She sat in the courtroom and watched her ex-husband get tried for murder.
She didn’t have to be there. They had been divorced for 15 years by then. He had moved on, remarried, and his second wife was now dead. The whole country was watching. Cameras were everywhere. It was the biggest trial in American history.
Marguerite Whitley showed up anyway. For her kids. Said nothing to the press. Left quietly. And then essentially vanished — never to give another public interview.
That was 1995. That is the last anyone really heard from her.
Bio Table
| Detail | Confirmed | Disputed/Unclear |
| Full Name | Marguerite L. Whitley | Sometimes spelled “Marquerite” — even NYT used both spellings |
| Birth Date | March 20, 1949 | Reported by several sites — no primary source confirmed |
| Birthplace | Los Angeles, California | Some sources say San Francisco — unverified |
| High School | Galileo High School, San Francisco | Confirmed by multiple credible sources |
| Education | High school confirmed | Claims of USC degree in 1967 — unclear, timeline questionable |
| Married OJ | June 24, 1967 | Confirmed |
| Divorced OJ | March 1979 | Confirmed |
| Children with OJ | Arnelle (1968), Jason (1970), Aaren (1977) | Confirmed |
| Aaren’s Death | Drowned in family pool, August 1979 | Confirmed — Los Angeles Times covered it |
| Later Marriages | Rudolph Lewis (1986–1991), Anthony Thomas (1992–unknown) | Confirmed via NYT and Inside Edition |
| Current Location | Believed to be Fresno, California | Unverified — no confirmed address |
| Last Public Appearance | Barbara Walters 20/20 interview, January 1995 | Confirmed |
Who She Was Before OJ Made Her Famous
Marguerite Whitley didn’t stumble into the OJ Simpson story. She walked into it as a teenager in San Francisco.
Here’s the twist most people don’t know: she wasn’t dating OJ first.
She was dating his best friend.
His best friend was Al Cowlings. Yes — the same Al Cowlings who drove the white Ford Bronco in the slow-speed chase on live TV in 1994. That Al Cowlings. OJ was sent by Cowlings to help smooth things over when the relationship hit a rough patch. As the New York Times reported in 1994, OJ’s attempt to “help” went too well. He ended up pursuing Marguerite himself.
They started dating in 1965. She was 16. He was 17. They both attended Galileo High School in San Francisco.
In 1967, when she was 18 and he was 19, they got married in San Francisco. OJ was a freshman at USC. That same year, he was just beginning to show the world what he could do on a football field.
Marguerite Whitley described that early marriage herself — in her own words — during the only extended interview she ever gave. She told Barbara Walters on ABC’s 20/20 in January 1995: “We were such kids, it was fun. We didn’t have to answer to our parents anymore. We could party and stay out all night. It wasn’t a crazy wildness.”
That line tells you everything. She was 18. He was 19. They were kids playing house — and then fame arrived and blew everything up.
The Marriage: What Actually Happened
On December 4, 1968, two things happened at once. Marguerite gave birth to their first child, a daughter named Arnelle. And on the exact same day, OJ won the Heisman Trophy at USC.
Fame arrived instantly. And it didn’t slow down.
OJ became the No. 1 NFL draft pick in 1969. The Buffalo Bills took him. The family moved to Amherst, New York. OJ became a national superstar — four NFL rushing titles, endorsement deals with Hertz, TV appearances, movie roles. His face was everywhere.
Marguerite’s face was nowhere.
She was at home. With small children. In a city that wasn’t hers. While her husband became one of the most recognized men in America.
Her own divorce lawyer, Harry F. Fain, later put it plainly to the New York Times in 1994: “She lent an element of stability to him — mother, homemaker, things like that. Then he becomes a celebrity and the marriage begins to fail.”
The cracks showed early. The couple separated multiple times starting in 1970 — just three years into the marriage. By 1973, Marguerite had already asked her lawyers to begin divorce proceedings. Then she changed her mind and stopped the process. Nobody knows exactly why.
In a 1968 interview with Look magazine — early in the marriage — Marguerite said something striking about OJ: “He was a beast. He was pretty horrible. If there were other fellows who wanted to talk to girls, he’d make them stay away. He’d been a terrible person, right on the edge of trouble.”
That quote rarely gets discussed. She said it about the man she was still married to, in a national magazine, in 1968. It’s not the voice of a quiet, passive woman. It’s someone who saw her husband clearly.
Then, by 1977, OJ met Nicole Brown at a Beverly Hills nightclub. She was 18. He was 30. He was still married to Marguerite.
In his own 2007 book, OJ wrote that his first marriage was on “shaky ground” when he met Nicole. In 1979, OJ told People magazine: “The price of fame was our biggest problem. My wife is a private person, yet we can’t walk down the street without causing a commotion.”
The divorce was finalized in March 1979 after 12 years of marriage.
The Worst Year of Her Life: 1979
The year her marriage ended was also the year her youngest child died.
Aaren Simpson was born on September 24, 1977. She was the third child and second daughter of Marguerite and OJ. She was not yet two years old.
On August 26, 1979 — just weeks before her second birthday — Aaren drowned in the family swimming pool. She was found unresponsive. She was rushed to the hospital. She died from respiratory failure.
In the same year, Marguerite’s marriage ended and her baby died.
She has never spoken publicly about Aaren’s death. Not once. Not in the 1995 interview. Not in any court proceeding. Not in any documentary. The loss sits in silence, acknowledged only through news reports from 1979.
OJ told reporters at the time that football helped him cope with Aaren’s death. That was his public statement.
Marguerite made no public statement at all.
The Domestic Violence Question: A Story With No Clean Answer
This is where the story gets complicated. And it’s important to lay out every side.
What the police officer said:
During OJ’s 1995 murder trial, a retired LAPD officer named Jim King told Inside Edition that he had responded to a domestic violence call at the Simpson home in West Los Angeles sometime in the mid-1970s. He said Marguerite had told officers that OJ had punched her, kicked her, choked her, and forced her to the ground. King also said OJ did not deny touching her, but acknowledged he should not have.
A separate LAPD officer, Terry Schauer, told the New York Times in January 1995 that he had responded to a domestic violence radio call at OJ’s residence in the mid-1970s. He said Marguerite was home with two small children and told officers she had been hit. He said other officers took her and the children to a Holiday Inn for the night.
What Marguerite said:
On January 27, 1995, Marguerite sat down with Barbara Walters on ABC’s 20/20 — with her then-husband Anthony Thomas by her side — and flatly denied everything.
When Walters asked the key question about abuse, Marguerite fired back: “If he did, he would have gotten a frying pan upside the head. There was just no way I would have let that happen to me.”
She said OJ never lifted his hand to her. She said the police stories were false. She said she was willing to testify that OJ was never violent with her.
What the records show:
The divorce records from 1979 contain no abuse allegations from Marguerite’s side. However, they do contain something odd from OJ’s side — his lawyers claimed that after the divorce, Marguerite had threatened him with physical abuse, libel, and slander and had refused to vacate the Brentwood home.
The credibility problem:
The Medium investigation into this matter raised a significant red flag about officer Terry Schauer. The same officer who claimed he responded to OJ’s domestic violence call in the 1970s later told the National Enquirer that Barbara Streisand gave him the worst verbal abuse of his career during a traffic stop. In the OJ story, it was a Black man. In the Streisand story, it was a White woman. At a traffic stop. The same officer. Two celebrity encounters. No corroborating records for either.
The bottom line:
There are no LAPD records confirmed to support the officers’ claims. Marguerite herself denied the abuse — repeatedly and publicly. The divorce records show no abuse allegation filed by her. Yet OJ famously did not deny touching her in one account, only saying he “should not have touched her.”
This is not a clean story. It’s a contradicted story. And the one person who was actually there — Marguerite — has consistently denied abuse and has never changed that position in over 30 years.
The Trial: She Showed Up for Her Children
When OJ was charged with murdering Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman in June 1994, the whole world expected Marguerite to either disappear or speak out.
She did neither. She showed up at court. Quietly. Repeatedly. For their children.
She told Barbara Walters she believed OJ was innocent. She said she did not believe he was capable of killing Nicole. She said she was willing to testify for the defense.
Her lawyer, Carl Jones, argued against calling her as a witness because “the witness has no relevant material testimony to offer.” Neither the prosecution nor the defense ultimately called her.
She sat through proceedings. Supported Arnelle and Jason. And never once turned the cameras on herself.
OJ was acquitted in October 1995.
After that, Marguerite Whitley disappeared from public life completely.
The Divorce Settlement: Money, Lawsuits, and Foreclosure
The divorce in 1979 was not clean. It was fought over in the courts for years after.
In 1981 — two years after the divorce — Marguerite sued OJ for failing to pay $26,000 she said was owed as part of the divorce settlement. The legal battle over child support went on until 1986. She was reportedly receiving $1,500 a month in child support for Arnelle and Jason.
She worked as an interior designer. She owned a house on San Vicente Boulevard in Los Angeles. That house was later foreclosed after court proceedings. After the foreclosure, she was rarely seen at the property. Reporters who visited noted her mail was still being collected from the mailbox — but nobody answered the door.
OJ, meanwhile, was making millions. Films. Endorsements. Broadcasting. He went on to marry Nicole in 1985 while Marguerite was fighting to collect $26,000 in back payments.
Her Life After OJ
Marguerite married twice after the divorce.
In 1986, she married Rudolph Lewis, a transit supervisor. That marriage ended in 1991.
In 1992, she married Anthony Thomas, a furniture sales representative. He accompanied her to the Barbara Walters interview in 1995. It is unclear whether that marriage is still intact — recent social media traces suggest she may still use the Whitley name, not Thomas.
After the 1995 interview, she gave no more. No documentaries. No tell-all book. No podcast. No YouTube interview. Nothing.
When ESPN released its major five-part documentary “OJ: Made in America” in 2016, Marguerite did not participate. When Ryan Murphy’s “American Crime Story” aired in 2016, she said nothing. When the 2024 Lifetime documentary “The Life & Murder of Nicole Brown Simpson” aired, Marguerite’s sister Veterdata Jones was interviewed but refused to discuss the domestic violence reports on Marguerite’s behalf, saying: “I think she should address that herself, if she wants that aired and publicized. I think that’s her prerogative to address that.”
Marguerite said nothing.
She is believed to currently live in Fresno, California — possibly near her daughter Arnelle, who also lives in the Fresno area. She has no public social media. She has no known public appearances since 1995.
OJ Simpson died from prostate cancer on April 10, 2024. He was 76. If Marguerite attended any private service for him, it was not publicized.
Her Children: Lives Shaped by a Famous Last Name
Arnelle Simpson (born December 4, 1968): The oldest child. Deeply involved in her father’s legal affairs. She was given power of attorney to manage OJ’s finances during his armed robbery prison sentence (2008 onward). She testified at his parole hearing in 2017, calling him her best friend. Reports have claimed OJ was unhappy about how she managed his money. She has appeared in multiple documentaries about her father. She lives in Fresno. She and Marguerite appear to be close.
Jason Simpson (born 1970): He trained at a military academy. He became a professional chef and has worked at restaurants including St. Cecilia in Atlanta. He has stayed largely out of the public eye. For years, internet conspiracy theories suggested he may have committed the 1994 murders himself. These theories have no legal grounding. He has never been charged with anything. He has not spoken publicly in any detail about his family.
Aaren Simpson (September 24, 1977 – August 1979): Drowned in the family swimming pool before her second birthday. She is buried quietly in history. Nobody talks about Aaren. In almost every article written about OJ or Marguerite, Aaren gets one sentence. She deserves more than that — even if only the acknowledgment that she existed and was loved.
What No One Asks But Should
Here’s what 30 years of journalism about this family has mostly avoided:
Marguerite Whitley was 18 years old when she married a man who would become one of the most controversial figures in American history. She didn’t know that. Nobody could have known that.
She raised his children. She moved to Amherst for his career. She stayed while he cheated. She started divorce papers in 1973 and pulled back — for reasons nobody has explored in depth. She finally left in 1979. That same year her baby drowned. She sued him for child support. She watched his second marriage turn violent in ways her marriage, she says, never did. She watched him get charged with murder. She sat in that courtroom. She said he was innocent. She went home. She stopped talking.
Nobody has asked her: what did it cost you?
Nobody has asked Marguerite Whitley what it was like to be erased from the public story of the man she spent 12 years with. Nicole Brown became the story — rightly so, because she was the victim of violence and murder. But Marguerite was the one who was there first. The one who watched OJ become OJ. The one whose baby died in a swimming pool. The one who sued him for $26,000 while he was signing movie deals.
She has chosen silence. That is absolutely her right.
But it is worth noticing that the silence was not accidental. It was deliberate, consistent, and decades-long. She gave one interview in 30+ years. She answered the question about abuse. She defended a man who many believe murdered his second wife. She went home. She never came back to the cameras.
That is either deeply loyal or deeply complicated. Possibly both.
Final Words
Marguerite Whitley survived being a teenage bride. She survived being the wife of an increasingly absent superstar. She survived being the person he cheated on. She survived the death of her two-year-old daughter. She survived his murder trial. She survived the media deciding Nicole’s story was more important than hers.
She did it all without a book deal, a reality show, a victim interview, or a press conference.
That’s either strength, damage, strategy, or some combination of all three. We don’t know which because she has never told us.
And she is not obligated to.
FAQ
1. Who is Marguerite Whitley?
She is the first wife of OJ Simpson, married to him from 1967 to 1979. She is the mother of three of his children — Arnelle, Jason, and Aaren. She is not Nicole Brown Simpson, who was his second wife. Marguerite is the woman who came before all of that.
2. How did Marguerite Whitley meet OJ Simpson?
She was originally dating OJ’s close friend, Al Cowlings — the same man who later drove the white Ford Bronco. OJ was sent to smooth things over between them. He ended up pursuing her instead. They began dating in 1965, when both were teenagers at Galileo High School in San Francisco.
3. Why did Marguerite and OJ divorce?
Multiple reasons are documented. OJ’s rising fame strained the marriage. He had an ongoing two-year affair with Nicole Brown before the divorce was finalized. Her own divorce lawyer told the New York Times in 1994 that the celebrity lifestyle destroyed the marriage.
4. Did OJ Simpson abuse Marguerite Whitley?
Two police officers have claimed they responded to a domestic violence call at their home in the mid-1970s. Both OJ and Marguerite have always denied this. The divorce records contain no abuse allegation from Marguerite. There are no LAPD records confirmed to support the officers’ accounts. This remains a disputed and unresolved question.
5. What happened to their daughter Aaren?
Aaren Simpson was born on September 24, 1977, and drowned in the family swimming pool in August 1979, just weeks before her second birthday. She died from respiratory failure at the hospital. Marguerite has never publicly discussed this loss.
6. Did Marguerite Whitley testify at OJ’s murder trial?
No. Her lawyer argued she had no relevant testimony to offer. Neither side called her to the stand. She attended the trial as a private supporter of her children and sat through many proceedings without speaking to media.
7. Did Marguerite believe OJ was innocent?
Yes. In her only known public interview — with Barbara Walters on 20/20 in January 1995 — she stated she believed OJ was innocent and that he was not capable of killing Nicole Brown Simpson.
8. How many times has Marguerite Whitley been married?
Three times. First to OJ Simpson (1967–1979). Then to Rudolph Lewis, a transit supervisor (1986–1991). Then to Anthony Thomas, a furniture sales representative (1992 — current status unknown).
9. What does Marguerite Whitley do now?
Unknown. She has given no interviews and made no public appearances since 1995. She was previously known to have worked as an interior designer. She is believed to be living in Fresno, California, possibly near her daughter Arnelle.
10. Is Marguerite Whitley still alive?
Yes. As of 2026, multiple sources confirm she is alive and living privately. She would be approximately 76 or 77 years old based on the reported 1949 birth year.
11. Did Marguerite Whitley receive money from OJ after the divorce?
She received $1,500 per month in child support. She had to sue him in 1981 for $26,000 in unpaid divorce settlement funds. That legal dispute reportedly lasted until 1986. Her house on San Vicente Boulevard in Los Angeles was eventually foreclosed.
12. Why don’t people talk about Marguerite Whitley more?
Because she chose not to be talked about. She gave one interview, denied the biggest allegation, expressed loyalty to a controversial ex-husband, and left public life. The media moved on to Nicole’s story — which was the more dramatic narrative. Marguerite stayed silent, and silence rarely competes with a murder trial for public attention.