Nicole Brown Simpson’s Sisters Want You To Meet The Nicole They Knew

Chances are you know who Nicole Brown Simpson is — but you don’t know Nicole Brown Simpson, her sisters Denise, Tanya and Dominique Brown say.

That’s why Denise Brown, her older sister, is “excited” for the documentary “The Life & Murder of Nicole Brown Simpson” to air on Lifetime June 1 and 2.

Featuring archival footage and words from Brown Simpson herself, the four-part documentary is, according to her sisters, the first work that “humanizes” her.

Brown Simpson was fatally stabbed on June 12, 1994, alongside her friend Ronald Goldman, outside her home in Brentwood, Los Angeles. She was 35 years old and left behind two children.

What followed was a media spectacle that had her ex-husband, NFL star O.J. Simpson, at its center.

Simpson was charged with Brown Simpson and Goldman’s murders and attempted to evade arrest on June 17, 1994, leading officers on a car chase throughout Southern California. Jurors acquitted Simpson of the murder charges on Oct. 3, 1995, following a nine-month trial. He was found liable for their deaths in a civil trial two years later. He later served prison time for an unrelated crime and died of cancer in April 2024.

But “The Life & Murder of Nicole Brown Simpson” is just as interested in the prelude to Brown Simpson’s murder as the aftermath. What led up to that tragic evening 30 years ago?

The documentary makes the case that, behind their exterior as a glamorous couple, Brown Simpson and Simpson’s marriage was marked by abuse. During the ’94 trial, Simpson denied that he physically abused. He was never convicted of domestic violence. 

In the new Lifetime documentary, Simpson’s friends and family speak about what they say they now know, but didn’t then, regarding the NFL pro’s second marriage. The loudest voice of all might be Brown Simpson’s, as the documentary spotlights diary entries she wrote during her marriage. The diary entries were not admissible during O.J. Simpson’s murder trial due to hearsay.

“It’s like, subconsciously or consciously, she knew of her own demise,” Tanya Brown tells TODAY.com, with Dominique echoing, “She did.”

Five days before her death, Brown Simpson called a battered women’s shelter saying she was afraid her ex-husband would kill her. The woman who answered the phone was allowed to testify in the trial.  

During their appearance on TODAY, the Brown sisters were asked if they felt they ever received justice for Brown Simpson’s death, since Simpson was acquitted.  

“I’m going to talk like how my mom would say this,” Tanya Brown said. “She’s like, ‘Things just happen the way they were supposed to happen.’ It panned out the way it was supposed to.”

“I just think it happened the way it happened, and you can’t change that,” Denise Brown said. “Now what we want to do is we want to bring her back in this as the wonderful human being that she was.”

Below, read more about what Brown Simpson’s sisters have to say about her legacy. 

You’ve been speaking about your late sister all day. How are you?

Denise Brown: “We’ve actually been really good. We’re so excited about the project. It’s a beautiful thing we’re doing.”

Why are you excited about this project? Your sister has been in the media for so long.

Denise Brown: “Because it’s about her. It is about Nicole. That’s what’s exciting. We want to be able to tell Nicole’s story. We want to be able to humanize Nicole. We want to be able to bring her back to life for people who don’t know her.”

Does anybody know her? Has anybody been able to know her through coverage until this point?

Denise Brown: “I’m going to ask you that question. Do you know her? I don’t think anybody does. I’m really happy we found a wonderful home in Lifetime and they were on the same page as us. They wanted to bring her to life. So many people have said, ‘We don’t know anything about her. We don’t know what she sounds like.’ We bought a bunch of friends together that had never spoken about Nicole. All new people.”

Dominique Brown: “New people, new stories, new memories. It all meshed really beautifully.”

Tanya Brown: “We had no idea how many photos we had. Nicole was always the one taking the pictures. We were shocked to see how many videos our mom had kept over the years. Seeing her movie and talk instead of being slandered on a magazine.”

Is there a way you describe Nicole to people?

Dominique Brown: “I’ve always said, ‘She’d take the shirt off her back for you.’”

Tanya Brown: “Nicole was the type of lady who, if you had nowhere to go during the holidays, the doors would be open. The plate would be set for you.” 

Do you think people understand the condition of her marriage? 

Denise Brown: “That’s why we wanted to tell her story. (To show) what a wonderful person she was, but also educate people on the issue of domestic violence. We didn’t know anything about domestic violence. What people have to realize is there’s so much shame in coming forward. Her best friend, Ron Hardy, said it best: She wanted to protect her family and friends. That’s why she didn’t say anything. It was a real eye-opener when, after her murder, Dominique found her diaries.”

What was that like for you to read her words in her diaries?

Dominique Brown: “I didn’t personally read them.”

Denise Brown: “I read them and said, ‘Why didn’t she say anything?’ I said, ‘Why, why, why?’ Everything you’re not supposed to say. We were this close. We were less than two years apart in age. We were always doing things together. We spent so much time together. For her not to say anything … but it goes back to protecting her family and her friends.

“It was sad that it took my sister’s life for the Violence Against Women Act to pass. The 24-hour domestic violence hotline to come about. It’s sad that it took my sister’s life, but it is what it is. We can’t change any of it anymore. I’m just happy we’re able to do the legislation. There’s so much more that still needs to be done.” 

What do you know now about domestic violence that you wish you knew then? 

Dominique Brown: “There was a lot of glossing over going on. I used to talk to Nicole daily. She would throw in a little bit here and there about how OJ was being crazy and how he did this, how he did that. As far as what we know now is the amount and the degree of domestic violence that was going on that we didn’t recognize (back then), because she didn’t share. We weren’t educated. She protected herself, her family, us.”

How did you all stay intact as a family unit after her murder?

Tanya Brown: “I think we had really phenomenal parents. Without their strength, their grace, their tenacity to keep us together — we probably would not be together. I like to attribute it to my mom and my dad. All three of us are so different in personality. Each of us grieves differently. Dominique immersed herself in taking care of the children. Denise immersed herself in the foundation and speaking.” 

Denise Brown: “I went on the road, educating myself. I went to the shelters. Stories people would tell would just be horrific. I was thinking, ‘Oh, my God, this is just awful.’ So much more needs to be done. After Nicole’s murder and learning about what Nicole went through, it went as far as: This isn’t about Nicole anymore. This is about educating the rest of the world. We can’t bring Nicole back. 

Tanya Brown: “There’s 30 years of a new population that don’t know who Nicole is. A majority of the young kids out there don’t even know who Simpson is. This is education and awareness at this point. Somebody earlier said, ‘This is a love letter from Nicole to the world.’ It’s like, I don’t want what happened to me to happen to you or someone you love.’ It’s hard.”

You said it doesn’t get easier. It just gets harder.

Denise Brown: “It gets harder for me because I can’t pick up the phone and call her. It gets harder for me because I haven’t told her I love her in 30 years. I haven’t told her I missed her in 30 years. I haven’t been able to talk to her in 30 years. That’s hard for me, really hard for me.”

Tanya Brown: “What’s hard for me is I’m so much younger than Nicole. Our lives were getting to the point of intersection where adult to adult, sister to sister — ‘Hey, Nic, I’m coming up to L.A., let’s do lunch.’ I think Denise’s son said: ‘Yeah, but somebody blew out her candle.’ The relationship these two had with Nicole … I’m a little sad. I’m happy you had it, but that was my sadness, my grief.”

Simpson died this year. How did that impact your grieving process?

Dominique Brown: “I don’t think any of us knew the extent of his illness. It had been talked about. It came as a shock. It’s 47 years that we knew him, that he had been a part of our lives. Every time there was something in the news, it impacted us. Constant reminders that she’s not here anymore.”

When people find out you’re Nicole’s sister, what do they ask? 

Denise Brown: “It’s actually pretty funny. People come up to me and go, ‘Do you know you look just like Denise Brown?’ I go, ‘I’ve been told that before.’ I love when they do come up to me and say, ‘Your sister saved my life.’” 

Tanya Brown: “Even late tonight reading my posts on Instagram and Facebook, a couple people were saying, ‘If it wasn’t for our sister, I’d be dead.’ She’s still making a difference. People are looking back and saying, ‘It’s because of this one person, who I never met, who I’ve never known, helped save my life.”