Real-life Menendez brother, Erik, has weighed in on Ryan Murphy‘s depiction 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 killing their parents, said that the drama series perpetrated “ruinous character portrayals” of them both. The statement also accused Murphy of having bad intent due to the nature of the narrative that the showrunner created.
“It is with a heavy heart that I say, I believe Ryan Murphy cannot be this naive and inaccurate about the facts of our lives so as to do this without bad intent,” Menendez wrote in his statement.
Menendez, who is currently serving out a life sentence with his brother Lyle at the RJ Donovan Correctional Facility in San Diego, Calif., calls out the series for reviving “dishonest” narratives about their lives, accusing the series of misrepresenting of male trauma and sexual abuse. He also states that he was saddened by what he perceives as a backward step in understanding childhood trauma, condemning the series for perpetuating damaging lies and slander. He ends his statement thanking those who have supported him and calls for truth to prevail.
In the graphic miniseries, Javier Bardem plays the father, Jose Menendez, and Chloë Sevigny is cast as their mother, Kitty Menendez. Nicholas Chavez and Cooper Koch play their sons and murderers, Lyle and Erik Menendez.
Variety chief TV critic Aramide Tinubu strongly criticized the series, writing that “the show attempts to unpack the circumstances that led to the crime while highlighting Erik and Lyle’s trauma. But in the end, the narrative feels futile and bizarre.” Read the full review here.
Below is the full statement from Menendez:
“I believed we had moved beyond the lies and ruinous character portrayals of Lyle, creating a caricature of Lyle rooted in horrible and blatant lies rampant in the show. I can only believe they were done so on purpose. It is with a heavy heart that I say, I believe Ryan Murphy cannot be this naive and inaccurate about the facts of our lives so as to do this without bad intent.
“It is sad for me to know that Netflix’s dishonest portrayal of the tragedies surrounding our crime have taken the painful truths several steps backward – back through time to an era when the prosecution built a narrative on a belief system that males were not sexually abused, and that males experienced rape trauma differently than women. Those awful lies have been disputed and exposed by countless brave victims over the last two decades who have broken through their personal shame and bravely spoken out. So now Murphy shapes his horrible narrative through vile and appalling character portrayals of Lyle and of me and disheartening slander.
“Is the truth not enough? Let the truth stand as the truth. How demoralizing to know that one man with power can undermine decades of progress in shedding light on childhood trauma. Violence is never an answer, never a solution, and is always tragic. As such, I hope it is never forgotten that violence against a child creates a hundred horrendous and silent crime scenes darkly shadowed behind glitter and glamor and rarely exposed until tragedy penetrates everyone involved. To all those who have reached out and supported me, thank you from the bottom of my heart.”
