OJ Simpson’s remains cremated as lawyer says disgraced NFL star didn’t want anyone to ‘feel sorry’ for him

OJ Simpson’s remains have been cremated as his lawyer said that he “wouldn’t want anyone feeling sorry for him.”

According to the disgraced former NFL player’s attorney Malcolm LaVergne, Simpson was cremated on Wednesday, following his death last week at the age of 76.

Mr Lavergne told The Daily Mail that Simpson – who was acquitted in 1995 of the death of his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ronald Goldman – had had a “fantastic” final few years of life.

“OJ wouldn’t want anyone to feel sad for him. He’d tell you straight up, man, he’s had a great life, happy life, certainly, he had his trials and tribulations, but his last seven years were fantastic, so he wouldn’t want anyone feeling sorry for him,” Mr LaVergne told the Mail.

“He would have liked a few more years to see his grandkids get a little bit older. But he was basically content at the end.”

Mr LaVergne said he was present, along with unspecified other people, for the morning event at Palm Mortuary in downtown Las Vegas on Wednesday, but declined to give further details. He is handling Simpson’s trust and estate in Nevada state court.

Simpson’s cremains will be given to his children “to do with as they please, according to the wishes of their father,” he said. No public memorial is planned.

Simpson died on 10 April after he was diagnosed last year with prostate cancer. In the days prior he was described as “awake, alert and chilling” at the country club home he had leased southwest of the Las Vegas Strip.

The news of his death was announced via a post on 11 April from his family on X, formerly Twitter, which said Simpson “succumbed to his battle with cancer." It asked on their behalf for “privacy and grace.”

Simpson’s surviving adult children from his first marriage are Arnelle Simpson, now 55, and Jason Simpson, 53. The children Simpson had with ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson before she was killed in 1994 are Sydney Simpson, 38, and Justin Simpson, 35.

“They have the added burden that he is one of the most famous people on the planet, and who is polarising and who is surrounded by controversy,” Mr LaVergne told the Associated Press.

Simpson was famously acquitted of criminal charges alleging he stabbed his ex-wife and her friend, Ronald Goldman, to death in 1994 in Los Angeles. The proceedings in California became known as the “trial of the century.”

He was found liable for the deaths in 1997 by a separate California civil court jury and was ordered to pay the families of Simpson’s slain ex-wife and Goldman $33.5m in compensation. Mr LaVergne acknowledged Simpson died without paying the bulk of that judgment.

Years later in Las Vegas, Simpson went to prison in 2008 for nine years after being found guilty of armed robbery in a 2007 encounter at a casino hotel with two collectables dealers.

He was released from prison in October 2017, with his parole conditions lifted in 2021.

Before his run-ins with the law, Simpson was a record-setting football star for 11 years as a running back in the NFL and became a movie actor, sportscaster and television advertising pitchman.