Stan Lee’s daughter JC Lee denied the allegations that she abused her elderly parents in a new interview with Business Insider published on Monday. This is the first time JC has responded to these claims, which were first raised by The Hollywood Reporter in April of 2018. The article described alleged financial abuse and exploitation by several people, including one business manager who was referred to Lee by JC. It also included allegations that JC herself had physically abused her parents — slamming Lee’s head against the back of a chair in anger at one point and grabbing her mother’s arm so hard it bruised.
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“They are all lies,” JC said in this new interview. “I never did it… I never ever touched my parents.” The 75-year-old said that she was advised not to make a public denial back in 2018, but she regrets it now in hindsight. However, she believes that her father was exploited for his money, and that the people who did it are walking free today, reaping the benefits.
The THR article that started this story came less than a year after Lee’s wife, Joan Boocock died at the age of 95, and six months before Lee himself died on November 12, 2018, also at 95. It led to criminal elder abuse charges against Lee’s former business manager, Keya Morgan, which were dropped in 2022 when a jury deadlocked on his case. It also singled out Jerardo Olivarez, a business manager recommended to Lee by his daughter, whom Lee sued before his death.
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The allegations against JC never led to charges, but they were serious on several front. She was portrayed as spoiled and entitled, frequently clashing with her parents over money and property. The article’s claim of physical violence stemmed from a 2014 incident where JC supposedly attacked her parents after discovering that her new Jaguar was leased in her father’s name, not her own. The sources said that Lee and Boocock did not go to the authorities because they believed JC was in a delicate mental state.
JC herself acknowledged that she is prone to rage and tantrums in her new interview. She told Business Insider that she often screamed at her parents, but never hit them or hurt them. JC’s former business partner, James MacLean, added that screaming was generally a big part of the family dynamic for all three of them.
Now, JC said that she believes some of the people handling business interests and money for her father late in his life succeeded in enriching themselves, leaving her without the inheritance she was expecting. “I feel these people have taken my life,” she said, “and they’re eating off gold utensils and I’m eating off plastic.”
