Children Say Casey Kasem Being Held Prisoner

Julia Kasem

The eldest children of legendary TV and radio broadcaster Casey Kasem says his current wife is holding their ailing 81-year-old father prisoner inside his Holmby Hills estate.

Kasem has Parkinson’s.

He had three children with his first wife. They divorced in 1970.

The youngest of those three children, Julia, told KCAL9 the family, Kasem’s longtime agent and his brother are so frustrated about not being about to see Kasem they protested in front of the estate Tuesday demanding they get to visit him.

Julia said she hasn’t seen her father since August.

“This is our last straw,” she said, “This is our last straw. We couldn’t take it any more.”

She added, “We know how many people love dad. How special he is to a lot of people. We figured, you know what? Let’s let everybody know we care so much, we want him to know — we’re not abandoning you.”

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Kasem married “Cheers” actress Jean Thompson in 1980. The couple has one daughter.

KCAL9 reached out to Jean Kasem for a comment. She chose not to respond to the family’s charges.

According to the family, every Sunday, like clockwork, Kasem would be driven from his estate to daughter Julia’s house for a visit and that stopped in August.

They quote Jean as saying, ‘Dad is no longer available.’

Kasem founded the nationally syndicated American Top 40 countdown show, which he hosted from 1970 to 1988, and then again from 1998 to 2004. He also was the voice actor for the character Shaggy in Scooby-Doo, a Saturday morning cartoon that began in 1969.