Dustin Diamond's dad responds to allegations he stole late child star's earnings
Mark Diamond, the father of the late Saved By The Bell star, Dustin Diamond, has opened up to claims he stole his son's money.
The bereaved dad talked about his son's allegations on a new episode of Hollywood Demons on Investigation Discovery.
He said he sees it as his chance to have his say and set the record straight about his son's Saved By The Bell earnings.
"It really made me upset," Mark said of his son's claims before his death, according to Entertainment Weekly.
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Dustin Diamond was a child star, and alleged that his dad had taken most of his earnings.
Dustin starred as Screech Powers in the smash-hit high-school show, and fortunately Mark and Dustin were able to reconcile before the actor tragically died of lung cancer at the age of 44, in 2021.
He had stage four small-cell carcinoma, and passed away just three weeks after his first round of chemotherapy.
"I told him, 'Why are you throwing me under the bus, when I can't pop myself on television and go, 'Uh, no!'" said Mark.
A former friend of Dustin's told the show: "Dustin started telling me more about how much he made or how much he didn't make."
He says the star once claimed he earned '$1,250 per week' but said he never actually saw the money himself.
"Dustin alleged that his parents were stealing his money or taking his money," his friend insists.
As Dustin was under 18 for the majority of his career on the show, his parents were in charge of looking after his money.
Back in 2015, he told FOX6 Milwaukee that his parents mismanaged his money, leading him to fall on hard times and risk losing his home.
He told the outlet is was 'a shame. My parents wasted so much of my hard work. A lot of my youth.'
Mark has now defended himself publicly against Dustin's claims, telling the show: "Dustin's agent would take out her 10-percent commission. Anything left over, we had to cover certain things, like taxes, gasoline, obviously, headshots. Every fan letter wanted the same things — 'Can you send us an 8x10 picture, autographed?' Thousands of letters."
He added: "See, we had to pay for that. This didn't leave much money for us to do anything. In fact, nothing."
Mark-Paul Gosselaar, who played Zack Morris, one of the leads on Saved by the Bell, also said the money wasn't great.
Back in 2019, he told People that he doesn't earn any residuals from the show: "We made really bad deals. Poor deals, back then. It is what it is. You move on, you learn."
Block did credit Mark for what he tried to do for his son: "His dad gave [his career] up to make sure Dustin became successful."
Topics: Celebrity News, Money, TV and Film, US News
Jen Thomas