Four of the five Casio brothers, who are accusing Michael Jackson of child sex trafficking and abuse in a new lawsuit, are defending the singer against other abuse allegations, saying they have been trained to be his “soldiers.”
“We were brainwashed and groomed,” Eddie Cascio claimed to The New York Times in a joint interview with his brother published Friday.
He claimed that Jackson, whom he called “the biggest star in the world,” taught them to stand by him when the allegations became public.
Eddie’s comments were in reference to earlier claims by Eddie and his siblings Aldo, Dominic and Marie Nicole that the King of Pop was “never” inappropriate with them during his time with Eddie.
Frank Cascio, the only Cascio brother who did not participate in the lawsuit for legal reasons, published a book in 2011 called “My Friend Michael: An Ordinary Friendship with an Extraordinary Man,” in which he claims the “Billie Jean” hitmaker never made inappropriate advances toward him or his family.
After Jackson’s death in 2009, Eddie, Frank and Marie Nicole also gave an interview with Oprah, in which they adamantly denied that the late pop star had ever touched them. At one point in the conversation, Eddie even claimed that a friend of the famous family “was the target.”
“He made us feel like he was everything to us. Like a friend, a father, all kinds of moral support,” Eddie told the Times. “And he was.”
When asked for comment, Marty Singer, Jackson’s estate administrator, pointed Page Six to an earlier statement by his attorneys that called Casios’ February 2026 lawsuit a “hopeless money grab.”
“This lawsuit is a desperate money grab by additional members of the Cascio family who have jumped on the bandwagon, along with their brother Frank, who has already been sued in a civil racketeering arbitration,” Singer said.
“For more than 25 years, the family has steadfastly defended Michael Jackson and exonerated him of any wrongdoing. This new court filing is a transparent forum shopping tactic in their plan to extract hundreds of millions of dollars from Michael’s estate and businesses.”
Some of the brothers claim they knew some aspects of their relationship with Jackson were wrong, but others say they didn’t realize they had suffered abuse at Jackson’s hands until they watched HBO’s 2019 documentary Leaving Neverland, which detailed the claims of two men who say Jackson sexually abused them.
The documentary reportedly prompted the four brothers to file a lawsuit against Jackson’s estate. In 2020, they reached an agreement to distribute a total of $16 million over five years.
After the payments were completed and negotiations over additional compensation reportedly tense, Frank, Marie Nicole and Aldo filed a separate complaint in November 2025, accusing the late Grammy winner’s estate of coercion, deception and betrayal in an attempt to silence the abuse claims.
In a lawsuit filed by Eddie, Dominique, Marie-Nicole Porte and Aldo Cascio, who allege each was “drugged, raped, and sexually assaulted” by Jackson in February 2026, the family said they met the music legend through their father, Dominique, who worked at a luxury Manhattan hotel where Jackson preferred to stay.
The Cassios claimed that before the abuse began, Jackson had showered them with “innuendos,” “lavish gifts,” “obsessive attention,” and “access to celebrity lifestyles” into their lives.
“He gave them drugs and alcohol, normalized the abuse and showed them pornography, including photos of unclothed children, to desensitize them,” the document says.
“He instilled fear and distrust in others by convincing them that if anyone found out what he was doing to them, it would not only destroy their lives, but their lives and the lives of their families.”
If you or someone you know is affected by any of the issues raised in this article, please call our Sexual Assault Hotline at 1-800-330-0226.
