Since his death in 2018, the final years of comic book icon Stan Lee’s life have undergone a fair amount of scrutiny, including the alleged abusive treatment he received from his daughter J.C. Lee. Speaking to Business Insider, the 75-year-old fervently denied accusations that she ever physically abused either Stan or mother Joan Lee, following a 2018 Hollywood Reporter story which described her attacking both of her parents.
The original Hollywood Reporter story describes a 2014 incident in which:
“J.C. then roughly grabbed her mother by one arm, shoving her against a window. Joanie fell to the carpeted floor. Lee, seated in a nearby chair and looking stunned, told J.C. he was cutting her off: ‘I’m going to stick you in a little apartment and take away all your credit cards!’ Herman recalls Lee shouting. ‘I’ve had it, you ungrateful bitch!’ In ‘a rage,’ J.C. took hold of Lee’s neck, slamming his head against the chair’s wooden backing. Joanie suffered a large bruise on her arm and burst blood vessels on her legs; Lee had a contusion on the rear of his skull. (J.C. has previously denied the incident.)”
According to the story, the fight was over the revelation that J.C.’s Jaguar convertible was leased in Stan Lee’s name, as opposed to being purchased in her own name. THR was provided with photos of Joan Lee’s injuries.
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J.C. told BI reporter Jason Guerrasio (as part of a larger story about her life as the daughter of Stan) that the report was “a lie,” adding that “I never ever touched my parents.”
At the time the story was released, J.C. “took the advice of the people around her not to make a public denial at the time of the accusation,” BI reports, quoting her as saying that “you think I haven’t regretted it to this day? They are all lies. That photo is insane. I never did it.”
Going undenied are the claims that the Lee family would often scream at each other — J.C.’s former assistant James MacLean told BI that “They were equally abusive, the way they screamed at each other. But then it would be like, ‘Let’s sit down and have dinner.’ That was their relationship.” And J.C. asserts that it never went past words.
While J.C. tells her story, a former assistant to Stan Lee is working on a new documentary featuring behind-the-scenes footage of Stan being exploited by his inner circle. Stan Lee: The Final Chapter raised $84,908 of its intended $300,000 budget on Kickstarter before filmmaker Jon Bolerjack canceled the project, having found outside funding.
