What went wrong?
Tonight, E!'s True Hollywood Story is pulling back the curtain on Hollywood's biggest mysteries, including one especially tragic case: the death of Brittany Murphy.
The all-new episode will explore the late actress' marriage to Simon Monjack and what led to her shocking passing in late 2009, with help from people like former Los Angeles criminal prosecutor Loni Coombs and Murphy's Clueless co-star Twink Caplan.
The pair recounts the fast facts on Murphy and Monjack's relationship in the above sneak peek clip, with Coombs describing how much of the public viewed the English writer-producer who died just six months after Murphy: "People said he was a con-man, that he was using her for her money, that he was brainwashing her."
Caplan's recollection is similar. "The rumors were he wasn't exactly who he said he was," she reveals. "He got in fights with people and he would sue people."
For example, a year before Monjack married Murphy, he'd sued the producers of Factory Girl claiming they'd stolen his script. They called the suit "frivolous" but the case was ultimately settled.
Then, just two months before he and Murphy tied the knot, Monjack spent nine days in jail facing deportation over an expired work visa. They hadn't been dating long, and rumors spread the potential deportation was the reason for their sudden marriage.
"We don't really know what was going on," explains a True Hollywood Story interviewee. "Brittany, I would say, had a lot of insecurity. Then this man came along and he was very nurturing and caring and created a protection for her."
Adds Caplan, "I think she was having a hard time and he gave her something that is nobody else's business."
Unfortunately, Murphy's problems only worsened after she got married.
"She started to look sickly and very thin, and then the rumors started—you know, was she taking drugs? Was she anorexic?" Coombs recalls. "And she denied all those things, but people started to really be concerned about her."
Caplan included. "She was going through a bad time," the actress says. "They said she was late to a lot of sets and not herself."
The public speculation increased after Murphy was allegedly dropped from the Happy Feet sequel and another film shooting in Puerto Rico. Regarding the latter, Caplan recalled the filmmakers not wanting Monjack on set.
"And if he couldn't go on the set, she didn't want to go on the set," Caplan continues, noting that at the time, Murphy also had laryngitis.
"That was what lingered and turned into pneumonia," she adds, referring to the ruling from the Los Angeles Coroner's Office that stated Murphy's death was accidental and the result of pneumonia, anemia and "multiple drug intoxication" from legally acquired medications. "It breaks my heart."
Dive deeper into the mystery on tonight's all-new True Hollywood Story.