Mickey Rooney is said to have suffered horrific abuse in the last years of his life.

The Hollywood Reporter has published a shocking expose into the final years of Hollywood legend Mickey Rooney’s life, alleging he was the victim of horrific abuse.

There was a child star who died with just $18,000 to her name despite being in the film industry for decades, not being allowed to have an ID, not even being allowed to buy herself food, and being physically abused.

The article, by reporters Gary Baum and Scott Feinberg, comprised of interviews and testimony collected long before his death in 2014, paints a grim picture of his life with his eighth wife, Jan Rooney, and one of her sons, Chris Aber, who managed Mickey’s career in the late 1990s and early 2000s.

The abuse allegations first came to light when Rooney confided in Edward Nowak, a Disney executive he met while working on The Muppets in 2011.

Jan Rooney, 76, denied ever abusing her husband but admitted to “little arguments, outbursts when we were angry. Sometimes it was his fault, sometimes it was mine. We always made up.”

There’s even a shocking video (watch it below) of Feinberg interviewing Rooney in 2010 with Jan and Chris Aber in tow. The video shows Jan kicking her husband hard under the table when she becomes angry at his slurred answers to Feinberg’s questions.

Others have also claimed to have witnessed the abuse firsthand, including Hector Garcia, a caretaker assigned to oversee Rooney’s safety.

Garcia says that once when he heard a bang coming from the second floor of Rooney’s house, he ran upstairs and saw Jan standing over him on the ground.

“I told her, ‘You can’t hit Mickey; I won’t let you do that,'” Garcia says. “She told me, ‘Get used to it. I’m hitting him because that’s the only way he’s learning — by hitting him like a baby.'”

Rooney himself had been arrested years earlier, in 1997, on charges of hitting Jan during a fight, but the case was dropped.

It is also claimed that Rooney may have been weakened by medication prescribed by Jan.

Charlene Aber, who with her husband, Rooney’s other stepson, Mark, looked after Mickey at their own expense after he split from Jan, says she was once overheard saying: “I have to keep him high so I can perform on stage, and I have to keep him quiet and composed when he’s at home.”

Even more shocking was the incident when Rooney’s guardian, Garcia, took him to visit Jan after their breakup.

Upon seeing stepson Chris outside the house, Rooney reportedly “dropped onto the floor of the vehicle and literally started crying, shaking, scared. He actually soiled himself and I had to wash him,” Garcia says.

Aber responded to the accusation by saying, “That’s ridiculous. Mickey had a problem with constantly getting his pants dirty.”

After the abuses were exposed, Rooney turned to attorney Michael Augustine, who accused Aber of stealing $8.5 million from Rooney over the years.

Court documents show that at the time Rooney’s home was mortgaged to collect equity, Aber owned four homes: two Mercedes and a Porsche.

Aber agreed to pay $2.8 million in a civil settlement but has not yet paid back a penny.

In 2011, Rooney publicly condemned elder abuse before the U.S. Senate Select Committee on Aging.

“My money was stolen from me. Ultimately, I was stripped of the ability to make even the most basic decisions… my daily life became unbearable,” he said.

“When a man feels helpless, it’s terrible. And I was helpless… I suffered in silence for years, unable to muster the courage to seek the help I knew I needed. I’m asking you to stop this elder abuse. Stop it now. Tomorrow, not next month, but now.”

He did not provide any names at the time.

Jan Rooney denies any wrongdoing and insists that the full transcript of an interview she gave to The Hollywood Reporter about the allegations be released in its entirety.

“My son Christopher and I have continued to deny all false accusations made against our family in the media over the past several years, until today,” she says.

When asked if Rooney had ever been physically violent towards her, she replied simply, “yes.”

Jan Rooney is said to receive $100,000 a year (around £65,000) from Rooney’s SAG pension and Social Security benefits.

Rooney died in April 2014 of natural causes and was buried at Hollywood Forever Cemetery.

Read more:
How Paul Walker Was Digitally Recreated for F&F7
The world celebrates Back to the Future Day
Daniel Radcliffe ‘Can’t Watch’ Harry Potter Film

Image Source: AP/Reuters/THR