Alex Murdaugh’s legal team is speaking out about how he is depicted in Hulu’s Murdaugh: Death in the Family.
His attorneys issued a statement to The New York Post on Wednesday, November 5, calling out what they claimed were “numerous inaccuracies and misleading portrayals that distort the truth” about the Murdaugh family.
Murdaugh’s lawyers noted that their client is “deeply disappointed and disturbed” by the scripted true crime series.
“The depiction of their personal family dynamics is particularly troubling,” the statement continued. “It totally mischaracterizes Alex’s relationships with his wife, Maggie, and his son, Paul, both of whom Alex loves so dearly.”
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According to Murdaugh’s legal team, the show’s creators didn’t reach out to them or other members of the Murdaugh family. “Equally concerning is the lack of engagement by the producers or actors to understand the individuals portrayed,” the lawyers claimed. “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.”
The statement further alleged that Death in the Family relied “heavily on sensationalized accounts from secondary sources with no direct knowledge or relationship with him or his family.”
Based on the “Murdaugh Murders” podcast, the Hulu series, which premiered in October, followed journalist Mandy Matney as she investigated and blogged about the powerful family leading up to and in the wake of their downfall.
Matney began looking into the Murdaughs and their alleged crimes after Alex’s son Paul Murdaugh’s indictment for friend Mallory Beach’s wrongful death. Alex later killed Paul and his mother, Maggie Murdaugh, in 2021. Alex was found guilty on all four counts related to their murders.
Alex was previously accused of misappropriating funds from his law firm, clients and the government through a scheme involving embezzlement, wire fraud and money laundering. He is currently facing a total of 102 grand jury criminal charges and 19 indictments relating to fraud and drug offenses. He was disbarred, had his assets seized and is serving two consecutive life sentences for the murders of Maggie and Paul.
While speaking exclusively to Us Weekly in October, creators Michael D. Fuller and Erin Lee Carr shared the extensive research and outreach that went into the series.
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“For anyone who knows the real story, it’s sprawling and it’s complex. The thing that was my guiding principle that I tried to imbue the process with is we might not always be able to do the [full] truth because [of] the restrictions of episode count and the running time. But let’s always try to be aware of what the truth is,” Fuller shared. “Then let’s make sure that in our story’s truth we know why we made this decision. We know why we made this adaptation choice.”
The priority was to have “utmost respect and reverence” to the victims depicted on screen.
“We were able to talk to a lot of people directly involved in it for their perspectives for research purposes. I can’t name who they are but we really wanted to do hour-long pre tapes,” Carr explained. “And Michael always had this thing where we would do one-on-ones with each principal actor before the episode was shot.”
Carr didn’t rule out hearing from the Murdaugh family after the show’s release, adding, “I don’t know what the future holds. I hope what we put together was something insightful and articulate. While it is incredibly painful, Buster will see it. But I can’t speak to their reactions. We just know what we did and we put out into the world.”
Fuller, meanwhile, insisted they “approached everything with an abundance of sensitivity” when it came to outreach.
New episodes of Murdaugh: Death in the Family air Wednesdays on Hulu.
