Menendez’s real-life brother, Erik, has spoken out about Ryan Murphy’s portrayal of his past crimes in the new Netflix series “Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story.”
In an online statement posted via his wife Tammi Menendez’s X-account, Menendez, who was convicted of first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder along with his brother Lyle for the killing of their parents, said the drama series committed “devastating character portrayals” of them both. The statement also accused Murphy of having bad intentions due to the type of narrative the showrunner had created.
“It is with a heavy heart that I must say that I believe Ryan Murphy cannot be so naive and inaccurate about the facts of our lives that he could do this without malicious intent,” Menendez wrote in his statement.
Menendez, who is currently serving a life sentence at the RJ Donovan Correctional Facility in San Diego, California, along with his brother Lyle, accuses the show of reviving “dishonest” narratives about their lives and misrepresents male trauma and sexual abuse. He also states that he is saddened by what he perceives as a step backwards in understanding childhood trauma and condemns the show for spreading harmful lies and slander. He ends his statement by thanking those who have supported him and demanding that the truth comes to the surface.
In the graphic novel, Javier Bardem plays the father Jose Menendez and Chloë Sevigny plays the mother Kitty Menendez. Nicholas Chavez and Cooper Koch play the sons and murderers Lyle and Erik Menendez.
diversity Chief TV critic Aramide Tinubu was harsh in his criticism of the series, writing: “The show attempts to uncover the circumstances that led to the crime, highlighting Erik and Lyle’s trauma. But in the end, the narrative seems pointless and bizarre.” Read the full review here.
Below is Menendez’s full statement:
“I thought we had moved beyond the lies and devastating character portrayals of Lyle, creating a caricature of Lyle based on horrific and obvious lies that were rampant on the show. I can only believe this was done on purpose. It is with a heavy heart that I must say that I believe Ryan Murphy cannot be so naive and inaccurate about the facts of our lives to do this without malicious intent.
“It saddens me to know that Netflix, with its dishonest portrayal of the tragedies surrounding our crime, has pushed the painful truths back several steps – back to an era when prosecutors built a narrative on the belief system that men were not sexually assaulted and that men experienced rape trauma differently than women. These horrific lies have been denied and exposed over the past two decades by countless brave victims who have overcome their personal shame and bravely spoken out about it. And now Murphy is shaping his horrific narrative through vile and horrifying character portrayals of Lyle and me and disheartening slanders.
“Is the truth not enough? Let the truth be truth. How demoralizing it is to know that one man with power can undo decades of progress in understanding childhood trauma. Violence is never an answer, never a solution, and always tragic. So I hope it will never be forgotten that violence against a child creates a hundred horrific and silent crime scenes, darkly hidden behind glitz and glamour, rarely revealed until the tragedy penetrates all those involved. To all those who have helped and supported me, I thank you from the bottom of my heart.”
