O.J. Simpson’s Connection to ‘The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills’ Explained
O.J. Simpson’s trial for the murders of his former wife Nicole Brown and her friend Ron Goldman kept Americans glued to their television screens for months in the mid-1990s.
Two decades after Simpson was acquitted of the highly publicized crime in 1995, he became an unexpected source of drama during season 6 of The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills.
When Kathryn Edwards joined the cast of the Bravo series in 2015, one of the first things she shared about herself was that her ex-husband, Marcus Allen, was once best friends with Simpson. And Allen’s connection to Simpson’s trial doesn’t stop at the pair’s friendship.
In May 1996, Allen testified during the wrongful death suit filed against Simpson by the families of Brown and Goldman. During his deposition, Allen denied Simpson’s previous claims that he’d had a sexual relationship with Brown when she was still married to Simpson, CNN reported at the time. He also alleged that Simpson had called him from jail and asked him to lie about his relationship with Brown. Allen said that he ended his longtime friendship with Simpson after the phone call.
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However, Faye Resnick, a recurring friend/guest star on RHOBH, told a different story in her 1994 book, Nicole Brown Simpson: The Private Diary of a Life Interrupted.
Resnick, who was friends with Brown and Simpson in the 1990s, claimed in the tell-all that Brown had confided in her about her alleged affair with Allen.
"Nicole told me O.J. threatened her, saying 'If you're ever with Marcus again, I'll ... I don't know what I'll do, but it will be bad. I won't be able to control myself,’” Resnick wrote. “At times we were worried that OJ might take revenge on Marcus by telling his fiancée Kathryn about the affair with Nicole.”
The book faced widespread criticism for its lurid details and timing, as it was released just months after the 1994 murders. Nicole’s father, Lou Brown, called the book “T-R-A-S-H” in an October 1994 statement to the Los Angeles Times. He claimed that Resnick “wasn’t that close to Nicole” and said his daughter “took her in” because of her drug problem. (Resnick wrote about her cocaine use and rehab stints in the book.)
“I don’t know where she got all of her misinformation, but it’s not anything we can confirm. And Nicole is not here to defend herself,” Lou added.
The controversial book came up during season 6 of RHOBH when Edwards, who was engaged to Allen when his alleged affair with Brown took place, crossed paths with Resnick at an event hosted by Lisa Vanderpump. Kyle Richards asked Edwards whether she knew Resnick, and Edwards replied that she didn’t. She then added that if Resnick claimed otherwise, she was lying.
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“My feelings about Faye Resnick are not positive. She mentioned me in her book,” Edwards said during a confessional. “I never read it, but in the book she referenced me and said that I was just some kind of 'turn the blind eye, look the other way' kind of wife. There's a lot of things you can say about me. That is not one of them."
Later in the season, Edwards confronted Resnick during a dinner party at Richards’ home.
“For me to not say something, I’d feel like I was being phony,” Edwards said, referencing Resnick’s “book” but not going into specific details.
“I have nothing to say to anyone about what happened 20-something years ago. That was a very hard time, and it’s sad,” Resnick replied.
Both women stayed calm during the interaction, although Edwards said during a confessional that she felt “cheated” because she was “ready to annihilate” Resnick.
While Edwards and Resnick skirted around the murders and Simpson’s trial during the conversation, Andy Cohen asked Edwards point blank if she believes Simpson committed the murders during a February 2016 episode of Watch What Happens Live.
"You know what, it's one of those things that you don't want to believe that someone that you cared about and were friends with is capable of something like that, so honestly, I prefer not to even entertain that idea," she replied.
Edwards noted that she and Allen, who split in 2001, were asked to testify during Simpson’s trial.
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“We fought the subpoena,” she said. “We really wanted to stay out of it. At that stage of the game, it’s such a tragic, tragic thing, and we don’t want to be involved.”
Edwards and Allen got married at Simpson’s Brentwood home in 1993, and the pair seemingly pop up in the suicide note that Simpson penned in 1994 shortly before his televised low-speed car space with Los Angeles police and subsequent arrest.
“Marcus, you've got a great lady in Catherine, don't mess it up,” Simpson wrote, seemingly mixing up the spelling of Edwards’ first name.
Edwards and Resnick aren’t the only RHOBH stars with a connection to Simpson. Current cast member Erika Jayne and Yolanda Hadid, who appeared on the show from seasons 3 through 6, have Robert Shapiro to thank for their friendship. Along with Johnnie Cochran and Robert Kardashian, Shapiro was a member of Simpson’s “Dream Team” legal counsel during the murder trial.
In her 2009 memoir, Pretty Mess, Edwards wrote that her “good friend Robert Shapiro” introduced her to David Foster when he was still married to Hadid, and they “all became friends” later on.
Richards also has a tangential Simpson connection. Not only is she close friends with Resnick, she’s also pals with Kris Jenner, Kardashian’s ex-wife.
Simpson died at age 76 in April 2024 after a battle with cancer. He maintained his innocence until his death despite being found liable for the wrongful death of and battery against Goldman and battery against Nicole in February 1997. He was ordered to pay $8.5 million in compensatory damages to the Goldman family and $12.5 million in punitive damages to each family.
