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Long Before Brittany Murphy's Death, Britney Spears Feared There Were Spirits In Her Mansion

Years before Brittany Murphy and Simon Monjack fatally collapsed in their Hollywood Hills mansion, Britney Spears lived in the home and felt it was inhabited by bad spirits. 

By Gina Tron
Three Rumors Circulating Since Brittany Murphy's Death

Following the puzzling death of Brittany Murphy, and then the subsequent death of her mysterious husband, many rumors and theories have circulated. But the strangest one is the theory that their Hollywood mansion was cursed.

Brittany Murphy collapsed in the bathroom of her luxurious home, located on Rising Glen Road and perched at the top of the Sunset Strip, in 2009. She was later pronounced dead at a local hospital. She was just 32 years old. 

As the new two-part docuseries “What Happened, Brittany Murphy?”  streaming now on HBO Max —points out, her autopsy report provided more questions than answers. Her cause of death was listed as pneumonia with secondary factors of iron deficiency anemia. No illegal drugs were found in her system. 

How could a seemingly healthy woman at the height of her acting career just drop dead?

Just five months later, her 40-year-old husband Simon Monjack died of the same causes. In fact, he collapsed in the very same bathroom as Murphy. 

Rumors swirled following their mysterious deaths. Were they poisoned? Was there deadly black mold in the home?

Or, was the house haunted?

Murphy found the home “unlucky,” Monjack told the Hollywood Reporter in 2010, a month after Murphy’s death. 

"She absolutely hated the Rising Glen house," he said. "Every time we would drive up Sunset, Brit would say, 'Please, can we stay at the Beverly Hills Hotel?' I'd say: 'Honey, you've got to be realistic. We have our house, a 10,000-square-foot home. We're going to stay in it.'"

He said that Murphy wanted to move out of the home.

Britney Spears Brittany Murphy G

Britney Spears apparently also thought there was something very scary in that mansion, long before Murphy did. She lived in the home with Justin Timberlake before their breakup in 2002.

Julianne Kaye, Spears’ former makeup artist, said in a February episode of "We Need To Talk About Britney" that Spears, like Murphy, didn’t want to stay in the house. Her avoidance began after a possible paranormal event.

“I had my friend do reiki healing on her, he had come up, I guess she'd had a crazy partying weekend and needed to relax,” she recalled. “He left, and she swears to God that he opened some spirit portal or something, and these bad spirits had come in […] and they were trying to, like, push her down the stairs or something crazy."

She said that Spears grew so scared that she moved out of the house. 

"It was so bad that she left,” she said. “She went to the Casa Del Mar hotel to stay there and never went back to the house. She goes, 'I know you're gonna think I'm crazy. I'm not crazy. I know what I saw. I know what I felt.'"

Murphy’s mom Sharon Murphy sold the mansion in 2011. In 2013, it was torn down, People reports. A new Hollywood home now stands in its place and bares little resemblance to the mansion that freaked out both Spears and Murphy.