Shortly after midnight on June 13, 1994, Sydney and Justin Simpson, the children of Nicole Brown Simpson and ex-football great O.J. Simpson were sound asleep in their Brentwood condominium when their mother was found brutally stabbed to death at the base of the front steps outside their home.
In the ensuing years, Sydney and Justin first lived with their mother’s family, while their father was tried and then acquitted in her the murder of their mother and their mother’s friend, Ron Goldman. Following an emotional custody battle in 1996, Sydney and Justin returned to live with their disgraced father, first at his mansion near their old home in Brentwood and then in Florida.
FILE – In this June 16, 1994, file photo, O.J. Simpson, center, daughter Sydney and son Justin arrive at a private funeral for his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson in the Brentwood section of Los Angeles. Simpson’s ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend Ronald Goldman were found stabbed to death outside her LA home. Investigators quickly focused their attention on the former football great, leading to the slow-speed chase that was carried live on national television and, later, the “Trial of the Century,” which ended in Simpson’s acquittal. (AP Photo/Eric Draper, File)
Almost 30 years later, Sydney and Justin Simpson returned once again to be with their father in the final days before his death on Wednesday in Las Vegas, TMZ reported. The once popular NFL running back, actor, pitchman and sports commentator died at age 76 of cancer.
Not much is known about Sydney and Justin’s relationship with their father after he became one of the most polarizing — even reviled — men in America. While a Los Angeles jury found Simpson not guilty of killing their mother, he was found liable for her death and the death of Ron Goldman in a 1997 civil trial.
But last Friday, Sydney and Justin received word that their father was dying, TMZ reported. They and other members of Simpson’s inner circle, including their older half siblings, Arnelle and Jason Simpson, rushed to be by his side.
This is an undated photo from a video showing O.J. Simpson with his wife Nicole Brown Simpson and their children Sydney and Justin. (AP Photo/ABC)
It turns out that everyone who visited Simpson before his death was expected to sign non-disclosure agreements, including his children as well as medical personnel who provided hospice care to a dying Simpson, TMZ reported. In all, somewhere between 30 to 50 people saw Simpson before he died and all signed NDAs, TMZ said.
Over the years, there have been occasional reports that speculate on Simpson’s relationship with Sydney and Justin. One of the most heartbreaking moments reported about the immediate aftermath of Nicole Brown Simpson’s murder had to do with her children. They had been taken that night to a police station, where they waited for someone to come pick them up.
Sydney asked to make a phone call, but dialed her home number and left a message: “Mommy, please call me back. I want to know what happened last night. Why did we have to go to the police station? Please answer, Mommy. Please answer, Mommy. Please answer, Mommy.”
When Simpson was on trial for their mother’s death, Sydney and Justin lived with their maternal grandparents, Lou and Judith Brown, who had temporary custody. When a newly acquitted Simpson sought to regain custody, the Browns fought back in court, with their attorneys focused on allegations of domestic abuse involving Simpson and the children’s mother, the Los Angeles Times reported in 1996.
When an Orange County Superior Court ruled judge in Simpson’s favor, she wrote in her opinion that the attorneys for the Browns had “failed to demonstrate clear and convincing evidence” that giving custody to their father would be harmful to the children, the Los Angeles Times reported. The judge also described the children’s affection for their father, writing that one of the children had stated a desire to live with Simpson.
The children initially returned to live with their father at his Brentwood estate, about two miles from where their mother was killed. Detective Mark Fuhrman had famously found the blood-stained, right-handed glove on Simpson’s property, which gave the LAPD evidence to seek a search warrant.
In 2000, Simpson and his children decamped to Florida, where he bought a home in a gated community south of Miami and tried to settle into a quiet life, playing golf and living on pensions from the N.F.L., the Screen Actors Guild and other sources, about $400,000 a year, the New York Times reported. He also had been ordered to pay $33.5 million in damages from the civil trial, but Florida laws protected his home and pension income from seizure to satisfy court judgments, the New York Times also said.
During Simpson’s years in South Florida, Sydney and Justin attended nearby prep schools, while their father couldn’t help but make news, The Sun Sentinel reported. In December 2000, Simpson was involved in a traffic dispute with a driver near his home but was acquitted by a jury. There also were 911 calls for domestic incidents involving Simpson’s then-girlfriend Christie Prody, but no charges were filed. In 2001, police and federal agents searched his home as part of a drug-ring investigation, but charges again were not filed. And in 2002, Simpson was cited for speeding in a power boat in a manatee zone near downtown Miami.
In 2007, Simpson was arrested on robbery and kidnapping charges, stemming from an incident in a Las Vegas hotel room, where he said he was trying to reclaim some of his property from sports memorabilia dealers. In 2008, a jury found him guilty of multiple charges, and he was sentenced to a minimum of nine years in prison.
Before Simpson was to be released on parole in October 2017, it was reported that he hoped to resume his life in Florida and reconnect with his four children. But a report by Page Six, citing a new book by Tom Scotto, Simpson’s self-described friend and spokesman, said that Simpson only got along well with Arnelle, who gave a tearful testimony at his parole hearing. Simpson reportedly was estranged from Jason, Sydney and Justin, according to the book.
“O.J.’s kids don’t want him close to them. Only Arnelle will talk to him,” said a publicist for Scotto.
But Simpson’s attorney, Malcolm LaVergne, denied any estrangement between Simpson and his three younger children. He told Page Six, “They are in constant communication.”
Another 2017 Page Six report offered a different portrait of Simpson’s relationship with his kids at the time. It said that they liked him well enough that they bought a house in St. Petersburg, Florida, for him to live in when he was paroled. Sydney and Justin reportedly lived in the Tampa Bay-St. Petersburg area, according to the Sun-Sentinel.
Earlier in 2017, the New York Post also reported that Sydney and Justin Simpson had built “a mini-real estate empire” in the St. Petersburg area, buying up 13 homes and apartments in low-income areas since 2015. All but two appeared to have been bought with cash, which raised questions about whether the property was purchased with money from their father, the New York Post said. By 2017, Simpson still owed almost all of the $33.5 million civil judgment against him.
In the end, Simpson didn’t return to Florida. Pam Bondi, Florida’s Attorney General at the time, didn’t want him there, saying that he would burden law enforcement officials and could pose a risk to civilians, according to the Las Vegas Review-Journal.
So, Simpson apparently stayed in Las Vegas, initially moving in with a friend who had a home in a gated community, the Las Vegas Review Journal said. As of 2023, the New York Post reported, Simpson was living in a golf course community of Canyon Gate Country Club in Las Vegas.