Erik Menendez Slams Ryan Murphy For Portraying Incestuous Relationship With His Brother In Netflix Series

Lyle and Erik Menendez, the brothers who killed their parents as teenagers on August 20, 1989, are back in the news with the release of the controversial series about their upbringing.

In 1993, Lyle, then 21, and Erik, then 18, were tried separately and again in 1995. In 1996, they were convicted for the murder of their parents, Kitty and José Menendez, and were sentenced to life in prison without possibility of parole.

In the trial, Lyle and Erik argued that they had survived severe sexual abuse from their father and, eventually, exceptional physical abuse from their mother.

Famously controversial writer, producer and director Ryan Murphy returned the Menendez brothers to the spotlight in a nine-episode Netflix series, Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story. The show takes a closer look at the brothers’ actions and details the sexual abuse both of them survived before they executed the murder.

Although Murphy claims that the show depicts male sexual abuse “responsibly,” since its release, the show’s content has been scrutinized as an inaccurate portrayal of the trauma that stems from sexual abuse. Additionally, the show has been condemned for its suggestion that the brothers had an incestuous relationship, despite Lyle and Eriks’ testimony that they never had any sexual relationship with one another. 

In one episode of the show, the brothers share a kiss and are caught showering together in another, and it is hinted they are “hiding a much darker secret.”

Among many viewers who voiced their disgust at Murphy for turning the event into a show, Erik shared in a statement via his wife, Tammi Menendez, on X: “It is sad for me to know that Netflix’s dishonest portrayal of the tragedies surrounding our crime has 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.”

He continued, “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.”

He added, “How demoralizing is it to know that one man with power can undermine decades of progress in shedding light on childhood trauma.”

In response to Erik’s response, Murphy told E! News, “I think that’s interesting because I know he hasn’t watched the show. So I find that curious…I hope he does watch it. If he did watch it, he would be incredibly proud of Cooper Koch, who plays him.”

Murphy added that the show gives “many, many, many” perspectives and that at the end of the day, the truth of the show — that two people were shot and killed — comes through.