Perhaps, it was Simon Monjack's love for her which took him to her soon after she left the world suddenly.
There are some people who are so charming and effervescent that they leave a lasting mark on the world even when they are gone. Actress Brittany Murphy was exactly that kind of person. She would laugh unabashedly and was truly a "little piece of sunshine" as Ashton Kutcher described her, according to HeraldSun.
So, when she passed away on December 20, 2009 at the age of 32, people were left perplexed and curious. However, the two people who were completely heartbroken were her mother, Sharon Murphy, who raised her alone, and husband, Simon Monjack.
The Girl, Interrupted actress and Monjack, a photographer, met during her first editorial photoshoot when she was still underage. "No one knows this, but I took Brittany's first photograph for a magazine. It was Jane magazine; Brittany was this big," he told LATimes blog, while raising his hand to hip level, indicating her height. Monjack, who fell in love with her then, was very mindful of her age since he was eight years older than her. "To make a long story short, I was very patient," he said.
Years later, in 2007, she called him because she liked a script he had written. It started off their whirlwind romance. When she returned to L.A. they met for dinner at Hotel Bel-Air and liked each other instantly. The next week, he accompanied her to New York where she was promoting a movie. Since then, they never spent the night apart. The couple married on May 5, 2007 at her home on Rising Glen Road, where they lived with her mother.
"The easiest decision I ever made in my life was getting married," Murphy had said, according to MTV. "He's flown around the world to make sure we spend every single night together."
Two years later, on that fateful night in December, power had just returned to the Hollywood Hills after a blackout. Murphy stood in the balcony of her bedroom and asked for her mother. When she came to her, she saw a shocking scene.
"She was lying on the patio trying to catch her breath. I said 'Baby, get up.' She said, 'Mommy, I can’t catch my breath. Help me. Help me,'" Sharon recalled to the Hollywood Reporter. Simon recalled, "She said to her mom, 'I’m dying. I’m going to die. Mommy, I love you.'"
She was alive till 7.30 a.m, which is when she went to her bathroom. "She said, 'Mommy, I really don’t feel well,'" Sharon said. At 8.00 a.m., the 8 Mile actress collapsed and they called 911. Both husband and mother lived in regret since then for not making that phone call sooner. She passed away that morning due to cardiac arrest.
The day after her death, Monjack told Access Hollywood, "My world was destroyed yesterday."
After her death, there were many rumors about what killed her. It was later revealed that she was really sick with pneumonia, very anemic, and she was taking medication, the L.A. Coroner Asst. Chief Ed Winter told People, "and all that combined killed her."
Her husband was deeply heartbroken over her death and wanted just one more day with her somehow. "I had a life I never dreamed. I have seen the sunset on five continents. I’d trade it all for one more day with Brittany. I lost my life. She was my best friend, and she was a little girl who wanted her husband right there. What do I have left?" he told People.
On May 24, 2010, Sharon found Monjack unconscious in the same bedroom she had found her daughter and then called 911, according to TMZ. Monjack had been ailing from seizures and had had a heart attack in 2009. He passed away due to cardiac arrest five months after his beloved did. He too died of a case of pneumonia and anemia at the age of 40.
Four years after her death, when the rumors around the couples' death kept swirling, Sharon came forth with an emotional letter, according to Hollywood Reporter. "From the day of her birth, Brittany was my precious, more dear to me than anything or anyone in the universe. I have been devastated by her loss and that of my son-in-law and have remained in seclusion in my mourning," she said.
References:
https://www.tmz.com/2010/05/23/brittany-murphy-husband-simon-monjack-found-dead/
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/final-difficult-days-brittany-murphy-70059
https://people.com/movies/brittany-murphy-sudden-death-hollywood/
http://www.mtv.com/news/1639859/brittany-murphy-and-simon-monjack-a-history-of-their-romance/
