Astronaut Buzz Aldrin is suing two of his children for suggesting he is mentally unstable.
Mr Aldrin, 88, the second person to walk on the moon, has accused his adult children Andrew and Janice of slander for allegations they have made that he is developing Alzheimer's disease, and for not allowing him to remarry.
Mr Aldrin's two children oversee both a private and a non-profit organisation in the astronaut's name. He claims his offspring have been using his legacy and company money "for their own self-dealing and enrichment", the Guardian reports.
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The lawsuit against Mr Aldrin's children was filed in Florida, and describes his son Andrew of taking almost $500,000 from his father's account in the past two years. Mr Aldrin's children have also applied to have co-guardianship over him, claiming he is in "cognitive decline".
Mr Aldrin has fervently denied he is developing dementia and will undergo a competency examination this week, his lawyers have said. But Mr Aldrin's children say they are "deeply disappointed and saddened by the unjustified lawsuit" brought against them.
They have also been accused of not letting Mr Aldrin remarry. The lawsuit says Mr Aldrin's children have "undermined, bullied and defamed" any romantic partners he has had. The astronaut has been married three times.
The mother of Mr Aldrin's children in the lawsuit, Joan Archer, was married to him from 1954-1974.
Mr Aldrin's mother committed suicide in 1968, the year before his famous Apollo 11 mission to the Moon with Neil Armstrong. The father of Mr Aldrin's mother also committed suicide, and it's been reported than Mr Aldrin believes he inherited depression from them, having spoken out about suffering from alcoholism and depression.
Also included in the lawsuit is Christina Korp, an administrator for the non-profit and for-profit in Mr Aldrin's name, the same as his children. She is a board member of the Buzz Aldrin Space Foundation and vice president of marketing at Buzz Aldrin Enterprise, according to the Guardian.
Ms Korp was the subject of a controversial tweet by Mr Aldrin's account that said she had been terminated from her position.
Many people were sceptical about the tweet, suggesting it wasn't Mr Aldrin who had written it.
"Something tells me those weren't the words of the real Buzz," one person commented.
Mr Aldrin's children have claimed the tweet wasn't written by their father. A spokesperson for the Aldrin Foundation, Jeff Carr, echoed their suspicion, saying in a statement: "We are not sure who is responsible for the tweet regarding Christina but we are confident Buzz did not write this."
Robert Bauer, Mr Aldrin's attorney, says a "full explanation will be forthcoming in the following days".
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