Musician Michael Monasterio was Jessica Chastain’s biological father. He died of complications from bronchitis on Feb. 5. He was 55.
35-year-old Chastain, nominated for the Best Actress Oscar for her work in “Zero Dark Thirty,” did not attend the service held for Monasterio on Saturday, the day before the Academy Awards. Her half-sisters, Nicole and Laci, joined the friends of Michael Monasterio to mourn him at a memorial service in Sacramento, California.
Monasterio was estranged from his daughter, who publicly acknowledges her stepfather, fireman Michael Hastey, as her father.
“He is not on Jessica’s birth certificate. There are no photos of Jessica and Michael together. Given all of the facts, there are no plans to attend ,” a source close to Chastain explained to the Daily News before the service.
Jessica did not know the man during her lifetime and did not see a reason to start a relationship with him and his family now.
“He never paid child support,” a Chastain source told the Daily News of their lifelong estrangement. “He chose not to have contact with Jessica and her family.”
Jessica was born Jessica Howard before taking her mother’s name as she raised as a famous actress. Her mother Jerri and Michael had been high school sweethearts. Monasterio was just 20 when the Oscar nominee was born. Chastain’s mother, vegan chef Jerri Chastain, was just 16 when she gave birth.
The couple broke up shortly after Jessica and her late sister Juliet were born in 1977 and 1978 respectively.
“Michael was a typical ’80s rocker, so he was definitely no innocent but neither was Jessica’s mom,” a family friend told Star magazine earlier this month. “So it was always upsetting to Michael that Jessica turned her back on him, especially after Jerri remarried, and eventually started referring to her stepdad Michael Hastey as her father.”
Monasterio was obviously proud of his daughter, despite the estrangement. He posted on Facebook a photo of his own mother holding a young two-year-old Jessica. As a caption he wrote:
“My Mother and my first daughter, her mother and I were highschool sweethearts, with two little ones, My Mom really loved this one, such an awesome baby…”
Before his death, Michael spoke openly on his Facebook about his oldest daughters, claiming he struggled to find them for years after Jerri ‘took off’ after he had a third daughter, Nicole Monasterio, with ex wife Denise. After Nicole, Michael had another daughter, Laci, now 26, with ex-girlfriend Charlene Smoot. Since 2011, he had been in a relationship with Lisa D’Mato. this in her on Facebook.
Michael Monasterio was born on August 8, 1957. He was a drummer in Thousand Oaks, California.
His memorial service was held on February 23 at Clunie Community Center in Sacramento, California.
Find Monasterio’s Fan Page here.
Visit the Facebook page Celebrating the Life of Michael Monasterio here. Find his Google+ profile here. Find his daughter Nicole Monasterio here.
