'Ozark' Star Jason Bateman Disowns Sick Mom Who Claims Her Children Even Tried 'To Pull The Plug'
Jason and Justine Bateman
May 28 2022, Published 1:12 p.m. ET
Heartsick and fighting for survival, the mother of Ozark star Jason Bateman is breaking her silence to sensationally claim her coldhearted TV star kids — Jason and Justine — cruelly abandoned her and cut her out of their lives over a family dispute.
80-year-old Vicki Bateman tearfully charges her famous kids with rejecting her in her greatest time of need — because she’d married a man they didn’t like and even told doctors to pull the plug when she was hospitalized!
“If it were up to my children, I’d be dead,” she said, in a new interview.
In 2019, Victoria was stricken with a string of ailments — including pleurisy, a weakened heart and the loss of a transplanted kidney — that put her in the hospital for a year.
“My body started to shut down,” she said. “As I lay helpless on life support, my children turned their backs on me. My daughter even told the doctors to pull the plug.”
Former flight attendant Victoria sees it as a stunning betrayal after she and the children’s father, actor Kent Bateman, served as manager and publicists to launch their kids’ stellar careers. Under their parents’ guidance, Jason became a teen heartthrob on Little House on the Prairie, Silver Spoons and “Valerie,” and Justine shot to stardom on Family Ties.
Jason, now 53, later hit it big again on Arrested Development and most recently, the dark Netflix drama Ozark, for which he reportedly earned $300,000 per episode.
Justine, 56, has since had a string of TV roles, including a stint on Desperate Housewives, and made her directorial debut in 2021 with the movie Violet.
“I raised them both to be kind, considerate, thoughtful and caring people, but something — maybe fame and fortune — changed them,” lamented Vicki.
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One turning point, she said, was her marriage to third, and current, hubby Todd Vandemheen, 59.
“My children did not like Todd from the beginning, thinking he was going to take their inheritance,” Vicki said. “Why they worried about my money is a mystery because both Justine and Jason are obviously very wealthy.”
Vicki claimed after she and Todd wed in 2020, Justine hired an investigator to probe him and even took out a restraining order against him.
“While I was still in poor health and easily manipulated, Justine got her own assistant to be paid from my account at $1,000 a week,” Vicki charged. “She had the assistant go to my home, turn Todd out, and remove the entire household and its contents.”
“Then this assistant arranged for me to be placed in a nursing home. I was miserable, but still so ill I could do nothing about any of this. It was truly elder abuse.”
As Vicki regained her health, she was able to take charge of her life, leave the nursing home and return to her own home in the California desert. Although she still has health issues, she was able to get the restraining order against Todd lifted.
“It was Todd who intervened with doctors when Justine said to pull the plug, and he demanded I be kept alive,” says Vicki. Now, the couple are together again, but was left with an empty house. “There wasn’t one pot or pan left behind, not even a can opener,” said Vicki. “So I have to face the loss of my own children, as well as what they’ve done to me.”
“They’ve had no contact with me whatsoever since 2019. I email Justine and Jason and call but get no response. Not at Christmas or Thanksgiving. Not even on Mother’s Day!”
“I heard nothing from them on my 80th birthday last September.”
Sadly, she’s also been cut off from her four grandchildren — Jason’s daughters Francesca, 15, and Maple, 10, and Justine’s kids, Duke, 19, and Gianetta, 18.
Meanwhile, Jason has admitted in interviews: “I’m not a great brother or uncle or son for that matter.” He also claims to have an on-and-off relationship with both of his parents. But it seems mostly “off” with Vicki.
“I’m even sadder, after all I went through when they were kids, to speed them on their way into the careers and lives they now have,” she says. “I would urge everyone out there, ‘Take care of your mother, who always loves you.’ ”