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Sharon Murphy and Brittany Murphy during the 2002 VH1 Vogue Fashion Awards at Radio City Music Hall in New York City.
Brittany Murphy was raised by a single mother, Sharon Murphy, and the two remained incredibly close until Murphy's death on December 20, 2009.
The Clueless Star was born on November 10, 1977 in Atlanta to Sharon and her father Anthony Bertolotti. However, Bertolotti and Sharon separated when Brittany was three years old, and she was raised by her mother in Edison, New Jersey.
The two developed a close mother-daughter relationship, with Sharon living with Brittany and her husband Simon Monjack at the end of the actress's life. It was Sharon who discovered her daughter in the bathroom of her home when she said to her mother: “Mommy, I can't catch my breath. Help me,” before passing out in her arms The Hollywood Reporter.
Brittany died at the age of 32. The cause of death was given as pneumonia. Sharon continued to live with Monjack until he died in her home of similar causes five months later.
“My daughter and I were our only family, and we were inseparable and always there for each other in good times and bad,” Sharon wrote in a letter published by The Hollywood Reporter in 2013.
From raising a single mom in New Jersey to supporting her acting career, here's everything about Brittany Murph's mom, Sharon Murphy — and where she is now.
She raised Brittany as a single mother
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Brittany Murphy and mother Sharon Murphy.
In her letter in THRSharon wrote that Bertolotti was no longer a part of Brittany's life when she was just one year old. “I raised Brittany alone,” she wrote. “We didn’t have much in the beginning, but we always had each other.”
When Brittany was growing up, Bertolotti was in prison for 12 years for three criminal convictions and had ties to the Italian Mafia The Hollywood Reporter. Sharon wrote that Bertolotti saw Brittany occasionally as a teenager, but did not see her or meet her husband in the last three years of her life.
Sharon moved to Los Angeles with Brittany to support her career
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Brittany Murphy and mother Sharon at the Mann Village Theater in Westwood, California.
In November 1998, Brittany told PEOPLE how she grew up loving acting and told her mother before she started high school that she wanted to pursue the craft full-time and moved to Los Angeles. Sharon believed in her daughter's talent, quit her job in advertising, sold her furniture and moved across the country in 1991.
“It didn't make sense to hire a chaperone to be with her when I was her mother,” Sharon said, referring to the chaperone who worked with Brittany when she filmed a commercial in Hollywood before her move.
“When I asked my mother to move to California, she sold everything and moved here for me,” Brittany told the Associated Press in 2003. “I was really grateful to have grown up in an environment that was conducive to creating, and I didn't suppress any of it. She always believed in me.
Sharon was the last person to speak to Brittany before she died
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Brittany Murphy and her mother Sharon Murphy.
On the morning of December 20, 2009, Brittany collapsed in the house she shared with Sharon and her husband. Monjack recalled in a 2010 interview with Larry King after her death that her last words to her mother were, “Mom, I'm dying; I love you.”
That same month, Monjack and Sharon spoke to PEOPLE about Brittany's death, with her husband recalling that the day started normally until he heard Sharon “screaming” when he found Brittany passed out in the bathroom.
Sharon called 911 as Monjack performed CPR on Brittany to revive her. “Brittany, please come back,” Sharon sobbed on the call.
“I would sleep on her clothes if I could,” Sharon told PEOPLE. “She was the other half of me.”
She continued to live with Brittany's husband after her death
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Simon Monjack, husband of late actress Brittany Murphy and Sharon Murphy, mother of Brittany Murphy, during a photo shoot on January 13, 2010 in Hollywood, California.
After Brittany's death, Sharon stayed at the Hollywood Hills home with Monjack.
“I loved Simon like a son, and he loved me like a mother,” she said in a statement to PEOPLE following Monjack's death in May 2010. “I have lost a son-in-law and a daughter and am devastated.”
She spoke out against Brittany's father's conspiracies surrounding her death
Frazer Harrison/Getty; The doctors
Sharon Murphy during a photo shoot on January 13, 2010 in Hollywood; Late actress Brittany Murphy's father, Angelo Bertolotti.
In the years following Brittany's death, her father began to investigate her death further, not believing that pneumonia was the only cause. He sent samples of her hair to be examined by an outside toxicologist, who found that she allegedly had high levels of heavy metals.
However, experts including Dr. Scheinin in the 2021 documentary What happened, Brittany Murphy? explained that the heavy metals were not found in her bloodstream or hair roots, meaning they likely came from hair dye and hairspray.
Berolotti went a step further and claimed that Sharon murdered Brittany and Monjack to inherit her estate. “My theory is that the mother did the job for both of them,” he told PEOPLE in 2013.
Sharon denied the accusation in her published letter THRciting expert statements on the laboratory's results.
“She was my baby and we were together throughout Brittany's life,” she wrote. “Now I have to stand up for them again. It is time for those who truly knew and loved her to make those who seek to exploit her aware: Your lies will no longer be tolerated, and will remain so as long as I live.”
Sharon has lived out of the public eye for a decade
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Sharon Murphy, mother of late actress Brittany Murphy, during a portrait shoot on January 13, 2010 in Hollywood, California.
In 2011, Sharon sold the Hollywood Hills home for $2.7 million at a huge loss. It was demolished and rebuilt in 2013, but it is unclear where the grieving mother moved next.
After her 2014 letter, Sharon disappeared from the public eye.
In October 2021, Vanity Fair spoke with Cynthia Hill, the director of What happened, Brittany Murphy?she asked if she could reach Sharon. She revealed that it was “very difficult” to get in touch with her and that she had even hired a private detective to track her down as no one could pinpoint exactly where she was.
“We found her and personally delivered a message to her,” she said. “She has not responded, but I have received confirmation that she has received it… I understand that she has been grieving the loss of her daughter all this time.”
Meanwhile, Bertolotti died in January 2019 at the age of 92.
Read the original article on People
