Cascio Family Details Abuse Claims Against Michael Jackson

The four Cascio siblings — once described as Michael Jackson’s “secret family” — sat down with 60 Minutes Australia on Sunday to make their most detailed and disturbing allegations yet against the late King of Pop, describing decades of alleged grooming, sexual abuse, and drug exposure that they say began when they were young children.

“He’s a monster. He’s evil. What he did was evil, and he’s tricked the whole world to think that he’s this innocent, perfect human being, and he’s not,” Dominic Cascio said on the broadcast.

The interview came more than two months after Eddie, Dominic, Aldo, and Marie-Nicole Cascio filed a lawsuit against Jackson’s estate alleging that the pop star was a serial child sex predator who abused victims at the homes of Elizabeth Taylor and Elton John, among other locations.

How the Cascio Family Entered Jackson’s World

The family’s connection to Jackson traces back to the 1980s, when the siblings’ father, Dominic Cascio Sr., was working as a hotel manager at the Helmsley Palace Hotel in New York City. He crossed paths with Jackson there and quickly became part of the singer’s inner circle. Before long, the whole family was swept into Jackson’s orbit — spending holidays at Neverland Ranch, traveling the world on his private jet, meeting world diplomats, and going on tour with one of the biggest stars on the planet.

Eddie, now 43, recalled first meeting Jackson when he was just 2 years old, when the singer began showing up at the family’s New York home late at night, unannounced. Home videos from those visits showed Jackson’s famous chimpanzee Bubbles charming the kids. “He was like, kind of like the fun uncle,” Dominic said.

“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 reflected. “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.”

The lavish gifts and access, the siblings now say, were the foundation of a long and calculated grooming campaign.

The Allegations in Detail

Eddie claims the abuse began during Jackson’s 1993 Dangerous tour, when he was 11 years old. He says Jackson started by getting physically close — rubbing his legs while Eddie sat on his lap — before escalating. “That’s when my world started to change,” Eddie said. “We were on tour, and that’s when Michael started to get closer and started rubbing me on my legs. I was sitting on his lap, and that’s when the first kiss happened, where he kissed me on the lips.” He claims Jackson nicknamed him “Angel” and that the abuse continued nightly and into his adulthood.

Eddie also described a game Jackson called the “booty rumble” — which he says began when he was around 8 years old, with a naked Eddie lying on top of a naked Jackson while the singer reached around and shook him. Dominic described a similar version of the game: “He would lay me on top of him with my genitals up against his. While he would shake, he would kind of push up against me.”

Dominic also alleged something even more disturbing. “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,” he said. “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.’”

Aldo, the youngest sibling, alleged that Jackson began molesting him while the two lay in bed 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.

Marie-Nicole, the only girl in the family, claims Jackson would make her undress when she was 12 and masturbate while looking at her. She says he convinced her that a little girl being naked with an adult man was perfectly normal.

The siblings also allege Jackson supplied them with drugs and alcohol from a young age. He reportedly called wine “Jesus juice” and hard liquor “Disney juice.” “He gave me Xanax and Vicodin at 11 years old and told me I’d be floating and I would love it,” Marie-Nicole claimed. The family says the substances were used to make the children more compliant.

They also allege Jackson trained them to deflect suspicion — coaching them on how to respond if police or their parents ever questioned them, so they would insist nothing unusual was happening.

Years of Defense — Then a Reversal

What makes the Cascio case particularly complicated is the family’s own history. For years, the siblings were among Jackson’s most vocal defenders, publicly insisting he never harmed them. That changed in 2019, after the release of Leaving Neverland, the documentary in which Wade Robson and James Safechuck made similar allegations of abuse. The Cascios say watching that film gave them the language and the courage to finally confront what had happened to them.

The family has since filed multiple lawsuits. One, filed in 2025, sought $213 million. A more recent suit seeks $40 million. Earlier this year, the Daily Mail published a series of photos of the Cascio boys — mostly shirtless, in small shorts — submitted as supporting evidence in the case.

The timing of the renewed allegations has also drawn scrutiny, coming in the wake of the recently released Michael Jackson biopic.

Jackson’s Estate Fires Back

Jackson’s estate attorney Marty Singer did not hold back in his response to 60 Minutes Australia. “Notably, these shakedown attempts come more than 15 years after Jackson’s death, thus carrying no risk of being sued for defamation,” Singer said in a statement. “Sadly, in death just as in life, Jackson’s talents and success continue to make him a target.”

Singer pointed to the Cascios’ own long record of defending Jackson as evidence that the allegations are fabricated, calling the lawsuits a “desperate money grab.”

The Cascio siblings, for their part, say they’re not doing this for money alone. “We want to give courage to other victims out there to come out and be strong with us,” Eddie said. “Because at the end of the day, he was the monster, not us.”