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Moonwalker Buzz Aldrin said the moment two of his children asked a court to grant them guardianship over their father was 'the saddest thing that ever happened in my family.'

The astronaut, who was accused by his kids of being in 'cognitive decline' and allowing himself to be manipulated by those around him, said he'd been overwhelmed by 'sorrow' by the actions of his son Andrew 60, and daughter Janice, 51, Aldrin.

'I really felt that it really didn't need to come to this,' said the 88-year-old, the second person to walk on the moon, during an appearance on Good Morning America Tuesday.

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Moonwalker Buzz Aldrin said the moment two of his children asked a court to grant them guardianship over their father was 'the saddest thing that ever happened in my family'

'It's the saddest thing that ever happened in my family. But as I've seen, family is forever and I will forever be trying to patch it up.'

Aldrin responded with his own suit accusing his kids and former personal manager Christina Korp of elder exploitation, fraud and misuse of funds.

He claimed in the suit that Andrew and Korp also improperly used his credit cards, assumed control of his memorabilia, and deliberately sabotaged his relationships - refusing to let him remarry. 

Aldrin is thrice divorce, separating from his latest wife Lois Driggs Cannon, in 2012 although he was still looking for love, according to a GQ interview.

The retired engineer and astronaut is also suing Andrew, Janice and Korp for slander, after they claimed he had dementia.

In May, Janice and Andrew Aldrin (left and center in 1969) had asked a court to grant them co-guardianship over their father, giving them control over his finances and decision-making

The astronaut said he'd been overwhelmed by 'sorrow' by the actions of his son Andrew 60, (with him right) and daughter Janice, 51, Aldrin (with him left)

Aldrin has fired back at his two children and former personal manager Christina Korp (pictured) accusing them of elder exploitation, fraud and misuse of funds

'Defendant Andrew Aldrin and Defendant Christina Korp have been for the past number of years been slandering Plaintiff in public and/or to other individuals or small groups by stating Plaintiff has Dementia and Alzheimer's,' according to his suit. 'Defendants have used this tactic to gain further control over Plaintiff's personal relationships, business contacts and assets.'

Aldrin said on GMA: 'I was hoping that whatever the differences are could be worked out, but it appears as though it wasn't moving in that direction.'

'So we just had to not lie over and go to sleep. We had to take a position. It's really incomprehensible that they would do this.'

Aldrin believes that Korp and Andrew used his company's funds for their own 'enrichment' and that his son had transferred nearly a half a million dollars over the course of two years from his father's company into a personal one.

Korp has hit back, saying she is 'being unfairly defamed' by Aldrin and blaming the managers of Buzz Aldrin Ventures - Aldrin's new company' for driving 'a wedge' between the former astronaut, his children and herself.

She added that the company was exerting 'undue influence' on Aldrin and she was 'saddened' that it had come to this but she couldn't sit idly by while he made 'unjustified and malicious attacks' on her character.

 Aldrin's children say the suit is 'unjustified.'

'We love and respect our father very much and remain hopeful that we can rise about this situation,' they said in a statement.

Andrew and Janice had petitioned a Florida state court to appoint them as his co-guardians of their father in May, giving them the power to control his finances and business dealings, as well as make decisions on his behalf.  

Aldrin's lawsuit claims that Andrew, Janice and Korp had slandered him by telling others that he has dementia and Alzheimer's disease, while also interfering with his romantic pursuits

According to Aldrin, their reasons for the legal request was based on his being 'in cognitive decline,' and experiencing paranoia and confusion.  

Court documents stated that Andrew and Janice believed their father was affiliating himself with people who seemed to be trying to manipulate him, and asked that Aldrin submit to an examination of his competency by multiple, court-appointed mental health specialists. 

Andrew, Janice and Korp all hold high-ranking positions within Aldrin's private and nonprofit companies. 

Aldrin's June 7 suit accused son Andrew and Korp of elder abuse, as well as converting his property for their own use and unjustly enriching themselves at his expense. Aldrin accused daughter Janice of conspiracy and breach of fiduciary duty. 

Aldrin had previously undergone a voluntary mental health examination by UCLA Medical School professor of psychiatry and biobehavioral sciences Dr. James Spar. 

After the April evaluation, Spar wrote in a report reviewed by WSJ, that Aldrin is 'cognitively intact and retains all forms of decisional capacity.' 

Aldrin said that he is scheduled for the new mental health examinations on June 26 and 27 and appears confident that he'll pass with flying colors. 

'Nobody is going to come close to thinking I should be under a guardianship,' Aldrin told the WSJ. 

Aldrin's other son, James Michael, has stayed out of the fray and is not involved in either side of the legal disputes.

Korp, initially hired as an executive secretary in 2007, began taking over his business in 2013, Aldrin said. She is now a director of ShareSpace Foundation and the VP of marketing at Buzz Aldrin Enterprises. 

In 2015, Aldrin's companies were incorporated Aldrin, Andrew and Janice as board members. Following a share transaction, Aldrin lost control of his company, receiving just one of its three votes.

It was around that time that Aldrin said Andrew 'began to broadly interpret' a position Aldrin had secured his son as a graduate assistant at the Florida Institute of Technology, where Aldrin was a research professor and faculty adviser. 

Aldrin's lawsuit claims that his children and Korp have sabotaged his romantic relationships. Aldrin's divorce from his third wife, Lois Driggs Cannon, was finalized in 2012

Part of that alleged broad interpretation meant that Andrew appointed himself the director of the institute, according to Aldrin. 

Aldrin said that Korp fired the agency he had been using to book speaking engagements at some point after 2013, to begin making those arrangements herself and, unbeknownst to Aldrin, was bagging a five per cent commission on anything she booked.

Aldrin's frustrations with the way his company was being handled reached a head in 2016, when he realized that he was being booked for events he didn't want to attend and being told to endorse products he wasn't interested in, such as Faberge eggs and perfume.

Perhaps more importantly, his foundation hadn't granted any scholarships, according to paperwork his lawyers had reviewed. 

Additional paperwork revealed that Aldrin had received a salary of $36,000 and reimbursement for expenses in 2017 from Buzz Aldrin Enterprises. Meanwhile, Andrew and Korp were each given $153,000 salaries and reimbursed for things like first class flights.    

Aldrin's examples of how Andrew and Janice have been controlling his activities include taking away his passport and restricting him from his favorite pastime, scuba diving, in the wake of a collapse during a South Pole hike he said he was forced to go on during a fundraising trip for his foundation in 2016. 

Aldrin also said that because Janice and Andrew control the board, he has been barred from firing Korp from the company.  

Andrew and Janice have issued a statement through their lawyers in response to their father's lawsuit.  

'We are deeply disappointed and saddened by the unjustified lawsuit that has been brought against us individually and against the Foundation that we have built together as a family to carry on Dad's legacy for generations to come,' the siblings said in the statement. 

'We love and respect our father very much and remain hopeful that we can rise above this situation and recover the strong relationship that built this foundation in the first place.'  

Aldrin's lawyer argued that his client's suit was justified and necessary to protect him from people 'taking too much from an opportunity.'

'These are people who have seen opportunities and see opportunities for themselves in the future and are more interested in Buzz Aldrin's legacy than Buzz Aldrin.'  

Aldrin, meanwhile, told GMA that his real problem was that he was too trusting.