O.J. Simpson is dead.
Thursday, a statement attributed to Simpson's family was shared to his official Twitter account revealing that the 76-year-old had died following a battle with cancer.
"On April 10th, our father, Orenthal James Simpson, succumbed to his battle with cancer," the family statement reads. "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."
Simpson's death comes just under 30 years after the murders of ex-wife Nicole Brown and her friend, Ron Goldman, in Los Angeles. Brown, with whom Simpson had two children, would have turned 65 next month.
Known as "Juice" during his time in the NFL as a running back, Simpson was an American superstar in every sense of the word until 1994, when he was alleged to have brutally murdered Brown and Goldman at the former's home in the Brentwood area. The double murder trial and Simpson's subsequent acquittal still stands as arguably the most controversial case in U.S. history and is often the source of intense debate, even to this day. Cam'ron, for example, recently defended having the former Buffalo Bills player on his podcast after criticism.
Though ultimately acquitted in 1995, Simpson, notably, was later found liable in civil suits from Brown and Goldman's families. The criminal trial was preceded in 1992 by the acquittal of LAPD officers involved in the police brutality beating of Rodney King.
'"We're just happy that a jury collectively looked at the evidence and told the world once and for all that Nicole's and Ron's lives mattered," John Kelly, a lawyer representing Brown’s estate, said outside the courtroom following the civil jury’s decision in 1997.
Prior to the murder trial, which would later be spoofed and referenced extensively on Seinfeld and elsewhere, including in Gunna’s "Rodeo Dr" video last August, Brown had notified police about physical abuse she said she experienced at the hands of Simpson. In 1989, Simpson pleaded no contest to spousal battery after being accused of abusing and threatening Brown in an incident earlier that year.
The late Robert Kardashian, a friend of Simpson’s, was a part of the defense team in the criminal trial, though Robert Shapiro and Johnnie Cochran were the leading attorneys. Despite this, Kardashian was later reported to have told Barbara Walters that he had his "doubts" with regards to Simpson’s innocence.
At Kardashian’s 1978 wedding to Kris Houghton, now known as Kris Jenner, Simpson was an usher. Kris, meanwhile, was friends with Brown. Caitlyn Jenner, who was married to Kris from 1991 to 2015, more recently pointed to a conversation she says she had with Kardashian during which he implied that he thought Simpson was indeed guilty.
In 2016, amid coverage of the Cuba Gooding Jr.-starring People v. O.J. Simpson series, Kris Jenner looked back on the Simpson-related "tension" between her and Robert, who divorced in 1991.
"There was definitely tension there," Kris said when reacting to the series, which saw David Schwimmer playing Robert. "She was one of my best friends and he was my ex-husband and we were on different sides."
