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He believes foul play was involved.
By Nia Tipton — Written on Dec 19, 2022
Brittany Murphy's brother is speaking out about the late actress and the conspiracy surrounding her death.
In a December 2022 interview with The Sun, Tony Bertolotti — Murphy's half-brother — shared new details about who has control over Murphy's estate, and his belief that the "Clueless" actress' death wasn't accidental.
Was Brittany Murphy murdered?
Murphy died on December 20, 2009, after being found unconscious in her West Hollywood home.
Coroners reported her cause of death appeared "to be natural" at the time but theories soon surfaced due to the mysterious nature of her passing at just 32 years old.
Brittany Murphy's brother claims she was killed.
Bertolotti claims to believe Brittany Murphy was "taken out" and reveals who is in control of Murphy's fortune.
While speaking with The Sun, Bertolotti, who's connected to Murphy through their late father, Angelo, claimed to not know where Murphy's $10 million fortune has gone following her death.
He claimed that his father, who spent years trying to uncover the truth surrounding Murphy's death, found out that three people were appointed control of her estate after she passed.
Brittany Murphy's estate was allegedly left to her mother, Sharon, a journalist, and Murphy's doctor.
"The estate was left to Sharon, an editor of a major Hollywood newspaper — he was on the paperwork for her estate — and also a diabetes doctor from Miami she was seeing,” Bertolotti told the publication.
“Those were the controlling names on the estate," he added.
According to Bertolotti, the trio have been overseeing the money in a private trust, though its contents or spending habits haven't been revealed.
Brittany Muphy's death was ruled to have been caused by pneumonia
An updated coroner's report released a year after Murphy's death determined that the cause of death was pneumonia, exacerbated by anemia and misuse of various prescription medicines.
Bertolotti, however, claims that Murphy's death wasn't due to "natural causes."
"There’s no way she died of natural causes. It’s impossible. It’s bulls–t, total crap,” he said, adding that he believes her death was connected to her money.
“It was obvious to me, she was taken out.”
In the past, Brittany Murphy's brother has accused her late husband of being involved in her death.
In a December 2019 interview with the Daily Mail, Bertolotti raised his suspicion that Murphy's husband, screenwriter Simon Monjack, had been inadvertently involved in her death.
At the time of Murphy's death, both Monjack — who died five months later under the same circumstances — and her mother were all living together.
“If you look at it from a distance, it’s like, here’s this young lady — a fairly healthy girl — she’s home with her supposed husband and mother, and she died,” Bertolotti said.
“How absurd is it? It’s only in Hollywood that it’s considered another day at the zoo. No one takes her to a hospital, which is just four miles away.”
Bertolotti continued, believing that his former brother-in-law, who was written out of Murphy's will before her death, may have been responsible for her death, due to his "six-figure bank and business debt."
“I don’t know what business decisions they were making at that time, but it [their deaths] sounds business-related to me,” he pointed out.
"I don’t believe the drugs line that much, I don’t buy it. I’m sure there was experimentation. But Brittany was conservative with that stuff, she was a bright girl.”
Nia Tipton is a writer living in Brooklyn. She covers pop culture, social justice issues, and trending topics. Keep up with her on Instagram and Twitter.