In December 2010, Oprah Winfrey invited Dominic and Connie Cascio and three of their five children onto her talk show to discuss Michael Jackson.
The pop star and Dominic, a manager of a Manhattan hotel where Mr. Jackson often stayed, had become good friends. For more than two decades, Mr. Jackson had eaten at the Cascios’ New Jersey home, brought them to his Neverland Ranch, took them along on tours around the world and celebrated with them on holidays.
The Cascios had become, as they often said, Mr. Jackson’s “second family.”
So a year and a half after Mr. Jackson’s death, the family came forward to talk to Oprah at length about their special relationship — and also to shield their friend from the ugly sexual abuse accusations that had long trailed him.
“Were there ever any improprieties with you and Michael Jackson?” Ms. Winfrey asked the Cascio siblings, Eddie, Frank and Marie Nicole, who were now adults, at the interview.
They responded in unison: “Never.” They each shook their heads.
Their friend Michael, Eddie asserted, “was a target.”
More than 15 years later, the Cascios now say that was a lie. All five of the Cascio children say they were groomed to protect Mr. Jackson and became, as they call it, his “soldiers” — the front line of his defense.
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. (The fifth sibling told The Times he was abused, but...
Business THE management of Dangote Petroleum Refinery and Petrochemicals has noted with concern the circulation of unfounded and misleading claims suggesting that its petroleum products are export...