As the glossy new Michael Jackson biopic Michael packs cinemas and revives the King of Pop’s carefully polished legacy, dark allegations are also surfacing.
The Cascio siblings, once among Jackson’s most loyal defenders, are now accusing the late singer of subjecting them to decades of grooming, manipulation and horrific sexual abuse inside what they describe as a twisted inner circle known as the “Applehead Club”.
They are currently suing Jackson’s estate.
The allegations, which featured in Sunday evening’s episode of 60 Minutes Australia, mark a significant reversal for the New Jersey family who famously stood by Jackson during his public scandals, even appearing publicly to defend him after child abuse allegations first erupted.
Now they claim the truth was far more sinister.
“When you have the biggest superstar in the world in the 80s that wants to be your friend, you’re vulnerable and easily manipulated,” Dominic Cascio told the program.
Jackson first ingratiated himself to the Cascio family in the 1980s, befriending the siblings — Eddie, Dominic, Aldo and Marie-Nicole — while charming their parents with lavish gifts, luxury holidays and private jet trips.
“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,” Eddie Cascio said.
To the outside world, Jackson appeared to be a generous family friend — a “fun uncle” who whisked children away to amusement parks, toy stores and backstage VIP treatment.
“He made us feel like we were his family, his kids, his everything,” Eddie said.
But behind closed doors, the siblings allege Jackson systematically groomed and sexually abused them while convincing each child they alone were his “special friend”.
Jackson, who died in 2009, was first accused of sexual abuse in the early 1990s. He always denied the allegations.
The singer settled a civil lawsuit in the 90s, and was acquitted in a criminal trial in the mid-2000s after being charged with molesting a 13-year-old.
In a statement to 60 Minutes Marty Singer, a lawyer acting for the Michael Jackson estate, accused the Cascios of engaging in a “desperate money grab”.
Mr Singer noted that for decades, the family “consistently and repeatedly asserted that Michael never harmed any of them or anyone else”.
“Notably, these shakedown attempts come more than 15 years after Michael’s death, thus carrying no risk of being sued for defamation. Sadly, in death just as in life, Michael’s talents and success continue to make him a target,” he concluded.
You can read the full statement here.
‘My time being molested’: Horrific allegations
In his conversation with 60 Minutes, Eddie claimed the abuse began after Jackson started becoming physically affectionate.
“That’s when the first kiss happened,” he said.
“That was the start of my time with Michael of being molested.”
Dominic described disturbing “games” Jackson allegedly initiated, including one he called the “booty rumble”.
“He would lay me on top of him with my genitals up against his,” Dominic alleged.
“While he would shake, he would kind of push up against me.”
Dominic said that progressed to kissing, oral sex, and in one particularly horrifying accusation, Jackson drinking his urine.
“He would drink my urine and tell me, ‘this is how much I love you.’ I’m maybe 12 years old at the time. Like, I’m a child who’s seeing this man do this. 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 said she was just 12 years old when Jackson allegedly convinced her to undress in front of him.
“He just kept saying, ‘This is normal,’” she said.
“He asked me to spread my legs, and he asked to look at my vagina and he proceeded to go close to it, and he sniffed it. He looked at it, and he admired it and was like, ‘Wow,’” she claimed.
“I had a secret code that anytime he wanted to have a meeting with me … he would masturbate while looking at me exposed.”
The youngest of the siblings, Aldo, said that Jackson first molested him when they were laying in bed together playing video games.
“He just pulled down my shorts, and started giving me oral sex. And he’d [say] right away, ‘Doesn’t that feel good? See, I love you. I love you,’” Aldo alleged.
“I had no idea what sex was. I had no idea that this was inappropriate. He raped me and masked it into love.”
The siblings also alleged that Jackson used alcohol and prescription drugs to lower their inhibitions and maintain control.
Dominic claimed Jackson introduced him to “Jesus Juice” — wine disguised in soft drink cans — along with Vicodin and Xanax.
Marie-Nicole alleged: “He gave me Xanax and Vicodin at 11 years old and told me I’d be floating and I would love it.”
The siblings said the abuse was reinforced through fear, manipulation and bizarre role-playing exercises designed to prepare them for police investigations or parental suspicion.
“He would instil a fear into you about, ‘I’m going to go to jail, your family’s life is going to be ruined,’” Dominic said.
Aldo alleged Jackson would rehearse fake interrogations with him, pretending to be police officers questioning whether anything inappropriate was happening.
“My mum asked me, ‘Is Michael doing anything to you?’” Aldo recalled.
“So I had to say what he trained us to say.”
The siblings claimed Jackson convinced each of them, in turn, that they were the only victim.
“You were conditioned,” Eddie said.
“We were programmed to be his soldier.”
For years, the Cascios remained fiercely protective of Jackson, even after his 2003 arrest.
Dominic now alleges one infamous piece of “evidence” shown to the public was fabricated.
“When he got arrested, he showed a bruise on his arm saying it was from handcuffs,” he claimed.
“Realistically, he begged me to punch him in the arm multiple times to create a bruise.”
The family said the spell finally began to break after they watched the 2019 documentary Leaving Neverland, which detailed similar allegations from Wade Robson and James Safechuck.
They said they were coming out now to hopefully “give courage to other victims out there to come, come out and be, be strong with us”.
“Because at the end of the day, he was the monster, not us,” Eddie said.