NEED TO KNOW
- Alex Murdaugh was a prominent lawyer in the South Carolina Low Country for years before his financial misdeeds began surfacing
- In 2023, he was convicted of murdering his wife and son in 2021 and more than 20 financial crimes
- The Murdaughs’ story has now been fictionalized in Hulu’s Murdaugh: Death in the Family, which premiered on Oct. 15
Alex Murdaugh is unhappy with how his family has been portrayed in Hulu’s hit drama series, Murdaugh: Death in the Family.
On Tuesday, Nov. 4, Murdaugh’s defense attorneys Dick Harpootlian and Jim Griffin sent PEOPLE a statement “on behalf of Alex after receiving reports about the recent Hulu program.”
According to the statement, “Alex is deeply disappointed and disturbed by the recent Hulu streaming series about him and the entire Murdaugh family.
“The program contains numerous inaccuracies and misleading portrayals that distort the truth of their lives.”
On June 7, 2021, the now-disgraced attorney made a frantic 911 call claiming that his wife Maggie, and their youngest son, Paul, had been shot to death at their South Carolina hunting estate.
That was just the beginning of what would become the undoing of a family dynasty.
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As investigators began delving into the case, they began to uncover troubling details about the secret life Alex was living, including how he had become addicted to opioids, had engaged in financial fraud and even tried to kill himself in a failed assisted-suicide plot.
In March 2023, Alex was found guilty of the murders of Maggie and Paul and was sentenced to two consecutive life terms. He then received 40 more years in prison after pleading guilty to 22 financial crimes.
From the start, Alex has maintained his innocence and is currently appealing his conviction.
The saga is now being told in Hulu’s new scripted series Murdaugh: Death in the Family, which premiered on Oct. 15 and stars Jason Clarke as Alex and Patricia Arquette as Maggie.
Patricia Arquette as Maggie Murdaugh in ‘Murdaugh: Death in the Family’ ; Maggie Murdaugh and husband Alex Murdaugh.
Disney/Daniel Delgado Jr.
Alex has apparently not seen the series but has heard about it and says what viewers are watching is untrue, according to the statement.
“The depiction of their personal family dynamics is particularly troubling, as it totally mischaracterizes Alex’s relationships with his wife Maggie and his son Paul, both of whom Alex loves so dearly,” the statement reads.
“Alex was always extremely proud of Paul. Any other portrayal of his feelings toward Paul and Maggie are baseless and false.”
Alex also takes aim at the producers and actors involved.
“Equally concerning,” the statement says, “is the lack of engagement by the producers or actors to understand the individuals portrayed.
“No one from Hulu ever reached out to Alex, his son Buster, anyone in the Murdaugh family, or Alex’s attorneys to hear their perspective or verify the facts.
“Instead, the program appears to rely heavily on sensationalized accounts from secondary sources with no direct knowledge or relationship with him or his family.
“We urge viewers to approach this dramatization with the knowledge that it is not an accurate portrayal of Alex, his family, or the tragic events that it sensationalizes.”
