regarding the welfare of a child, contact the NSPCC on 0808 800 5000, 10am-8pm Monday to Friday. If you are a child seeking advice and support, call Childline for free on 0800 1111, 24/7.
Topics: Michael Jackson, Celebrity News
James Moorhouse