New Report Claims Stan Lee Suffered Elder Abuse By His Daughter, Details Battles Over His Estate
For the past couple months, multiple rumors and reports regarding Stan Lee have surfaced. The Daily Beast published a piece about the various people attempting to drain the Marvel Comics legend’s finances last month; TMZ reported that police were investigating claims of elder abuse at Lee’s home; and there were those horrifying reports that Lee’s blood was stolen and blended into ink to stamp his signature. And the saga is only getting more heartbreaking and messy. A new report reveals details of verbal and physical elder abuse both Lee and his late wife, Joan Lee, allegedly suffered, and ongoing fights to control Lee’s money.
The Hollywood Reporter published a lengthy investigative piece on Tuesday that dives into the complicated battles over the 95-year-old Marvel writer and producer’s estate and care. The piece examines the multiple figures in Lee’s life fighting over control of his finances and property, including his long-fraught relationship with his 67-year-old daughter, J.C. Lee. The piece describes the verbal abuse Lee reportedly experienced from his daughter, such as dozens of daily “insulting phone calls [that] frequently leave him hoarse from fighting.” It also goes into an incident of physical abuse, which the outlet obtained photos of Lee’s wife’s injuries. Lee’s former business and asset manager, Bradley Herman, described the incident he witnessed in 2014, in which J.C. had an outburst over a Jaguar her father leased that she believed was bought for her:
According to Herman […] J.C. then roughly grabbed her mother by one arm, shoving her against a window. Joanie fell to the carpeted floor. Lee, seated in a nearby chair and looking stunned, told J.C. he was cutting her off: “I’m going to stick you in a little apartment and take away all your credit cards!” Herman recalls Lee shouting. “I’ve had it, you ungrateful b–ch!” In “a rage,” J.C. took hold of Lee’s neck, slamming his head against the chair’s wooden backing. Joanie suffered a large bruise on her arm and burst blood vessels on her legs; Lee had a contusion on the rear of his skull.
The story notes that J.C. denied the abuse allegations in the past, and she also denied them on voicemails left for her father’s former attorney, which THR obtained. “This really did never, ever happen,” she allegedly said in one voicemail. And then there’s the chaos surrounding Lee’s money.
THR obtained a February 13 declaration signed by Lee in which he claims three men with “bad intentions” had influenced his daughter and “insinuated themselves into relationships with J.C. for an ulterior motive and purpose’: to take advantage of Lee and ‘gain control over my assets, property and money.” But then something odd happened – Lee seemingly changed his mind. In a video, published by THR, Lee admits to signing the document, but calls its contents “totally incorrect, inaccurate, misleading and insulting.”
The exposé covers the many figures – including J.C., her lawyer, Kirk Schenck, Jerardo “Jerry” Olivarez, Keya Morgan, and Max Anderson – at the center of the chaos, describing the “ongoing war” over control of Lee’s estate. Those range from allegations of bribery – one of Lee’s nurses claimed Anderson “flagged her down on the street and offered her $50,000 to sign a declaration saying that Lee was being held against his will” – accusations of stolen money, sexual assault, and blackmail – another nurse, Linda Sanchez, claims Morgan threatened to expose her past DUI and misdemeanor hit-and-run incident to the press if she spoke about the elder abuse she witnessed.
The whole saga is all a toxic, heartbreaking mess. Herman told the trade of the comics legend, “It breaks my heart to see somebody that I love being effectively held prisoner. He finds himself in need of a superhero himself.” Read the full story over at The Hollywood Reporter.