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"This is a person who's been in our life for a very long time, who wreaked havoc on our family. It's like the end of a chapter," Nicole's sisters, Denise, Dominique and Tayna Brown shared.
Nicole Brown Simpson's three sisters are speaking out following the death of O.J. Simpson.
More than a month after O.J. star died from cancer at the age of 76, Denise, Dominique and Tanya Brown sat down with People, where they shared how they're feeling following the death of their former brother-in-law.
"It's very complicated," Dominque told the outlet.
"This is a person who's been in our life for a very long time, who wreaked havoc on our family. It's like the end of a chapter," Tanya added.
O.J.'s family confirmed the news via X last month, writing, "On April 10th, our father, Orenthal James Simpson, succumbed to his battle with cancer. He was surrounded by his children and grandchildren. During this time of transition, his family asks that you please respect their wishes for privacy and grace."
In February, Simpson denied he was in hospice care for prostate cancer, but didn't address his diagnosis. In 2023, however, he did say he "caught cancer," without specifying what type. At the time, he said he went through chemotherapy.
While O.J. rose to fame in the late 70's and throughout the 1980s as a football star TV personality, he was thrust back into the headlines following the death of his ex-wife. On June 12, 1994, Nicole, 35, and her friend Ron Goldman, 25, were found brutally murdered in the courtyard of her Los Angeles condominium.
Though O.J. was acquitted of the double murders in the headline-making trial in October 1995, the former football star was deemed liable for their deaths in 1997 in a wrongful-death lawsuit brought by the Brown and Goldman families.
Looking back on their sister's relationship with O.J., Denise and Dominique told the outlet that when they first met the then-married athlete in 1977, they viewed him only as "her boyfriend," but it didn't take long for Nicole and her family to get swept up in the famed Buffalo Bills running back.
"He made a touchdown, and he looked up at all of us," Dominque said, recalling a came O.J. invited them to. "I was like, 'Wow, look at this guy. He's amazing.'"
But the good times turned bad, quickly.
"All hell broke loose when we came home that night," Denise said, claiming O.J. "flipped out" after seeing Nicole kiss a mutual male friend on the cheek at the game. "He had her upstairs in the bathroom crying. He said, 'You embarrassed me,'" she claimed.
When Nicole got pregnant with O.J.'s child, Dominique said it started what they hoped would be a better chapter for the couple. "It just opened her heart more, Dominque said, "I think she thought that everything would be different having a child."
It wasn't, with Denise saying the tension at home only got worse.
"She was pregnant, and he was calling her a fat pig," she said of his alleged treatment of her sister, who ended up welcoming two children with O.J., daughter Sydney, now 38, and son Justin, 35.
While the Denise and Dominique were privy to the volatile nature of things between Nicole and O.J., Tanya told People she only learned the extent of the violence during the trail.
"I was looking at the pictures, and then I looked at him, and I remember saying, 'How can you do something like this to someone you love?'" Tanya said, recalling photos of Nicole beaten and bruised that were presented in court.
While upon learning of her sister's death, Denise said she knew instantly who was responsible.
"The moment my mom got the phone call, I heard this screaming from my parents' bedroom," Denise remembered. "It was gut-wrenching. I grabbed the phone, and the detective said, 'Your sister's been killed.' I said, 'Oh my God, he did it, he finally did it.' I knew in my heart [it was O.J.]."
Tanya, meanwhile pointed to the DNA evidence -- including blood found in O.J.'s white Ford Bronco and at his house -- but Dominique refused to share her thoughts on O.J.'s culpability.
"Because of the children, I'm not going to answer," Dominique said of her niece and nephew, who were upstairs sleeping at their mother's home at the time of her murder.
When they think of Nicole today, the Brown sisters said they're grateful for the period of peace she had before the murder, following her split from O.J. in 1992.
"What no one knows she experienced before her death is freedom," Dominique said. "There was this levity about her. She was glowing."
"I'm so glad that she had a good time the last two years of her life. I can't bring her back, so why not try to look at it like that?" Tanya added.
They are planning to remember her life and subsequent murder in a new Lifetime special, airing on the 30th anniversary of her death.
The Life & Murder of Nicole Brown Simpson, which will air on June 1 and 2, features interviews with 50 people, including Nicole's sisters, other family members and friends, as well as never-before-seen footage of her.
"Other anniversaries just didn't feel right," Denise explained. "But we decided 30 years was probably the best and the last time to hear her voice and tell her story."
