"The Boy Who Came Back From Heaven" is headed to court and is taking his publisher along for the ride.
Alex Malarkey, best known as co-author of a bestselling book documenting his alleged near-death religious experience, has admitted to making the entire story up and now he plans to sue the publisher, Tyndale House, The Washington Post reported.
According to the lawsuit filed Monday, the Christian book publisher cashed in on false claims that Alex Malarkey, who was involved in a 2004 car accident with his father, had died and traveled to heaven to meet Jesus and Satan.
Alex Malarkey was 6 at the time of the accident, which put him in a coma for two months.
When he eventually awoke, the child was a quadriplegic.
Around the same time, he started telling friends and family about his spiritual experience, which led to the publishing of a book, "The Boy Who Came Back From Heaven," that documented the ordeal in 2010.
However, in 2015 Alex Malarkey retracted the claims in a blog post which has been deleted, and in an open letter to the Pulpit and Pen.
"I said I went to heaven because I thought it would get me attention," he said, adding that "people have profited from lies, and continue to."
Now Alex Malarkey is saying his now deceased father, Kevin Malarkey, had conjured up the story and then signed a publishing deal to release the book under both their names, The Court House News reported.
The legal complaint also alleges that Tyndale House never paid Alex Malarkey any revenue despite the book generating massive sales.
According to CBS News, Alex Malarkey is also claiming that the book's contents were never cleared with him before being published and that Tyndale refused to produce records of the money made from sales.
"Despite the fact that Tyndale House has made millions of dollars off Alex's identity and an alleged autobiographical story of his life, Tyndale House paid Alex, a paralyzed young man, nothing," the lawsuit states, per The Washington Post.
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