Where Are O.J. Simpson's Kids Today?
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The murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman shocked America to the core in 1994, though they were not the only victims that night. O.J. Simpson, who was tried and acquitted in criminal court for the fatal stabbings, had two children with his late ex and three from his previous marriage to Marguerite Whitley. (His third child with Whitley, Aaren Lashone Simpson, tragically drowned in the family swimming pool months before her second birthday.) For Simpson's children, life hasn't been easy since the so-called "Trial of the Century."
While some of the peripheral people in the former NFL star's life went on to achieve huge levels of fame (like Kris Jenner and her family), the Simpson kids have maintained low profiles, going out of their way to avoid the intrusive glare of the press. Interest in the case has spiked in recent years, even before Simpson's April 2024 death. After the release of the hit FX show "The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story" in 2016 and the critically acclaimed docuseries "O.J.: Made in America" that same year, O.J.'s offspring were sucked back into the spotlight. What have they been doing in the years since their father became public enemy no. 1 in the court of public opinion? Read on to find out.
Arnelle Simpson testified on O.J. Simpson's behalf
Of all of O.J. Simpson's children, Arnelle Simpson was one of the most outspoken supporters of their father. She appeared on behalf of her siblings at O.J.'s 2017 parole hearing. "We want him to come home so that we can move forward for us, quietly, but to move forward," she testified to the Nevada state parole board, adding, "As a family we recognize he's not the perfect man, but as a man and a father he has done his best."
Four years earlier, Arnelle wrote a letter to the same parole board, at the request of O.J., who had reportedly asked that she not be present in court in order to keep the media spotlight away from her siblings. According to the Daily Mail, Arnelle also testified in a 2013 hearing when O.J. requested a new trial for the 2008 armed robbery conviction that landed him in prison. Arnelle testified that she "recalled that her father was drinking the entire weekend of the alleged crime and that he seemed 'tipsy' when she saw him at the Palms Hotel pool talking with men who would later accompany him to a hotel room where he is accused of stealing personal memorabilia." We're not exactly sure if that was supposed to be some sort of a "he was too drunk to do it" defense, but nonetheless, she consistently showed up for her old man.
Arnelle Simpson worked for a rapper called Hash
As O.J.'s eldest child, Arnelle Simpson can still remember what life was like before her father's sensational arrest. "Back then we were the first black family in that neighborhood in Brentwood," she recalled during an interview with Georgia Newsday in 2014, two decades after the murders. Arnelle spent the best part of those 20 years dodging the press and trying to rebuild her life, but holding down a job has been a real challenge. She revealed that she'd worked "for a rapper called Hash for a while, and then produced some fashion shows," but Arnelle hasn't been able to carve out a career of any kind.
The only role that Arnelle has held for a prolonged period is babysitter. She was forced to step up and help raise her two half-siblings, Sydney and Justin Simpson, who were just eight and five when their mother was cruelly taken from them. "We have been living with this for 20 years," Arnelle said. "Me, my brothers, my sister... You know, when the whole thing happened to Paris (Michael Jackson's daughter, who attempted suicide aged 15) I called them. I told the family: 'Hey, it could have happened to us, to Sydney and Justin.' But we brought them up okay."
If you or someone you know needs help, please call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255).
Did Arnelle Simpson blow her dad's pension?
He beat his double murder rap, but O.J. Simpson had the book thrown at him when he was later arrested and charged with armed robbery and kidnapping. In 2007, he and a group of men robbed two sports memorabilia dealers at gunpoint in a Las Vegas hotel. He was jailed in October 2008, 13 years after his acquittal to the exact day. When O.J. was released in 2017 after nine years behind bars, his bank balance apparently wasn't looking too healthy, and Arnelle Simpson was reportedly to blame.
O.J. was allowed to keep his $25,000-a-month NFL pension, more than enough for most people to live very comfortably with. Arnelle confirmed to Georgia Newsday that she'd been left in charge of O.J.'s finances during his incarceration, and the way she tells it, the money went to O.J.'s legal costs. "The home is gone, it all went to attorneys," she said. But is that really true?
According to one family source, Arnelle had a habit of spending her dad's cash on herself. "Arnelle is a shopaholic," the insider told the National Enquirer (via the Daily Mail). "Shopping was often the only thing that got her out of the house. She loved her trips to Saks and Victoria's Secret and paid for them with her father's money. She'd also bring all of her friends to the house or go to expensive restaurants and buy everyone dinner and drinks."
Arnelle Simpson claimed If I Did It was her friend's idea
Amidst the uproar over O.J. Simpson's wildly controversial book "If I Did It," in which he wrote an "imagined scenario" about the brutal murders of Nicole and Goldman, Arnelle Simpson stated in a deposition that the original idea for the book came from her friend, Raffles Van Exel. According to the deposition, obtained by ABC News, Arnelle acted as a broker between Van Exel and her dad and received an advance from publisher HarperCollins through her company, Lorraine Brooks Associates. The company later filed for bankruptcy and lost the rights to the book to Fred Goldman (victim Ron Goldman's father), who successfully argued that any profits from the book should go towards the largely unpaid $19 million civil settlement awarded to the Goldmans in 1997.
After much legal wrangling, the book was finally published by the Goldman family in 2007, retitled "If I Did It: Confessions of the Killer." According to the Los Angeles Times, within a month of its publication, it had already sold more than 100,000 copies and made its way onto bestseller lists. Despite the success of the Goldman-owned book, the Associated Press reported in June 2019 that "most of the [award from the civil suit against Simpson] has not been paid."
Did Arnelle Simpson develop a drinking problem?
Using your dad's pension money to take friends out for drinks is one thing, but using it to buy morning vodka is another entirely. The same source that claimed Arnelle's shopping habits were out of control also alleged that O.J. often lost his temper with his daughter over her booze consumption, which apparently became a problem. "O.J. fought with Arnelle all the time about her drinking, and he tried for years to get her married to get her out of his house," the insider told the National Enquirer (via the Daily Mail). "All she would do is sit around and drink vodka, even for breakfast."
The Juice reportedly let loose during a tense phone call with his spendthrift daughter, but as far as Arnelle was concerned, he didn't really have a leg to stand on. "Her actions are really revenge against a father she felt abandoned his children long ago for a life of bad behavior and crazy antics with questionable friends and loose women," the source alleged.
Arnelle did love her dad (she said so during her Georgia Newsday interview), but, as you can imagine, it's always been a little complicated. Things apparently got better between the pair after O.J.'s release from prison. In 2019, the Associated Press revealed that Arnelle lived with her dad in Vegas "much of the time."
There are some 'hideous' rumors about Jason Simpson
O.J.'s eldest son, Jason Simpson (above center), was the first family member to make a statement following his father's high-profile acquittal, appearing cool, calm, and collected as he spoke to the world's media about the trial and the murders. Jason read a statement written by his father. "I'm relieved that this part of the incredible nightmare that occurred on June 12, 1994, is over," the statement said. "When things have settled a bit, I will pursue as my primary goal in life the killer or killers who slaughtered Nicole and Mr. Goldman. They are out there somewhere."
O.J. prosecutor Marcia Clark came to the defense of Jason after rumors began circulating that he could have been involved in the murders, calling the accusations utterly baseless. "I can't even tell you how awful it is," Clark told "Today" (via Inside Edition), referring to the rumors "hideous." Some private investigators disagree, including Michael Alex Martin, who claimed that he saw Jason with O.J. in the infamous Bronco the night Brown and Goldman were killed. Another private investigator, Bill Dear, published a book titled "O.J. is Innocent and I Can Prove it." Dear points to several acts of knife-related violence allegedly committed by Jason, including threatening a former employer and cutting an ex-girlfriend's hair.
Despite the allegations that Jason was present on the night of the murders, he's reportedly never been considered a suspect in the case.
Jason Simpson became a chef
Jason Simpson looked set to follow in his father's footsteps and become a football star at one stage. In the 1980s, O.J.'s first-born son was the starting halfback, leading rusher, and kick returner for the Army and Navy Academy, an esteemed military institution in Carlsbad, Calif. His dad (who was working as a broadcaster at the time) praised him on national television after he returned a kickoff 80 yards for a touchdown. "It made me feel pretty good," Jason admitted to the Los Angeles Times, but he wasn't destined to go pro.
The promising athlete was following a strict schedule at the time, but Jason appears to have gone off the rails after leaving military school, reportedly turning to drugs and alcohol. The celebrity scion is said to have abused booze, cocaine, and ecstasy, and there were "three known suicide attempts" at the height of his troubles, according to New York magazine. Despite some apparent demons, Jason has managed to carve out a career as a chef. In 2017, he was working at Atlanta restaurant St. Cecilia.
Justin Simpson works in real estate
The youngest of O.J. and Nicole Brown Simpson's two kids, Justin Simpson was only five years old when his mother was brutally slain in their home. He and his sister Sydney Simpson were both there the night of the killings, sleeping through the whole thing. Eight years after Nicole's death, Justin told the Miami Herald that he thinks about his mother's murder "from time to time" but he doesn't dwell on it. "I just have to get it through my system when it comes into my mind," he said. "Then I just move on." That tactic seems to have worked wonders for Justin, because he's the only Simpson child who has lived a relatively conflict-free life.
Like Sydney, Justin found a fresh start in Florida, landing a job as a realtor in St. Petersburg. "It's a great place to live, why not St. Pete?" he told the Tampa Bay Times in 2016. "It's gorgeous here." Justin said that the real estate game kept him pretty busy, but it appears as though he still had time for his old man — O.J. spent Thanksgiving 2018 with Sydney and Justin. We don't know what they discussed over their dinner, but it certainly wasn't the murders, the trial, or any of the shady stuff O.J. did afterwards. "We don't need to go back and relive the worst day of our lives," O.J. told the Associated Press in 2019. "My family and I have moved on to what we call the 'no negative zone.' We focus on the positives."
Things went south between O.J. and Sydney Simpson
The press was granted access to the Simpson household for a day-in-the-life piece on O.J. soon after his acquittal, and journalist Daphne Barak couldn't help but notice the special bond between Sydney (the first of the former athlete's two children with Nicole Brown Simpson) and her old man. "She was in his arms, looking happy and safe," the reporter recalled (via Georgia Newsday). "The outside world, the headlines, the opinions and theories about her father all looked so far away, irrelevant in this father-daughter moment." Sadly for Sydney, that bubble would soon burst.
According to O.J.'s friend Tom Scotto, Sydney became "a very tough [and] angry girl" as she got older. Scotto told RadarOnline that she and her brother Justin were tormented by classmates, who would call their dad a murderer. At one point she apparently started to believe that — Sydney is said to have shouted, "You murdered mom," at her father during a public spat, right in front of stunned onlookers.
Things were also tense at home. In 2003, a 17-year-old Sydney called 911 on her dad. She sobbed as she told the dispatcher that O.J. was an "a**hole" to her, and asked for clarification over what was considered "abuse." According to the Miami Herald, Sydney later told officers that she and her father had gotten "into an argument over family issues." O.J. played the incident down, telling People that it was "a typical teenage girl thing."
Sydney Simpson changed her name
Sydney was arrested outside of a varsity basketball game in 2005 after allegedly hitting two teenage girls and yelling profanities at police. "For her safety and the safety of all concerned, the officers decided to remove her from the situation," police lieutenant Bill Schwartz told Fox News. Sydney (who was 19 at the time) has gone out of her way to avoid the press since her arrest, even changing her name.
In 2014, Georgia Newsday revealed that Sydney was waiting tables at an Atlanta restaurant and going by the name Portia. "There is nothing about the sweet looking girl dressed in a dowdy waitress uniform that would make a stranger look twice," reporter Daphne Barak said when she visited Sydney at her place of work. The restaurant gig wouldn't last, but unlike her older half-sister Arnelle, Sydney (who went to Miami's Gulliver Preparatory School and later earned a degree in sociology from Boston University) seems to have found herself a profession.
According to the Tampa Bay Times, O.J.'s daughter forged a low-key life for herself on Florida's Gulf Coast, where she's made a number of smart property investments under the name of her own company, Simpsy, LLC. Despite her continued efforts to remain anonymous, Sydney was spotted in St. Petersburg soon after Emmy-winning drama "The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story" aired in 2016. She reportedly refused to answer questions about the show, in which she's portrayed by actress Asia Monet Ray.
Sydney Simpson's ex wants her to speak out
In 2014, Sydney Simpson's ex-boyfriend Stuart Alexander Lee spoke to Radar Online about his five-year relationship with O.J.'s daughter, calling her a "real good girl" with "a good head on her shoulders." Lee (who dated Sydney from around 2007 up until 2012) revealed that he would constantly urge her to share her story with the world, even offering to hook her up with some influential people in order to make that happen. "She doesn't understand that her story could help someone else," Lee said. "When I was with her, I got friends in [the industry] I tried to set her up with and she said fame is a scary thing... She could be an inspiration to so many people, but she's scared."
Interestingly, Lee also revealed that he and Sydney had discussed the theories surrounding her mother's murder on several occasions. She may have believed otherwise when she was younger, but according to Lee, both Sydney and her brother Justin are now absolutely convinced that their dad didn't do it. "They speculate that it was a drug deal gone bad," Lee said, and he apparently supports this argument. "May she rest in peace, but [Nicole's] throat was cut like a Colombian necktie," he added. "Sydney doesn't believe O.J. did it, but she doesn't know what to believe... Either way, her mother died."
It would be a big payday for her, but Sydney clearly isn't interested in sharing her side of the story.
How is Robert Blackmon connected to O.J. Simpson's kids?
In recent years, Sydney Simpson has been romantically linked to Florida real estate investor turned politician, Robert Blackmon. According to the New York Post, Sydney and Robert were an item when the latter ran for a seat on the St. Petersburg City Council in 2017. "She's been selflessly supporting me and not worried about herself," Robert said of Sydney at the time, adding that she was "very private" by nature. "I probably shouldn't be speaking about the Simpsons without their permission," he said. "The entire Simpson family are great people. They've been great friends to me."
It turned out that Robert and O.J. Simpson had something in common — run-ins with the law. A few weeks after his election bid failed, Robert's criminal past was exposed by Radar Online, which obtained a Florida state accident report confirming that he fled the scene of an accident. The Republican crashed his 2002 Cadillac into a ditch and split, but police found him at a local hospital.
In 2019, Blackmon had another run at the St. Petersburg City Council, and this time he was successful. The current status of his relationship with Sydney is unclear. Blackmon denied they were dating when the tabloids started to run with the story — was that the truth, or damage limitation?