OJ Simpson speaks out against slain wife

Published on Saturday 5 June 2004 00:21

OJ SIMPSON has spoken out to American journalists of his "anger" towards his wife, ahead of the tenth anniversary of her killing.

Simpson was found not guilty of Nicole Brown Simpson’s murder but was later deemed responsible for her death by a civil jury. The high-profile legal cases have left him a virtual pariah. In the television interview, Simpson said he was angered by her choice of friends and the way she dealt with their children.

"There are times I am angry at her. There are things that she could have been doing with the kids," he said.

The disgraced actor and former US football star also said that Fred Goldman, whose son Ronald died next to Nicole, "got such opportunity from this with TV exposure". Simpson has steadfastly maintained his innocence, insisting his ex-wife fell victim to the shadowy world of crime and drugs that surrounded a group of friends she cultivated before her death. Since the families of the murder victims were awarded $33.5 million in damages in 1997, Simpson and his children have retreated into seclusion, living near Miami on a $4 million pension that is exempt from civil court judgments.

During the interview, on Fox TV, he also made inflammatory comments about rape, saying: "In my opinion, ‘date rape’ and ‘stranger rape’ are two different things entirely.

"And when I was a kid growing up, just about every girl said ‘no’, once," he said with a laugh.

"You know they had to because you’d think they were a slut or something."

Simpson also expressed sympathy for two other celebrities facing high-profile criminal cases at the moment - pop singer Michael Jackson and basketball star Kobe Bryant - saying he considers both innocent until proven guilty.

Simpson said he believed Jackson would be found not guilty of the child abuse charges brought against him.

"I just have never seen that in him," he said. "I think Michael is just an affectionate guy toward kids."

Simpson, who used to take his children, Sydney and Justin, to Jackson’s Neverland ranch during the 1990s, said the pop star was "asexual".

Simpson used the interview to plug a new reality TV show in the US, which will see unsuspecting targets subjected to practical jokes.

Ranking the chances the proposed show will come to fruition on a scale of one to ten, Simpson said, "It’s seven or eight, that it’s gonna happen."