Sylvester Stallone 'Blackmailed' by Half-Sister for Abuse Claims? Star Paid $8 Million
Sylvester Stallone was apparently blackmailed by his half-sister Toni-Ann for millions since the late 1980s, his representative said. Stallone had been accused of abusing his half-sister at the time.
Sylvester Stallone's allegations of physical abuse came when his career was at one of his highest points: 1987, after he had played champion boxer Rocky Balboa and action hero Rambo in a series of movies. Filiti accused him of abusing her, and an agreement was reached. Stallone paid her $2 million up front, $16,666.66 every month, with another $50,000 a year for psychiatric and medical expenses, according to The New York Post's Page Six.
The total over 24 years equals nearly $8 million.
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The settlement papers accounted for Filiti's "asserted claims for personal injury, including physical injury," with Stallone continuing to "deny and dispute all claims of wrongdoing."
However, Filiti and Sylvester's mother, Jaqueline Stallone, said the money only came at the suggestion of his lawyers, not for any actual abuse.
"This was nothing more than a shakedown. Toni-Ann was on 65 Oxycontin pills a day, and she threatened Sylvester. A drug addict will do anything. He was trying to help her. He caved in," she explained to The New York Post. "At the time he was very hot, and his lawyers said, 'Give her something just to shut her up.'"
Ever since Filiti died of lung cancer in August of last year at 48, there haven't been many to defend her accusations of abuse. Her son, 19-year-old Edd, maintains that she told him stories of abuse before she passed.
"They've made my mother out to be the black sheep," Edd said, saying that she was "screaming about [them] over and over."
Stallone's representative has addressed the claims, dismissing them as nothing more than blackmail, ultimately.
"Unfortunately, celebrities, politicians and athletes frequently find themselves the targets of blackmail efforts by family members and associates who fabricate claims in order to extort payments from them," the rep said.
