Sylvester Stallone Says He Was Blackmailed By Half-Sister Into Secret Settlement Over Allegations Of Abuse
Jan. 24 2013, Published 12:53 p.m. ET
Sylvester Stallone's half-sister Toni-Ann Filiti alleged he abused her for years, resulting in a multimillion-dollar settlement that the Rocky star claims he was blackmailed into, RadarOnline.com is reporting.
In paperwork obtained by Page Six, the agreement was signed 26 years ago and shows Sly agreeing to pay Toni-Ann $2 million plus $16,666.66 every month in her lifetime, on top of a trust with $50,000 per year for medical and psychiatric expenses.
Despite Toni-Ann's abuse claims, sources tell the New York paper that the settlement was part of a "shakedown" and that the 66-year-old actor was blackmailed.
Page Six reports that the settlement paperwork said Toni-Ann "asserted claims for personal injury, including physical injury" against her half-brother, while he "vigorously denied and continues to deny and dispute all claims of wrongdoing."
As RadarOnline.com exclusively reported, Toni-Ann lost her battle to lung cancer and passed away on August 26 at the age of 48.
“This was nothing more than a shakedown,” Sly's own mother, Jackie Stallone, told the paper on Wednesday.
“Toni-Ann was on 65 Oxycontin pills a day, and she threatened Sylvester. A drug addict will do anything. When Sylvester became famous, she didn’t have to hook. He was trying to help her. He caved in.”
Jackie continued, “There were too many conflicting stories… At the time in 1987 he was very hot, and his lawyers said, ‘Give her something just to shut her up.’”
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Toni-Ann's son Edd, 19, told Page Six, “They’ve made my mother out to be the black sheep,” and claimed while she was in the hospital last year she told him of the abuse by “screaming about them over and over."
A rep for Sylvester said, “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.”