Erik Menendez’s Wife Tammi Shares Statement Calling Netflix Series ‘Dishonest Portrayal’

Erik Menendez slams the Netflix series “Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story,” based on the 1989 murders of Jose and Kitty Menendez, calling it “horrible lies” and a “horrible narrative,” in a statement shared by his wife, Tammi Menendez.

Tammi Menendez, who married Erik Menendez in 1999, posted the statement to X on Sept. 19, the day “Monsters” hit the streaming platform.

“Erik’s response to the Netflix series,” she tweeted.

“The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story” is the second season of Ryan Murphy’s “Monster” anthology, which began with a series about Jeffrey Dahmer.

The nine-episode series follows the lead-up to and aftermath of the murders of José and Kitty Menendez on August 20, 1989.

Joseph “Lyle” Menendez, now 56, and Erik Menendez, now 53, were convicted of the murders in 1996 after two trials. They were sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole and remain incarcerated.

Tammi Menendez’s X account has been posting updates about Erik Menendez for years, including his alleged reaction to “Monsters.” TODAY.com reached out to an attorney for Lyle and Erik Menendez and the numbers listed for Tammi Menendez but did not hear back as of publication.

“I thought we had moved past the lies and disastrous portrayals of Lyle, creating a caricature of Lyle rooted in the horrific and blatant lies that run rampant throughout the show,” Tammi Menendez’s statement began. “I can only believe they were done on purpose. It is with a heavy heart that I say that I believe Ryan Murphy cannot be so naive and inaccurate about the facts of our lives to do this without ill intent.”

The statement went on to call the show a “dishonest portrayal” and criticized the depiction of sexual abuse that Erik and Lyle Menendez accused their father of during their first trial, which ended in hung juries.

According to the book “The Menendez Murders” by journalist Robert Rand, Lyle and Erik Menendez testified that their father began abusing them when they were each 6 years old. But prosecutors in the first trial argued that the brothers killed their parents for the money from their estate.

In a second trial that began in 1995, the abuse allegations were ruled inadmissible.

“It saddens me to know that Netflix’s dishonest portrayal of the tragedies surrounding our crime has pushed painful truths back several steps — back in time, to a time when the prosecution was building a narrative on a belief system that men were not sexually abused and that men experienced the trauma of rape differently than women,” said the statement released by Tammi Menendez.

“It is disheartening to know that one man in power can undermine decades of progress in bringing childhood trauma to light,” the statement continued. “Violence is never an answer, never a solution, and it is always tragic. That is why I hope we never forget that violence against a child creates a hundred horrific, silent crime scenes, obscured by glitz and glamour, and rarely revealed until the tragedy sinks in for everyone involved.”

TODAY.com did not immediately receive a response from representatives for Netflix and Murphy.

Since its premiere Thursday, “Monsters” has also been criticized by viewers for scenes suggesting the brothers were having an intimate relationship. In the show’s second episode, the brothers kiss and dance seductively. Rand’s book “The Menendez Murders” does not imply the brothers had a sexual relationship.

Murphy has not publicly responded to the backlash.

This article was originally published on TODAY.com