Current:Home > ContactNew Lifetime documentary claims Nicole Brown Simpson's mom asked O.J. 'Did you do this?' -OceanicInvest
New Lifetime documentary claims Nicole Brown Simpson's mom asked O.J. 'Did you do this?'
View
Date:2025-04-12 02:44:14
In the conclusion of Lifetime’s “The Life & Murder of Nicole Brown Simpson” docuseries, filmmakers turned their focus to the aftermath of Brown Simpson’s death at 35.
As detailed in Saturday's first chapter, O.J. Simpson’s ex-wife and her friend, Ron Goldman, were stabbed to death outside of her Brentwood home on June 12, 1994. The following year, Simpson was tried for their murders and acquitted in a televised reading of the verdict watched by an estimated 150 million people.
“She’s that picture of mom of the year,” Brian "Kato" Kaelin says in the docuseries, referencing Brown Simpson's two children with O.J., Sydney and Justin. Kaelin memorably testified during the eight-month trial, as he was living in Simpson’s guest house at the time of her death.
Kris Jenner, who became good friends with Nicole because her first husband, Robert Kardashian, was close with Simpson, says she continues to grieve her 30 years later. “You never get over losing a friend that way, and I think I pack it down so far deep inside,” she says of “one of the worst days I’ve ever experienced.”
Here are the biggest revelations from the second half of “The Life & Murder of Nicole Brown Simpson.”
Need a break? Play the USA TODAY Daily Crossword Puzzle.
Shocking revelationsfrom 'Life & Murder of Nicole Brown Simpson' Lifetime documentary
At Nicole’s visitation, her mom asked O.J., ’Did you do this?’
Dominique Brown — who participated in the docuseries with her sisters Denise and Tanya Brown — says Simpson asked her to accompany him as he paid his respects to Nicole at a visitation. “He grabbed my hand, and he took me over to Nicole, and we knelt there with Nicole,” Dominique says, beginning to cry. “And I knelt there with him in front of my dead sister.”
Nicole’s friend, Robin Greer, remembers Simpson standing over the casket and repeatedly apologizing, saying, “I’m so sorry. Nic, I’m so sorry.” Greer says Simpson also extended an apology to her. “He was just admitting that he did it, and he’s sorry,” Greer assesses.
Brown family friend D'Anne Purcilly says that, at the visitation, Nicole’s mother, Juditha Brown, asked Simpson directly, “Did you do this?"
Simpson then looked down, Purcilly recalls, and said, "'Dita, I loved her. I just loved her too much.’ I was like, 'He’s going to tell her he did it.' He didn’t. He just kept saying, over and over again, ‘I loved her too much.’”
Dominique’s complicated feelings about the shocking verdict: ‘Did you really want him to be guilty?’
While Tanya and Denise hold Simpson responsible for Nicole’s death, Dominique is unsure of his culpability.
“I knew that somebody was to blame, and I knew that somehow there was involvement" by Simpson, she says. “I didn’t know to what extent. I still don’t know.”
Dominique says she experienced an array of emotions when the not-guilty verdict was read. “I was shocked. I don’t know. Relieved, disappointed, angry," she says. "I mean, did you really want him to be guilty? Did you not want him to be guilty? It’s a tough question.”
Nicole Brown Simpson's sisters remember'adventurous' spirit before meeting O.J. Simpson
Conversations with Sydney Simpson about OJ's involvement in her mother’s death
Denise says that, after his arrest, Sydney, then 8 or 9, expressed concerns that her father would be executed. As Denise tucked her into bed, Sydney asked, “’Is my daddy going to die?’ And I said, 'No,'” Denise remembers. Why did she ask? “’Well, don’t they put people who kill other people — don’t they kill them?’ And I said, ‘They’ve already said that they’re not going to do that, Sydney.’”
Purcilly says she also had a difficult conversation with Sydney after the child visited Michael Jackson’s Neverland Ranch with Simpson. Sydney asked Purcilly if her kids could join them sometime.
“I sat down with her,” says Purcilly, “and I said, ‘Sydney, you have to understand that I will never let my boys go be with your dad. Because I believe your dad killed your mother, and I can’t let my children go there. She just kind of looked at me and said, ‘Yeah. Yeah, I know.’ And she got up, and she ran out of the room.”
‘A series’ of calls made reporting violence in the Simpson home after kids moved to Florida
Simpson relocated to Florida with Sydney and Justin in 2000, but trouble followed their family. A distressed Sydney called Miami-Dade police in 2003 after reportedly getting into an argument with Simpson. The 17-year-old requested intervention for abuse. But Simpson's attorney, Yale Galanter, denied any incident to The Associated Press and said Simpson wasn’t home when Sydney called 9-1-1.
And it wasn’t the only call for help. A docuseries producer surprised Denise when he informed her filmmakers discovered about 17 police reports of alleged incidents in Florida.
“There was a series of 9-1-1 calls about violence inside the house,” a producer says off camera, adding the calls were made anonymously. Law enforcement “couldn’t do anything because they couldn’t determine whether there was any truth to it,” the producer adds.
veryGood! (77)
Related
- Head of the Federal Aviation Administration to resign, allowing Trump to pick his successor
- Kansas is poised to boost legislators’ pay by $28,000 in 2025, nearly doubling it
- Ex-Oregon prison nurse convicted of sexually assaulting female inmates gets 30 years in prison
- Black dolls made from 1850s to 1940s now on display in Rochester museum exhibit
- Grammy nominee Teddy Swims on love, growth and embracing change
- Birds nesting in agricultural lands more vulnerable to extreme heat, study finds
- Week 8 college football expert picks: Top 25 game predictions led by Ohio State-Penn State
- Will Smith joins Jada Pinkett Smith at book talk, calls their relationship brutal and beautiful
- New Mexico governor seeks funding to recycle fracking water, expand preschool, treat mental health
- Georgia jobless rate ticks up, but labor market keeps setting records for numbers of jobs
Ranking
- Jamie Foxx reps say actor was hit in face by a glass at birthday dinner, needed stitches
- Baltimore firefighter dies and 4 others are injured battling rowhouse fire
- Georgia jobless rate ticks up, but labor market keeps setting records for numbers of jobs
- Rite Aid plans to close 154 stores after bankruptcy filing. See if your store is one of them
- Federal hiring is about to get the Trump treatment
- Britney Spears Admits to Cheating on Justin Timberlake With Wade Robson
- Week 8 college football expert picks: Top 25 game predictions led by Ohio State-Penn State
- ICC drops war crimes charges against former Central African Republic government minister
Recommendation
All That You Wanted to Know About She’s All That
More Americans make it back home, as flights remain limited from Israel
Marine killed in homicide at Camp Lejeune, fellow Marine taken into custody
Colombian president’s statements on Gaza jeopardize close military ties with Israel
DoorDash steps up driver ID checks after traffic safety complaints
Federal judge again rules that California’s ban on assault weapons is unconstitutional
Biden prepares Oval Office speech on wars in Israel and Ukraine, asking billions
Georgia jobless rate ticks up, but labor market keeps setting records for numbers of jobs