Brittany Murphy's death in December 2009 has long been a mystery. Many blame her husband, Simon Monjack — who died five months later — while others believe they were "cursed."
In February 2010, Monjack refuted that the death of the Something Wicked star could have been prevented as an autopsy report found "elevated levels" of Vicodin over-the-counter drugs in her system. "We never hid anything. And that's been the case with everything in our marriage," he notably told Us Weekly at that time.
"Maybe with her death, people will start to realize – yes, we had a lot of prescriptions around, but if you look at some of them, they date from 2001!" He then added: "Any death could be prevented. It's a tragedy."
As revealed in the 2021 HBO docu-series What Happened, Brittany Murphy? — at only 32 years old, the actress could barely stand on her own on her final days. Here's what really happened to her and Monjack.
Did Brittany Murphy's Husband Simon Monjack Control Her Life?
According to THR: "The paranoia Brittany had about the public and industry learning of her medical problems played into Simon's conspiracy theories about people being out to get her. He stoked that paranoia and used it to gain control over Brittany in a surprisingly short time."
In the HBO documentary, a woman Monjack had met in London in 1999 described him as "very manipulative" and a liar who fabricated stories about his wealth. He "usually cons good, honest, trustworthy people," the woman wrote in a letter to the FBI to hopefully warn others.
Her reason: "simply because they cannot comprehend that a person can be so deceptive to that extent; it's almost unbelievable. I believe he is sick and lies continuously, defrauding people, hurting people including his own family. He himself has admitted this to me."
Even New York attorney and best-selling author, Richard Golub — who worked with Monjack, writing a script for Factory Girl — said that after refusing to work with the latter due to his past, he received a call from him, confessing: "I've led this really ****ed-up life, and I really have conned and cheated a lot of people. But I'm turning over a new leaf."
What Did Simon Monjack Think About Brittany Murphy's Career Decline?
Monjack believed that Murphy's former agents and managers conspired against her at the time of her career's decline. "It wasn't about the money," he told The Hollywood Reporter. "She wasn't going, 'Oh, I'm not being offered $10 million to do a movie.'"
He continued: "It was: 'I'm not getting offered anything where I can really show what I can do. I can sing. I can dance. I can do all these things I was put on Earth to show the world,' and somehow she was being blocked from doing it."
Monjack even blamed his wife's death on her "broken heart" caused by Hollywood's rejections. Apparently, Warner Bros. had dropped Murphy as a voice actor on the big-budget animated film, Happy Feet 2 after her alleged illegal drug use made it to the headlines.
She hadn't been in a studio movie since 2004's Little Black Book. Speaking about the Girl, Interrupted alum's visibly frail appearance back then, Monjack claimed: "She had curves in all the right places. She was just miniaturized. She ate whatever she wanted when she wanted."
What Was The Real Cause Of Brittany Murphy's Death?
Despite the many conspiracy theories about Murphy's death, the cause was ultimately ruled as Pneumonia. She had caught the bacteria, Staphylococcus aureus from Monjack and her mother, Sharon Murphy who was living with them at that time.
The two got it in Puerto Rico where the actress had filmed a low-budget thriller called The Caller, six weeks prior to her death. The Just Married alum reportedly took the antibiotic Biaxin, some cough medicine, migraine pills, and an over-the-counter nasal spray for it.
The day she died, she had also taken the anti-depressant, Prozac; anti-seizure, Klonopin; anti-inflammatory, methylprednisolone; beta blocker given by Monjack; and Vicoprofen to ease her pains. But during her last 10 days, Murphy had already been getting sicker with laryngitis and anemia that led to a quarter-of-normal red blood count.
On her final night, she was reportedly "gasping for breath," with "her lips turning blue from a lack of oxygen as her lungs filled with fluid." Despite her health complications, the Uptown Girls star hadn't seen a doctor for six weeks. She'd only spoken to a pharmacist a few times in that period.
Apparently, she didn't think it was urgent as she and Monjack had their own "holistic" medicine. The couple was afraid of seeing doctors as the paparazzi might find out that Murphy was sick — which could harm her career even more.
It was the main reason she didn't go to the emergency room that night, as well as her use of aliases for her drug prescriptions. In May 2010, Monjack also died of acute pneumonia and severe anemia.