Following the brutal double murder of Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ronald Goldman on the night of June 12, 1994 – with much of America and beyond unambiguously convinced to this day that the murder was due to the hands of Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ronald Goldman. of OJ Simpson — the Brown family went to enormous lengths to protect the former couple’s two young children what happened that night and in the following years.
Nicole and OJ’s children – Sydney and Justin – were just 8 and 5 years old and sleeping soundly upstairs in their mother’s Brentwood, California, home when she was stabbed to death. Nicole was 35 years old. Ronald suffered equally brutal stab wounds. He was 25 years old. But like a herd forming a protective circle to protect its young from harm, the Brown family gathered their strength in the midst of horrific circumstances and rallied around the two children and valiantly kept them out of the spotlight.
ET’s Rachel Smith spoke with Nicole’s three sisters — Denise, Dominique and Tanya — ahead of the 30th anniversary of Nicole’s death, which is the subject of a new Lifetime documentary, The Life and Murder of Nicole Brown Simpsona two-night event premiering on June 1st.
The trio spoke to ET about how the Brown family protected Sydney and Justin from the media circus, how they reacted to OJ’s death and how the kids — now adults with families of their own — are coping with all the those years after Nicole’s death. and the Olympics sudden death on April 10 following a battle with cancer. He was 76 years old.
“Well, luckily we lived in a community and kind of created a bubble around the kids,” Dominique told ET. “Our neighborhood, Safeway, the supermarket, didn’t display the magazines.”
Dominique says the supermarket didn’t just sell magazines. They took the gossip magazines – covered with Nicole and OJ’s faces – off the shelves. This small effort gave the children, for a brief moment, some sense of normalcy.
“No gossip. No hype,” she added.
But there was still the problem of camera crews surrounding the house eager for the next scoop, or television news helicopters hovering over the house. There was nothing the family could do about it, but they found a way to fortify the bubble.
“We ate together, we did things as a family,” says Dominique. “We would have games. We would play kick the can in the street. I mean, we used to do things like that.”
As if the constant news updates – from coverage of the murders to the infamous chase of OJ’s white Ford Bronco on desperately empty highways across Los Angeles – weren’t overwhelming enough, there also had what is called “The trial of the century“, which also garnered media coverage across the country. The trial, which lasted nearly a year, quickly became one of the most high-profile events in American history.
But the Browns had a plan to combat this media coverage.
“Our TVs were all set to VCRs, except my dad’s,” Denise says, referring to her father, Louis Hezekiel Brown. “He wanted to see what was on the news, but all the other TVs were all VCRs so the kids didn’t see anything.”
These days, Sydney and Justin – now aged 38 and 35 respectively – keep a low profile. They hope it continues this way for the foreseeable future.
“They have their own family,” explains Dominique, who adds that she maintains very close contact with them. “They live a normal life. They want to be left alone and they have their own children.”
“Please leave them alone,” Denise pleads. “They just want to live a normal, happy life. They don’t have two parents. It’s hard for them. It’s sad. I don’t know if it’s hard, but it’s sad for them. And I think their privacy is important to them.”
The sisters say they don’t know if Sydney and Justin will watch the two-part Lifetime documentary.
“I have mixed feelings about it because it’s so good. So many great stories about mom,” Tanya says. “But then they’re going to find out what a horrible father he was, what a horrible husband, what a horrible human being. And it’s like, I don’t know if they have a good or a bad perception of him. I’ I’m not really in touch with them, but I think it would hurt a little bit if they had such a good relationship with Dad and all of a sudden they see that and see a totally different person.”
That being said, Denise shares that even though Sydney and Justin aren’t hooking up, Lifetime was kind enough to put together a reel of Nicole’s best moments for the kids to enjoy.
The former NFL star and controversial public figure left behind four adult children, who were by his side at the time of his death. He married his first wife, Marguerite Whitley, when he was 19, in 1968. Together, the former couple welcomed three children: daughter Arnelle, 55, son Jason, 53, and daughter Aaren, died when she was barely a year old after tragically drowning in the family swimming pool.
OJ met his second wife, Nicole, while he was still married to Marguerite, in 1977. OJ and Marguerite divorced in 1979 and he continued to date Nicole until they married in 1985. Together , they welcomed Sydney and Justin. Nicole filed for divorce from OJ in 1992.
About three years later, more than 150 million viewers tuned in as OJ was acquitted of the double murders, although a jury unanimously found OJ responsible for the deaths of Nicole and Ron in 1997. OJ died due to a sum of money significant to the Brown and Goldman families after a civil trial jury ordered him to pay $33.5. million, which, with the interest of the last 27 years, has soared to over $100 million.
OJ’s lawyer has since said he will invite a legal representative for the Goldmans to review his findings on the late USC star’s estate as he calculates its value. OJ’s attorney, Malcolm LaVergne, added: “We can resolve this matter in a calm and impartial manner.”
Nearly two months after his death, the sisters reacted to OJ’s passing.
“I was sad for the kids, but then again, I think it was mixed emotions,” Dominique shares. “It’s complicated. It’s the end of what we hope or could be the end of a huge chapter in our lives. This is someone who was in our family for many, many years. I mean , it’s been 50 years or something like that Almost 50 years because they were together and then 30 years passed so it was complicated, but again, it was very, very sad because now the kids. no longer had parents.
Denise added: “I was really happy. I was happy to hear it because we had that kind of relationship, you know, it wasn’t a good relationship from the first time I met him. So when Nicole was happy, I was very happy for her And that’s all that mattered to me, that Nicole was happy For me, it was probably a little more tense with the kids because I was going out and. was talking about domestic violence and I was talking about their father to do it I had to do it for her, I had to do it for every other Nicole out there.
The Life and Murder of Nicole Brown Simpson airs Part 1 Saturday, followed by Part 2 Sunday on Lifetime.
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