In “What Happened, Brittany Murphy,” it's alleged that Murphy's husband, Simon Monjack, was a con artist and contributed to his wife’s demise.
Brittany Murphy was an actress with big potential before she tragically died at age 32. Now a new HBO Max documentary looks into the star's troubled final years.
When she died, Murphy was married to screenwriter Simon Monjack. In “What Happened, Brittany Murphy,” it's alleged that Monjack was a con artist and contributed to his wife’s demise.
“During a little dip she was having, he came along. And I think that’s where her judgment was muddled and she became prey,” Murphy’s friend, actress Kathy Najimy, says in the documentary. “We all were scared and freaked out, like, who was this guy?”
The documentary also claims that Monjack lied about his background.
“Simon said that he dated Elle McPherson and Madonna. He said that he had been dying from terminal brain cancer and had bought an experimental treatment derived from the fins of sharks. Every single word out of his mouth was a lie,” a man in the trailer says.
In 2009, Murphy’s mother found her daughter unconscious in the Los Angeles home she shared with the couple and frantically called 911. Her death was ruled an accident, due to pneumonia, anemia and multiple drug intoxication.
According to the documentary, 90 prescription bottles were found in her bedroom. There are also claims Murphy had anorexia.
In an appearance on the “Today" show, her husband denied she was abusing prescription drugs.
“Brittany was not taking any medication for her mood, for anorexia, for any kind of mental illness,” Monjack said.
In a bizarre twist, Monjack died five months after Murphy of pneumonia.
In 2013, Murphy’s father told Inside Edition that he believed she may have been killed with rat poison.
The new documentary starts streaming Thursday on HBO Max.
