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New documentary asks, What happened to Brittany Murphy?

(NewsNation Now) — When star actress Brittany Murphy was mysteriously found dead on her bathroom floor at just 32, the conspiracy theories ran amok. Fascination over her death became an obsession. And well over a decade later, it has not gone away. 

“What Happened, Brittany Murphy?” a new HBO documentary is exploring the case. Roger Neal, former publicist for both Brittany’s late husband, Simon Monjack, as well as Brittany’s mother, Sharon Murphy, believes the documentary is “pretty much accurate” and is “happy with the way it turned out.”


Murphy’s husband was found dead just five months after Brittany — and of the same causes: pneumonia and severe anemia. Neal believes that coincidence could be attributed to the home they shared.

“They lived in a house that had a lot of mold,” said Neal. “And I know that in the documentary, you’ll see that mold, it did not according to the pathologist have a place in why they passed away, but (Murphy and Monjack) didn’t go to the doctor, they really didn’t take care of their health. And so I think that was a big contributing factor.”

However, Jim Moret, chief correspondent for “Inside Edition,” also noted another similarity in the two deaths: multiple drug intoxications.

The documentary also reveals Monjack allegedly had a secret child with someone else.

“The child only underscored the aspect of Simon Monjack that most people believe to be true. And that was the suspicion that he was a con artist, that he was a Svengali type who had somehow taken over Brittany’s life,” said Moret.

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