Sydney Brooke Simpson was only 8 years old the night her mother, Nicole Brown Simpson, was murdered outside of her Brentwood home. And as we all know, the aftermath of the crime led to the downfall of her father, retired NFL superstar O.J. Simpson. Even though he was acquitted in the trial of the century, his children have spent the last 27 years carving out lives and identities that are independent of their dad.
Find out what O.J. Simpson’s daughter Sydney is doing today, as well as where she stands with her disgraced father.
Who Is Sydney Brooke Simpson?
Sydney Brooke Simpson was born on October 17, 1985. She’s the first child and only daughter of the late Nicole Brown Simpson. Her father is former NFL star O.J. Simpson.
Sydney has one younger brother, Justin, and three half-siblings from O.J.’s former relationships: Jason, Arnelle, and Aaren.
Following her mother’s brutal murder, Sydney and her brother lived with their maternal grandparents, Lou and Juditha Brown. But the couple’s guardianship status was revoked in 1996 and O.J. was awarded full custody after he was found not guilty of the crime.
Sydney attended Gulliver Prep, a private school in Miami. She was mostly shielded from publicity, but one event in 2005 couldn’t be kept from the headlines. Sydney was arrested and charged with a misdemeanor count of disorderly conduct and resisting arrest without violence. The event took place at Justin’s varsity basketball game; she was only 19 at the time.
Thankfully, Sydney can chalk it up to a youthful indiscretion. According to E!, she went on to attend Boston University, where she graduated in 2010 with a bachelor’s degree in sociology.
Life hasn’t been easy for Sydney. For a period of her early adulthood, she went to great lengths to maintain her anonymity. Unfortunately, a Georgia News Day journalist exposed her whereabouts, tracking her and Justin down in 2014. The siblings were living in Atlanta and working in the same restaurant, where Sydney went by the name Portia.
Sydney was in the news again three year later when Robert Blackmon—a candidate for City Council in St. Petersburg. Florida—told the New York Post that he was dating O.J.’s daughter.
Blackmon told the outlet that Sydney was “a very private person” who “selflessly” supported his candidacy. “I probably shouldn’t be speaking about the Simpsons without their permission,” he added. “The entire Simpson family are great people. They’ve been great friends to me.”
But days later, he retracted his statements.
“No comment,” he told the Tampa Bay Times. “She’s a good friend of mine, but we’re not dating.”
She Was Involved In A Kardashian Rumor
Sydney was dragged into the tabloids again in the late 2010s when social media users noted the resemblance between O.J.’s daughter and Khloe Kardashian. It was part of an ongoing conspiracy theory that O.J. was Khloe’s real dad.
For those who don’t remember, Khloe’s legal dad, the late Robert Kardashian, was on O.J.’s defense team during his murder trial. And Ellen Pierson, who Robert married after divorcing Kris Jenner, claims her late husband made a deathbed confession that Khloe wasn’t his child.
But in 2019, O.J. shot rumors down on Twitter.
“[Robert] was a great guy. He met and married Kris and they really had a terrific time together when they were together, unfortunately that ended,” said O.J.
“But never – and I want to stress never – in any way, shape, or form have I ever had any interest in Kris – romantically, or sexually – and I never got any indication that she had any interest in me. So all of these stories are just bogus, bad, tasteless.”
Sydney Is Now In Real Estate, Just Like Her Brother
Sydney is now 35 and said to be living a quiet life in the St. Petersburg area. E! reported that she owns and manages real estate through her company Simpsy LLC. In 2017, The New York Post discovered that she and Justin acquired 13 properties since 2015—and 11 of them were cash purchases.
The real estate acquisitions were in low-incomes areas, with properties ranging from $35,000 to $215,000 (for a four-unit building). There are some questions as to where the kids found the money to make the purchases—after all, O.J. is still on the hook for over $30 million in a civil judgment.
Neither sibling provided a comment on the matter. By the looks of it, they (rightfully) prefer to keep a low profile.
As for Sydney’s relationship with her dad, she seems to have made peace with her traumatic and tragic past.
“We don’t talk about it,” her aunt (and Nicole’s sister) Tanya Brown told Radar. “I’m the aunt that when they come to visit, it’s ‘Let’s go to a movie! Let’s go shopping! Let’s go to the beach! They’ve probably talked about it on their own, but when they come to our house we have fun. We don’t need to rehash everything.”
O.J. echoed the sentiment, telling the Associated Press, “We don’t need to go back and relive the worst day of our lives… My family and I have moved on to what we call the ‘no negative zone.’ We focus on the positives.”