Lifetime to air documentary on Nicole Brown Simpson, O.J. Simpson's ex-wife who was killed
A documentary about Nicole Brown Simpson, the ex-wife of O.J. Simpson who was killed outside of her Los Angeles home in 1994, is in the works at Lifetime.
A spokesperson for the network on Thursday confirmed to USA TODAY that the doc will be titled "The Life and Murder of Nicole Brown Simpson." The project, which doesn't have a release date, promises to give Brown Simpson "her narrative back," according to the spokesperson.
News of the Lifetime documentary was announced the same day O.J. Simpson's family announced he'd died of prostate cancer at age 76. According to CNN, Brown Simpson's family and friends are participating in the doc's creation.
This June marks 30 years since Brown Simpson's untimely death. She was 35 when she was killed.
She met Simpson, a beloved former NFL star and actor, when she was a 17-year-old waitress and he was still married to his first wife, Marguerite Whitley. After he and Whitley divorced in 1979, Simpson and Brown Simpson were married from 1985 to 1992.
They had two children together, Sydney and Justin, amid a reportedly tumultuous and abusive relationship. Brown Simpson called the police after incidents in which he struck her, and Simpson pleaded no contest to spousal abuse charges in 1989.
After Brown Simpson and her friend, Ronald Goldman, were found dead following a gruesome slaying at her home in Brentwood, California, O.J. Simpson was arrested – following a police chase across LA that riveted millions of TV viewers across the country – and charged with their murders.
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Prosecutors argued that Simpson killed Nicole in a jealous fury, and they presented extensive blood, hair and fiber tests linking Simpson to the murders. The defense countered that the celebrity defendant was framed by racist white police.
At the conclusion of what's been dubbed the "Trial of the Century," in 1995 Simpson was acquitted of killing his ex-wife and Goldman.
Brown Simpson and Goldman's families later sued Simpson in civil court, and in 1997, the jury found him liable for their deaths. He was ordered to pay the victims' families $33.5 million.
Lifetime often airs multi-part docuseries exploring much-talked-about figures, such as Wendy Williams, Gypsy-Rose Blanchard and the musical group TLC.
In February, Williams' temporary guardian, Sabrina Morrissey, filed a lawsuit to stop Lifetime from airing the two-part series "Where is Wendy Williams?" which explores the declining health of the former TV host, who has been diagnosed with frontotemporal dementia and aphasia. Morrissey alleged in her filing that Williams "was not, and is not, capable of consenting to the terms" of the contract for filming the documentary.
Contributing: Will Dunham, Reuters
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Nicole Brown Simpson, OJ's ex-wife, subject of Lifetime documentary