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Marvel legend Stan Lee denies claims he's the victim of elder abuse

Marvel legend Stan Lee (Credit: PA)
Marvel legend Stan Lee (Credit: PA)

Stan Lee, the visionary behind Marvel Comics, has denied claims that he is the victim of elder abuse, following stunning claims that his daughter is trying to gain control of his estate.

An exposé in The Hollywood Reporter paints a grim picture of allegations that his daughter Joan Celia ‘J.C.’ Lee and others including Keya Morgan, a memorabilia dealer who now acts as Lee’s gatekeeper, are attempting to gain control of his assets.

However, in a video posted online, 95-year-old Lee said: “I want to say it as clearly as I can: my relationship with my lovely daughter J.C. is wonderful.

“My relationship with my good friend Keya Morgan is great, we’re best friends. There is nothing bad I can say about my daughter or Keya.”

“Everything in my life is going the way I want it to. My friends are my friends, my daughter is my daughter, and I’m beginning to learn who my enemies are. That’s really all I can say now. Everything I’ve said up until this moment is God’s truth.”

However, the story in The Hollywood Reporter paints a very different story, one insider calling Lee’s relationship with his daughter ‘an utter sh*t show’.

A document said to have been signed by Lee from February this year, taken down and verified by his attorney Tom Lallas, tells of J.C.’s wild spending, reputedly ‘$20,000 to $40,000 on credit cards, sometimes more’ every month, and an inability to manage the trust set up for her by Lee and his late wife Joan.

It’s also claimed that she has demanded that he transfer properties to her name and that when Lee and his 68-year-old daughter have argued, she becomes ‘hysterical’ and abusive.

The document also names Jerardo ‘Jerry’ Olivarez, Keya Morgan and J.C.’s attorney, Kirk Schenck as ‘insinuated themselves into relationships with J.C. for an ulterior motive and purpose’, that purpose being to ‘gain control over my assets, property and money’.

TMZ reported last year that Lee had been the victim of a bank fraud in which its alleged Olivarez bought an $850,000 home and wrote a $300,000 cheque for himself from Lee’s account.

(Credit: People)
(Credit: People)

In a statement to People magazine, Lallas, who has since been fired, affirmed his position.

“I read the Declaration to Mr. Lee word for word, line by line, sentence by sentence, from beginning to end,” he said.

“After each paragraph, I asked Mr. Lee if the paragraph I had just read was accurate, or if he wanted any changes to be made. Except for one paragraph, in each case, when I asked Mr. Lee these two questions after reading a paragraph, he told me that the paragraph I read to him was accurate, and no changes were necessary.

“Mr. Lee then signed the Declaration, and the notary signed the notarial acknowledgment.”

It’s the latest in a series of troubling stories surrounding Lee.

A video emerged from Comic Con in Silicon Valley last weekend of Lee, who has suffered a bout of pneumonia in February, clearly frail but still signing autographs despite allegedly not being given sufficient breaks.

Another stunning claim says that Olivarez had stolen some of Lee’s blood to use to stamp comic books using the Marvel legend’s ‘DNA ink’ and sell them fans.

Olivarez countered that he obtained the blood with the permission of Lee’s doctor.

Lee was also accused of the sexual harassment of care nurses, allegations he has forcefully denied.

On hearing the claims, lifelong fan Kevin Smith has offered to help Lee out of the situation.

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