Famed football player OJ Simpson died Wednesday, his family announced. He was 76.
“On April 10th, our father, Orenthal James Simpson, succumbed to his battle with cancer,” read a statement posted to Simpson’s X account Thursday.
“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 was last photographed smiling at a Las Vegas restaurant on Feb. 19.
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Earlier that month, a local news station reported that the NFL legend had been diagnosed with prostate cancer and was undergoing chemotherapy amid rumors that he had entered hospice care; however, he denied the rumors.
“Hospice! You talking about hospice?” he questioned with a laugh in a video taken inside his car.
“No, I’m not even in the hospital. I don’t know who put that out there.”
Simpson then jubilantly explained that he was preparing to see “a ton of friends” for a Super Bowl LVIII viewing party.
In May 2023, however, the controversial figure shared in a video posted to his X account that he had been diagnosed with cancer and turned to medical marijuana to ease his side effects.
“I had to do the whole chemo thing … I started smoking a couple of puffs a day, and I only had nausea twice,” he said at the time. “I’m over the chemo. I only got nauseous on two occasions. … The pot really helped me with the unfortunate side of catching cancer.
“I’m healthy now,” he continued. “It looks like I beat it. I’m happy about that.”
Although known for his position as a running back on the Buffalo Bills and the San Francisco 49ers, Simpson became notorious following the death of his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson, who was found brutally stabbed with her friend Ron Goldman outside of her condo on June 12, 1994.
Five days later, the world tuned in as police chased “The Juice” and his friend Al Cowlings as they tried to flee in a white Ford Bronco.
Cowlings drove the now-iconic vehicle while Simpson sat in the back seat with a gun threatening to kill himself. The Super Bowl champion ultimately turned himself in to authorities and faced trial for the double murder.
After 11 months, Simpson’s legal team, which included the late Kardashian patriarch Robert Kardashian, successfully had him acquitted after famously pointing out that a blood-covered glove did not fit the accused’s hand.
“If it doesn’t fit, you must acquit,” lead defense attorney Johnnie L. Cochran famously told the jury.
Despite an acquittal from his criminal trial, the “If I Did It” author was found responsible for Brown Simpson’s death in a civil lawsuit in 1997.
Simpson’s legal woes didn’t stop there, as he was arrested in September 2007 after leading a group of armed men into a Las Vegas casino to steal what he claimed was his own sports memorabilia. Authorities charged him with numerous felonies, including kidnapping and armed robbery.
A jury found him guilty and sentenced him to serve up to 33 years in prison, though he was released on parole in 2017.
Given his close connection to the Kardashian family, Simpson frequently faced rumors that he was Khloé Kardashian’s biological father, though he vehemently denied the hearsay.
“The rumor ain’t true. It’s not even anywhere close to being true,” he said.
Simpson is survived by four children: Arnelle, 55, and Jason, 53, from his first marriage to Marguerite Whitley, and Sydney, 38, and Justin, 35, from his marriage to Brown Simpson. He was predeceased by his and Whitley’s son Aaren, who drowned in the family’s swimming pool in 1979 at the age of 1.
