In what seems to be the final note in a very sad tale, the British born husband of Brittany Murphy, Simon Monjack, has been found dead in his LA home, only five months after the actress passed away. There was no official word on why he died, but it seems he had a heart attack, having suffered previous cardiac problems, and that his death is being treated as natural causes. It’s believed he was was found by Murphy’s mother on Saturday evening, who phoned the emergency services, and that despite attempts to resuscitate him, he was pronounced dead at the scene.
Monjack, who is always said to be a screenwriter despite a lack of credits (although he did some work on the Edie Sedgwick biopic, Factory Girl), is said to have taken his wife’s death very hard, and was also bitter with how the studios had treated her. While there were numerous reports before her death that she was being shunned for her wild partying and drug abuse, Monjack was always very quick to defend her (and himself, as the allegations were more often than not, that he was the one leading her astray), saying the reports were unfair, that she was always professional and that they were merely scapegoating her.
Indeed when Murphy died, he immediately issued a statement saying it was natural cause and that she didn’t do drugs, and even tried to prevent an autopsy being performed. The eventual toxicology reports put her death down to pneumonia complicated by an iron deficiency, anemia and multiple drug intoxication. Her demise was officially ruled an accident. And now her husband has gone too, seemingly from a pre-existing heart condition.