O.J. Simpson died at the age of 76 due to prostate cancer, which he had reportedly been battling for a long time.
According to TMZ, the American football star, who was disgracefully acquitted of the murders of his ex-wife Nicole Brown and her friend Ron Goldman, has been in poor health over the past few months and has been admitted to a nursing home for incurable patients.
The news of his death was announced with a simple message shared by his family on the NFL Hall of Famer’s X account.
Our father, Orenthal James Simpson, lost his battle with cancer on 10 April. He was surrounded by his children and grandchildren.
“During this time of transition, the family asks you to respect their request for privacy and courtesy,” the statement said.
In what many called “the trial of the century”, Simpson was accused of murdering Brown and Goldman in 1994, charged with this offence and then acquitted. His acquittal by a mostly black jury was a groundbreaking moment in US cultural history.
Later in 1996, a court of law found Simpson guilty of the murders and ordered him to pay over $30 million in compensation to the victims’ families. The star athlete was only able to pay part of the debt before his death.
How much was O.J.’s fortune?
According to Celebrity Net Worth, there is general consensus that the NFL hall of fame star’s net worth is an estimated $3 million.
O.J. had a steady source of income through his pensions, which were legally inaccessible to creditors and the Goldman family.
Simpson received $42,000 a year from Social Security and an annual pension of $125,000 to $300,000 from the NFL, as well as a salary from the Screen Actors Guild.
O.J. and his late ex-wife were married for 7 years before separating in 1992. According to the court filing, Simpson had claimed that Celebrity Net Worth reported that his estimated net worth was $10.8 million and his monthly income was $55,000.
Ultimately, O.J. agreed to pay Nicole a lump sum of $433,750 plus $10,000 in child support.
Legal fees and court settlements had caused a considerable reduction in his fortune.
Who will inherit his fortune?
According to the current situation, his 3 million dollar fortune seems to be left to his 4 children Sydney, Jason, Justin and Arnelle Simpson.
One of his children, Aaren, drowned in a swimming pool accident in 1979 as a toddler.
Still haunted by a wrongful death verdict worth millions of dollars, the Goldman family gained control of the manuscript of Simpson’s book. They renamed the book “If I Did It: Confessions of the Killer”.
“It’s all blood money and unfortunately I had to join the coyotes,” Simpson told the Associated Press at the time. The star athlete had received an advance of $ 880,000 for the book, paid through a third party.
“It allowed me to get out of debt and secure my house,” O.J. said.
Simpson was arrested in Las Vegas less than two months after he lost his rights to the book.
What did Goldman owe his family?
Goldman’s father, Fred, recently claimed in court documents filed in an attempt to uphold the validity of the judgement that Simpson owed him $96 million.
This is due to the significant amount of interest accrued on the initial award of 30 million dollars.
The reason why the debt remains high is that Simpson allegedly did not pay a large part of the determined amount.
Goldman claimed that as of February 2021, Simpson had paid only $ 123 thousand.
