Stan Lee speaks out on elder abuse claims and more: 'There really isn't that much drama'
Stan Lee doesn’t want you to feel sorry for him.
In a new interview, the 95-year-old Marvel comics legend downplayed the chaos surrounding him and his estate in the past year.
As a refresher, there was the disappearance of millions of dollars from Lee’s robust bank account and the sale of Lee’s blood, allegedly by former business associate Jerardo “Jerry” Olivarez. Lee was granted a protective order in June against Keya Morgan, whom he began working with after the July 2017 death of his longtime wife, Joan. There were other problems, too. The Hollywood Reporter wrote in April that, on Feb. 13, Lee had signed a legal declaration that said his daughter, J.C., was a volatile overspender easily influenced by three men with “bad intentions.” Lee himself was accused of sexually harassing nurses taking care of him, which his team called “extortion.” Lawsuits were filed both by and against him. The Los Angeles Police Department began investigating claims of elder abuse concerning Lee. (The LAPD did not immediately respond to Yahoo Entertainment’s request for an update on the status of the investigation.) It’s all really complicated.
Lee himself attempted to reassure everyone that he’s OK in an interview with the Daily Beast published today, conducted with J.C., 68, and her lawyer Kirk Schenck (the only one of the alleged men with “bad intentions” left on Lee’s team). Writer Mark Ebner began the conversation by telling Lee that he was sorry for all the drama he’s gone through.
“There really isn’t that much drama. As far as I’m concerned, we have a wonderful life,” Lee said. “I’m pretty damn lucky. I love my daughter, I’m hoping that she loves me, and I couldn’t ask for a better life. If only my wife was still with us. I don’t know what this is all about.”
After Ebner explains what he meant, Lee said, “I wish that everyone was as abusive to me as J.C. She is a wonderful daughter. I like her. We have occasional spats. But I have occasional spats with everyone. I’ll probably have one with you, where I’ll be saying, ‘I didn’t say that!’ But, that’s life.”
A few times during the interview, J.C. cut in to clarify Lee’s comments or disagree with his memory of something. He sometimes accidentally referred to her using his late wife’s name.
J.C. admitted that she had yelled at her dad, but only “in the last 10 years or so” because of her frustration that he has hearing problems and her anger about her father being taken advantage of.
She also shot down allegations that she’s ever abused her father or her late mother. The April THR piece alleged that, in the winter of 2014, J.C. grabbed her mother by the arm and shoved her against a window, before grabbing her father by the neck and hitting his head against a chair.
“As long as I’ve lived, I have never touched my mother, my father, or a dog. Never,” J.C. told the Daily Beast. “How that ever happened… between us, my mother was very ill. She was on major drugs and drink for the pain. And she didn’t make it really easy.”
She added that it was “a terrible situation. There was never physical violence in this house. Never. I will take anything from anyone, anytime.”
J.C. denied that she spends big bucks, too.
“Six figures? I’d love it,” she responded to a question validating the truth behind her monthly expenditures. “I’d be out the door and at the beach. No.”
When her father is asked about his daughter’s spending, he said there’s “no problem.”
Late in the interview, Lee summed up his feelings about J.C.: “My daughter. I love her very much. I suspect that she loves me. We get along beautifully. I have regrets, and I suppose she does too.”
He said he doesn’t plan to go back on the road for fan conventions. However, he does expect to “come up with more projects.”
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