The sisters of Nicole Brown, ex-wife of OJ Simpson, have broken their silence following the death of the disgraced NFL star.
Tanya Brown, 54, Dominique Brown, 59, and Denise Brown, 66, say that he “wreaked havoc” on their family, and that his passing had left them with mixed emotions. Simpson’s death, they said, was “like the end of a chapter”.
Simpson, 76, died from prostate cancer on April 10. He was infamously acquitted of murder in 1995 over the deaths of Brown and her friend Ronald Goldman in what was described as the “trial of the century”.
Goldman’s father, Fred Goldman, previously told The Independent, that Simpson’s death was a further reminder of how long his son has been gone, and how much he is missed. “The only thing that is important today are the victims. Nothing else is important today,” he said, following the news.
It is the first time that Brown’s family members have spoken publicly about Simpson’s death. Speaking to People, Dominique said that the situation was “very complicated”.
“This is a person who’s been in our life for a very long time, who wreaked havoc on our family. It’s like the end of a chapter,” said Tanya.
Both Denise and Dominique were introduced to Simpson in 1977, after Brown, who was 18 at the time, met the football player while working in a Los Angeles restaurant. He was “just her boyfriend to us,” Dominique said.
The sisters said that Brown had been infatuated with Simpson, but that things had often soured, with displays of affection shown to her male friends misinterpreted by the often volatile NFL star, who was prone to “flipping out”.
“He had her upstairs in the bathroom crying. He said, ‘You embarrassed me’,” Denise said.
Hopes were high that tensions within the relationship would settle down after Brown became pregnant with Simpson’s first child, Sydney with Dominique telling People that the news had “opened her heart more”. Her sister thought “everything would be different” from then on, she added. The couple also had a second child, Justin.
This was not to be the case, with Simpson’s verbal abuse continuing. “She was pregnant, and he was calling her a fat pig,” Denise said. But she said, despite this, she still believed that such attacks were “isolated incidences”.
Brown, 35, and Goldman, 25, were stabbed to death on 12 June 1994 outside Brown’s home in Brentwood, California. The subsequent trial was televised and watched by millions.
Though he was ultimately acquitted of murder at the criminal trial – with help from the so-called “Dream Team” lawyers; Robert Shapiro, Alan Dershowitz, and Robert Kardashian – Simpson was found liable for their deaths in 1997 by a separate California civil court jury. He was ordered to pay the victims’ families $33.5m in compensation, though died without paying the bulk of that judgment.
Denise said that she had heard screaming from her parents’ bedroom, after her mother had received the call informing her of her daughter’s death and described the moment as “gut-wrenching”.
“I grabbed the phone, and the detective said, ‘Your sister’s been killed.’ I said, ‘Oh my God, he did it, he finally did it.’ I knew in my heart [it was OJ],” she told People.
Tanya too was certain of Simpson’s guilt. Multiple samples of DNA evidence, including blood, was found at the scene of the crime, though cunning legal maneuvering – including an infamous ill-fitting glove – ultimately swayed the jury in favor of not guilty. “DNA doesn’t lie,” Tanya said.
Dominique refused to comment on Simpson’s culpability in her sister’s death, out of respect for her niece and nephew.
Despite his high-profile acquittal, Simpson was jailed in 2008 for nine years after being found guilty of armed robbery in a 2007 encounter at a Las Vegas casino hotel with two collectables dealers.
The sisters added that although Brown had suffered at the hands of her ex-husband for a prolonged period, after filing for divorce in 1992 she was “glowing”.
“What no one knows she experienced before her death is freedom,” Dominique told People. “There was this levity about her. She was glowing.”
Tanya added: “I’m so glad that she had a good time the last two years of her life. I can’t bring her back, so why not try to look at it like that?”
