SYLVESTER Stallone paid millions to his half-sister over allegations he abused her in what his mum says was "a shakedown".
In 1987, at the height of his fame, Stallone agreed to give his half-sister Toni-Ann Filiti a $US2 million ($1.9 million) lump sum, plus around $US17,000 a month for life and $US50,000 a year for her psychiatric and medical costs, the New York Post reports, to settle claims he physically abused her.
The Expendibles 2 action star "vigorously denied and continues to deny and dispute all claims of wrongdoing" and his family painted the payout as blackmail.
The warring siblings’ mother Jacqueline Stallone told New York Post the multimillion dollar payout to Filiti was “nothing more than a shakedown” and that Sly’s lawyers urged him to pay his drug-addicted sister to keep quiet.
“Toni-Ann was on 65 Oxycontin pills a day, and she threatened Sylvester,” said Jacqueline.
“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.”
“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,” Stallone’s rep told the paper.
However, Filiti’s son Edd says his mother often screamed out the abuse allegations from her hospital bed, and criticised the Stallone family for painting her as “the black sheep.”
