"I'm dying.
I'm going to die.
Mommy, I love you."
Were some of the last words Brittany Murphy said to her mother.
Brittany Murphy , the 32-year-old actress beloved for her quirky roles in film favorites
like Clueless, 8 Mile, and Uptown Girls…
How could she have died?
Yet, there it was all over the press.
It was reported that the actress collapsed in her West Hollywood home and was soon declared
dead.
What had happened to her?
Well, according to the coroner, Brittany passed away due to natural causes.
That was when the rest of the world raised their eyebrow, how does a woman in her 30's
pass away from "natural causes"?
Five months later, her husband died under the same circumstances.
Something didn't seem right.
What fans didn't know is that her husband might have played a bigger role in her passing
than anyone could have realized.
Stay tuned to Rumour Juice, while we break down the mystery surrounding Brittany Murphy's
tragic passing.
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Questions have continued to come up over the years since Brittany's passing, and in November
2013, Murphy's father, Angelo Bertolotti, told Good Morning America what he really thought,
"I have a feeling that there was definitely a murder situation here…
Yeah, it's poison.
Yes, yes, I know that."
However, Murphy's father hadn't been a present figure in her life.
The actress had a tight-knit relationship with her mother, Sharon.
Close friends described the mother-daughter duo as adorable together.
They were so close that they often finished each other's sentences.
They were both bright, bubbly and cherished one another.
Ever since Brittany came to Hollywood at 13, Sharon had dedicated herself to her daughter.
In turn, Brittany had put her career on hold twice when Sharon had bouts of breast cancer
shortly after the making of Clueless and again in 2003, when Brittany camped out in her mom's
hospital room.
So when Sharon heard the claims that her daughter's father was making, she was enraged.
She immediately denied Angelo's words,
"His claims are based on the most flimsy of evidence and are more of an insult than an
insight into what really happened."
So what really happened?
As it turns out, both Brittany's mother and her husband, Simon Monjack, were both at home
with the actress when she collapsed.
In order to explain what happened on the tragic day of her death, we need to go back one month
before she died.
In November 2009, Murphy traveled to San Juan, Puerto Rico, to film the movie The Caller,
and her husband and mother went with her.
Unfortunately, things immediately went wrong.
Murphy was fired the first day, with some reports pointing fingers at Monjack's on-set
drunken behavior.
However, the trio decided to stay on the island and make a holiday out of what was supposed
to be a work trip.
Monjack and Sharon both caught Staphylococcus, a bacterial infection that often starts off
as a cold.
On the flight back to Los Angeles, Murphy had to give her husband CPR after he allegedly
collapsed from a "mild heart attack."
Eventually, Murphy also caught the infection and she fell incredibly ill.
By mid-December, she had a terrible bout of laryngitis.
For six weeks, she thought she could overcome it and didn't seek medical attention, but
finally called on Friday to make an appointment for Monday.
Sadly, she never made it through that weekend.
Being sick had become something Brittany just accepted.
There was no sense of urgency to see a doctor because she and Simon practiced their own
form of "holistic" medicine — meaning they picked and chose among medicines and doctors
at their own convenience.
Despite her problems, Brittany had not seen a doctor for six weeks, though she consulted
by phone a few times and had talked to a pharmacist.
They were always afraid the paparazzi would find out if they were seen as sick and that
it would hurt their job prospects in Hollywood.
The paranoia Brittany had about the public learning of her medical problems played into
Simon's conspiracy theories about people being out to get her.
He stroked that paranoia and used it to gain control over Brittany in a surprisingly short
time.
The actress didn't date until she was 21, then went onto having several relationships
that all seemed to fail.
She had one with Ashton Kutcher for six months after they met on Just Married in 2002, was
engaged to Hollywood talent manager for four months in 2004 and was engaged to a production
assistant she met on Little Black Book in 2005.
Then came her whirlwind romance with Simon.
Brittany saw the stocky Englishman with the sexy accent and deep voice as he portrayed
himself: a wealthy, educated, cultured filmmaker.
He swept her off her feet, told her all the things she wanted to hear; from then on, Simon
never slept a night away from her.
Shortly after that they were married by a rabbi at Brittany's home.
Nearly all of the handful of guests were Brittany's employees or vendors.
Simon's best man turned out to be her chauffeur.
Unfortunately, what Murphy didn't know is that almost everything her new husband said
to her was either dramatized or completely untrue.
His own mother confessed that Simon also had no problem spinning tales to get his way with
women on both sides of the Atlantic, leaving a trail of broken hearts, unpaid bills and
angry fiancées.
A woman he met in London in 1999 later described Simon as "very manipulative" and said he lied
to her about his wealth and properties.
Despite being confronted with the truth of her husband's lies, Brittany refused to believe
it or chose to ignore it.
She was in love, fiercely loyal and only saw the best in Simon.
Brittany believed Simon would provide the financial stability she needed, help revive
her career and allow her to fulfill her dream of becoming a mother.
Tragically, she never got the chance to have a child of her own.
Many of Brittany's family members and friends came to believe that Simon had created a web
of paranoia around Brittany and used it to separate her from anyone who might have challenged
his dominance.
Slowly, the actress sank deeper into the paranoia that the world was out to get her and that
she'd never work in the industry again.
She became isolated from her friends and family until it was just her mother and Simon by
her side.
Even though she was dealing with her own ailments, Murphy had been taking care of both her mother
and her husband following their holiday together.
Her mother struggled with severe nerve damage after surviving breast cancer and Simon dealt
with seizures and sleep apnea.
Brittany put her own needs aside and did everything she could to make sure her loved ones were
taken care of before her.
Trapped in her $3.9 million home she bought in 2003 from Britney Spears, the only comfort
zone she could escape to was her bathroom.
Sadly, her thoughts were anything but calm.
"She spent hours sampling the cosmetics and perfumes that crowded every inch of counter
space, critically studying her body image," A family friend wrote.
Brittany had self-image issues.
"The thing she was very conscious of was her height.
She felt she was short, so one reason she controlled her weight was the thinner you
are, the taller you look."
Martha Coolidge, who directed Brittany in the Lifetime movie Tribute, said of the actress.
There was only one thought that kept her going: a fresh start in New York City.
She thought that if they could only press the restart button in a new city, Monjack
could find work as a screenwriter and director and she could get back into independent films.
But that December Saturday night, things could not have gotten worse.
On her final night, Brittany was gasping for breath, her lips turning blue from a lack
of oxygen as her lungs filled with fluid.
Soon after, she fell in the bathroom and told her mom, "I'm dying.
I'm going to die.
Mommy, I love you."
Her mom desperately called 911, but it was too late.
In 2010, an updated coroner's report was released, citing anemia and prescription drugs played
a role in her death that ultimately was caused by "community-acquired pneumonia."
He also went on to add that Brittany had been sick for at least two weeks, and had she seen
a doctor sooner, she probably would have gotten the help that she needed.
While the world continued searching for explanations for Murphy's passing, another shocking occurrence
was revealed: Monjack died on May 23, 2010, at the age of 39.
He had died from the same causes that took his late wife, and to make things even more
tragic, his body was found in the same room too.
It is impossible to know if Brittany might still be alive had Simon not come into her
life.
However, it seems obvious that he brought out her worst traits and contributed to an
incredibly toxic atmosphere that was deadly to her.
Brittany needed someone who showered her in love and allowed her to thrive, but instead,
Simon pushed her loved ones away and made the actress her own worst enemy.
The death of a young and talented artist is always difficult for fans to wrap their heads
around.
There's no doubt that had Brittany lived; she would have been a trailblazer in the film
industry.