Sylvester Stallone 'paid millions of dollars to half-sister who claimed he assaulted her for years at the height of his fame'

Sylvester Stallone paid his half-sister more than £3million to ‘shut her up’ after she threatened to ruin his career with claims he abused her, the actor’s mother has revealed.
The Rocky star agreed to give Toni-Ann Filiti a lump sum of £1.2million, as well as £10,500 a month for the rest of her life.
He also set up a trust fund for her, paying in £31,000 a year to cover medical expenses and psychiatric care, according to newly discovered court papers.
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Allegations: Sylvester Stallone, left, secretly agreed a multi-million deal with his late half-sister Toni-Ann Filiti  amid claims he had abused her for years

 

 

Sibling: Toni-Ann Filiti, half-sister of actor Sylvester Stallone, is pictured in exercise clothes in New York in 1985

Miss Filiti died last August at the age of 48 after a long battle with lung cancer. In total, she received more than £3million from the settlement.
Stallone’s mother Jackie, 91, confirmed the actor had reached a financial settlement with her – but described it as a ‘shakedown’.
She said Miss Filiti, her daughter by her second husband, was a drug addict who blackmailed Stallone when he was at the height of his fame, in 1987.

 

Miss Filiti, then 23, threatened him with a lawsuit alleging abuse. According to court papers obtained by a New York newspaper, she ‘asserted claims for personal injury, including physical injury’ against Stallone.
The papers show that the actor, now 66, ‘vigorously denied and continues to deny and dispute all claims of wrongdoing’.
Nevertheless, Stallone’s mother said his lawyers advised him to pay up to avoid any scandal that could have harmed his career.

 

Claims: Stallone's half-sister Toni Ann Filiti with their mother Jackie, seen here at the actor's 2006 Rocky Balboa premiere with her son

 

 

 

Silver screen: Sylvester Stallone in Rocky, left in 1976  and in Rocky Balboa, released in 2006

 

She insisted her son was the victim of blackmail, stating: ‘This was nothing more than a shakedown. Toni-Ann was on 65 OxyContin [a high-strength painkiller] pills a day, and she threatened Sylvester. A drug addict will do anything. Sylvester was trying to help her. He caved in.
‘At the time he was very hot and his lawyers said, “Give her something just to shut her up”.’
Stallone was 18 years old when Miss Filiti was born. His mother had re-married after her first marriage, to Stallone’s father Frank, ended in divorce after nine years.
Despite Miss Filiti’s allegations, Stallone remained on good terms with his sister. He even cast her son Edd in his 1997 film Copland – but this week the 19-year-old maintained that his mother was telling the truth.
‘They’ve made my mother out to be the black sheep,’ he said. He alleged that his mother ‘screamed about’ abuse at the hands of her brother ‘over and over’ while in a Florida hospital last year.
A spokesman for Stallone 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.’
Clan: The action star and his former model wife Jennifer Flavin, 43, have three daughters together, Sophia Rose 15, Sistine Rose 13 and Scarlet Rose nine

Stallone’s film career took off in 1976 with the release of Rocky, which he wrote and starred in.

Family life: Stallone was left devastated when Sage, his son with ex-wife Sasha Czack, was found dead in his Los Angeles home on July 13 2012

He went on to become one of the highest-paid stars in Hollywood, playing Vietnam veteran John Rambo in First Blood which, like Rocky, spawned several sequels. He is said to be worth more than £160million.
His son Sage, 36, died of a heart attack at his Hollywood home last July. He was found days before he was due to marry his long-term girlfriend.
The only picture reported to have been found in his apartment was of Sage, aged 14, with his father. His lawyer and close friend George Braunstein said Sage ‘idolised’ his father and that the pair were ‘close’.
According to sources, he led a hermit-like existence and was living in a property littered with junk food wrappers, cigarette butts, empty cans and prescription drug bottles. He could have been dead for up to four days before his body was discovered.
Sage was the second of two sons fathered by Stallone with his first wife Sasha Czack, whom he divorced in 1985 after ten years of marriage.
Eleven months later he married actress Brigitte Nielsen but they split two years later.
Stallone is currently with his third wife, Jennifer Flavin, with whom he has three children.