- Actress Brittany Murphy was at the top of her game when she passed away.
- She lived atop a mansion on the Sunset Strip, which once belonged to Britney Spears.
- Spears reportedly left the home after experiencing something unnatural, never returning and choosing to sell it instead.
Before Brittany Murphy purchased her Sunset Strip home, it first belonged to Britney Spears while she was dating Justin Timberlake. At the time, the pop star allegedly experienced a supernatural encounter that led her to flee the home and never return.
On the "We Need to Talk About Britney" podcast in February 2021, her former makeup artist Julianne Kaye recalled the strange things that happened in the house. Once, Spears called her because she needed to relax.
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Britney Spears and boyfriend Justin Timberlake arrive at the premiere of her movie "Crossroads" at the Mann Chinese Theatre in Hollywood, Ca., Feb. 11, 2002. | Source: Getty Images
Kaye called her friend to do a reiki healing on Spears, and she accused him of opening a spirit portal. Kaye recalled:
"He left, and she swears to God that he opened some spirit portal or something, and these bad spirits had come in … and they were trying to, like, push her down the stairs or something crazy."
Things were getting so out of hand that Spears opted to check herself into the Casa Del Mar hotel rather than go home. She never went back to the house and swore she wasn't "crazy" – Spears insisted she just knew what she saw and what she felt.
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Britney Spears in a scene from the film "Crossroads," circa 2002. | Source: Getty Images
Spears rushed to sell the property but had a difficult time doing so. Murphy eventually purchased it from her in 2003 for $3.9 million.
While Murphy never admitted to seeing anything unnatural at home, she sensed something was wrong, even calling it "unlucky."
She preferred living in something other than their Sunset Strip home and asked if they could check into hotels most of the time. However, her husband, Simon Monjack, urged her to be practical by not wasting their money on hotel rooms, especially if they had a home nearby.
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Brittany Murphy hugs her mother outside Mr. Chow''s restaurant on June 29, 2001 in Beverly Hills, California. | Source: Getty Images
Murphy had planned to move her family to New York in 2010, before her untimely death in 2009. The actress had many plans: she was to start a family with her husband, revive her career by doing independent films, and her husband would find work.
While at home, Murphy's solace was her peach-colored bathroom. She spent hours there reading books, testing makeup, and listening to music.
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Brittany Murphy, circa 2001. | Source: Getty Images
Brittany Murphy's Troubling Last Few Months
Murphy had a promising career that lasted decades. She was ambitious and had critics raving about her versatility as an actress. From "8 Mile" to "Girl, Interrupted," to "Uptown Girl" and "Don't Say a Word," people saw talent in her. However, throughout her time alive, her work often went underappreciated, and she did not get the praise she rightfully deserved.
By 2006, her career had fallen quickly. She was no longer starring in box-office productions and would only be cast in low-budget, straight-to-TV movies.
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Brittany Murphy during the Los Angeles premiere of "Uptown Girls" at ArcLight Cinerama Dome in Hollywood, California on August 4, 2003. | Source: Getty Images
Monjack once recalled his wife crying for hours because of her career. She hadn't had a studio movie since 2004's "Little Black Book," and Monjack believed her former agents and managers boycotted her.
At the time, Murphy was heartbroken that she could not show her talent to the world because people were blocking her. It took a toll on her mental health, and she started relying on prescription drugs.
One of her last projects was "The Caller," a low-budget thriller film set in Puerto Rico. At the time, the bug, Staphylococcus aureus, was viral in the area. She was in Puerto Rico to shoot the film but got fired after the first day. Six weeks later, she died.
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Simon Monjack and Brittany Murphy pose at the opening of the Blumarine US flagship store at the Village of Merrick Park on April 2, 2008 in Coral Gables, Florida. | Source: Getty Images
The story of why Murphy was fired had two sides: the producers' and Murphy's. The producers claimed Murphy was fired when she refused to allow her husband to be banned from the set when he showed up drunk on the first day. Meanwhile, according to Murphy, she was unhappy to discover that the thriller movie turned out to be a horror film.
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Brittany Murphy on location for "Molly Gunn" at Lower Manhattan in New York City on September 13, 2002. | Source: Getty Images
They stayed in Puerto Rico for eight more days so that their trip would be well-spent. While they were there, Monjack and Murphy's mom, Sharon, caught the bug.
On their flight back to LA on November 28, 2009, Monjack suffered a "mild heart attack." Murphy administered CPR and eventually caught the bug as well.
Over the years, Murphy was the recipient of negative press. No longer was she a highly sought-after actress after news of her substance abuse came to light.
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Brittany Murphy and Simon Monjack, circa 2007. | Source: Getty Images
Brittany Murphy's Alarming Last Few Days
When she died on December 20, 2009, Murphy was on an anti-depression drug, an anti-seizure drug, an anti-inflammatory drug, a beta blocker, and a pain reliever.
She had been sick for weeks and had laryngitis during the last ten days of her life. At the time, Murphy also had her period, causing anemia.
A day before she died, Murphy was struggling. Her lips turned blue as she could no longer breathe properly due to fluid in her lungs.
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Brittany Murphy and Simon Monjack. | Source: Youtube.com/Inside Edition
Despite all of these subsequent illnesses, Murphy never saw a doctor. She consulted through phone several times and spoke to a pharmacist but had yet to meet one in person.
Monjack and Murphy often chose to treat their illnesses with holistic medicine. They also didn't like going to the hospital because they feared it would hurt their chances of getting more job opportunities.
At 3 a.m. on December 20, 2009, Murphy woke up to head to the balcony of her room. Monjack called her mom Sharon to say Murphy needed her.
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Sharon Murphy, mother of deceased actress Brittany Murphy, during a portrait shoot on January 13, 2010 in Hollywood, California. | Source: Getty Images
Sharon came down when Murphy asked her for help as she could no longer catch her breath. Monjack recalled hearing his wife say, "I'm dying. I'm going to die. Mommy, I love you."
At 7:30 a.m., Murphy was in her bathroom when she again told her mother that she wasn't feeling well. Thirty minutes later, the actress collapsed, and Sharon screamed for Monjack to call 911.
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Singer James Taylor pays tribute to deceased actors and singers as an image of Brittany Murphy is projected behind him at the 82nd Academy Awards at the Kodak Theater in Hollywood, California on March 7, 2010. | Source: Getty Images
Footage later revealed Sharon frantically called 911 while simultaneously trying to scream for her daughter to wake up. Paramedics came to the scene and rushed her to the hospital while Sharon and Monjack followed in a separate car.
By around 10:00 a.m., doctors told Monjack and Sharon that Murphy had passed. The grieving husband asked them to do anything, but doctors insisted it was too late, and she didn't make it.
Monjack was grief-stricken. "I've lost the only thing that really mattered to me. I lived and breathed my wife. She was the light of my life," he once said.
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Simon Monjack, husband of deceased actress Brittany Murphy, and Sharon Murphy, mother of Brittany Murphy, during a photo shoot on January 13, 2010 in Hollywood, California. | Source: Getty Images
Only five months after Murphy's death, her husband was found dead in their Sunset Strip home. Like Murphy, he died of acute pneumonia and severe anemia.
In 2021, their deaths made headlines again when the HBO Max documentary "What Happened, Brittany Murphy?" aired. At the time, Spears took to Instagram to share her curiosity about the case that remains under investigation even after a decade.
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Publicist Roger Neal approaches to hold a press conference outside the home of Simon Monjack after he was found dead by his mother-in-law on May 24, 2010 in Hollywood, California. | Source: Getty Images
Despite Monjack's professed love for his wife, he was once accused of encouraging Murphy's plastic surgery addiction before her preventable death. Years after their passing, people continue to wonder about the true circumstances of their untimely deaths.
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