What’s Reality and What’s Fiction?

The rise and fall of the Murdaugh household has grow to be one of the tragic true crime sagas of the final decade.

What started as a ship crash spiraled right into a collection of surprising revelations: a housekeeper’s unexplained dying, insurance coverage fraud allegations, a double murder and finally, the unraveling of a century-old authorized dynasty in South Carolina’s Lowcountry.

Impressed by journalist Mandy Matney’s Murdaugh Murders Podcast, Hulu’s Murdaugh: Loss of life within the Household revisits the sprawling case with a mixture of documentary parts and dramatization. Throughout an October 2025 episode of the present’s companion podcast, co-creator Michael D. Fuller defined that the collection combines “reality reality” — occasions depicted precisely as they occurred — with “emotional reality,” a storytelling strategy that makes use of recreated or condensed scenes to mirror the emotional expertise of these concerned.

“These are human beings. They’re advanced. They’re sophisticated. It’s our model of them, clearly, however hopefully, there’s some reality illuminated about how they interacted with one another,” he stated. “It’s that human drama that’s on the coronary heart of [the series] that I might actually love for individuals to remove.”

Here is all the pieces to learn about what’s truth and what’s fiction in Murdaugh: Loss of life within the Household.

Warning: Murdaugh: Loss of life within the Household spoilers forward!

Did Alex Murdaugh actually use the governor to get out of authorized hassle?

Within the first episode of Murdaugh: Loss of life within the Household, viewers watch Alex Murdaugh (Jason Clarke) hustle to launch a jellyfish harvesting and processing enterprise — till the South Carolina Division of Well being and Environmental Management (SCDHEC) abruptly shuts it down over a lacking allow.

Later within the episode, Alex introduces SCDHEC official Doug Brailsford (Chris Greene) to the South Carolina governor at a Murdaugh household occasion, hinting at a shady deal: He’ll fund Brailsford’s environmental research in change for a allow.

However that storyline is essentially fictionalized. In actuality, Alex’s jellyfish enterprise was shut down by the SCDHEC because of allowing points and environmental considerations in 2014, years earlier than the timeframe depicted within the collection, per the South Carolina-based information outlet FITSNews. There isn’t a proof he enlisted the governor’s assist to revive it.

Fuller informed MovieWeb in October 2025 that he included the jellyfish subplot not for factual accuracy however as a result of it “felt like a really Southern enterprise endeavor,” serving as a symbolic stand-in for the land offers and aspect ventures Alex pursued on the time.

Did Alex Murdaugh actually try to affect witnesses of Paul Murdaugh’s boat crash?

There’s credible reporting that Alex, alongside together with his father Randolph Murdaugh III (Gerald McRaney), went to the hospital within the early hours following the 2019 boat crash involving Paul Murdaugh (Johnny Berchtold) that killed 19-year-old Mallory Seaside (Madeline Popovich).

Based on The New Yorker, a number of witnesses stated Alex moved from room to room the place the injured survivors have been being handled, showing to intervene with the investigation by making an attempt to affect their statements. Surveillance footage featured within the 2022 documentary Low Nation: The Murdaugh Dynasty additionally reveals Alex getting into remedy areas with out authorization and talking with sufferers.

Did the Murdaughs actually attempt to body Connor Prepare dinner?

Courtroom data embrace claims which point out that Alex and his associates tried to affect the investigation of the 2019 boat crash, together with the testimony of Connor Prepare dinner (Nicholas Cirillo).

Instantly after the crash, Alex allegedly approached Prepare dinner within the hospital and urged him to stay silent about who was driving. He later reportedly really useful that the Prepare dinner household retain Cory Fleming (Ben Begley) — Alex’s faculty roommate and Paul’s godfather — as Prepare dinner’s lawyer for the felony investigation, a 2021 lawsuit claimed. Prepare dinner later claimed that Fleming suggested him to not communicate with the police, a transfer which will have shifted suspicion away from Paul.

In September 2021, Prepare dinner filed a civil lawsuit in opposition to Alex and his son Buster, claiming that he and a number of other others conspired to carry him criminally and civilly answerable for the boat accident, per News19. The case was resolved in October 2024 when a decide accepted a settlement between Alex and the crash victims, based on The State.

Did Gloria Satterfield actually consolation Paul Murdaugh after the boat wreck?

No, Gloria Satterfield (Kathleen Wilhoite) didn’t consolation Paul after the 2019 boat crash. Satterfield, the Murdaugh household’s longtime housekeeper, tragically died in February 2018 following a fall on the Murdaugh property.

“We selected to maintain Gloria,” Fuller shared on the official Murdaugh: Loss of life within the Household podcast. “We determined that to be able to present her relationship with the household, with Paul specifically, it made story reality sense to have her be alive and see how that performs out within the present timeline of our present.”

In actuality, Alex secretly organized an insurance coverage settlement value over $4 million with out notifying Gloria’s surviving sons, Michael and Brian, based on ABC7 Chicago. The scheme got here to gentle in 2021 when Satterfield’s sons found the settlement via media studies and employed attorneys to research.

Alex finally admitted to stealing the funds with the assistance of Fleming, resulting in his disbarment, per america Legal professional’s Workplace. By means of settlements with insurance coverage firms and his regulation agency, Satterfield’s sons have since recovered over $7.5 million, based on WJCL.

Did Alex Murdaugh and Mandy Matney actually come face-to-face?

In episode 2, journalist Mandy Matney (Brittany Snow) is proven partaking in a tense stare-off with Alex on the boat crash web site. In actuality, Matney informed TV Insider in October 2025 that she did have a stare-down with Alex on two events, however each came about on the courthouse.

“I did do a face-off with Alex Murdaugh in federal court docket a pair years in the past. I used to be making an attempt to depart the constructing, and for some cause, he was leaving on the similar time, in cuffs and all the pieces,” she informed the outlet.

She continued, “Earlier than that, I did a stare-off with him in Paul Murdaugh’s court docket listening to in 2019. I noticed him for the primary time, and we did a stare-off, and he regarded like he was about to strategy me. After which court docket began.”

Did the Murdaughs actually go on trip after Paul Murdaugh’s boat wreck?

Episode 3 depicts the Murdaugh household as they take a lavish journey to the Bahamas following Paul’s boat crash.

Whereas the household did trip within the Bahamas, that journey truly occurred in 2017, two years earlier than the deadly boat accident, per Fox Information. Opposite to the collection’ dramatization, there isn’t a proof that Paul was concerned in any bodily altercation with anybody in the course of the trip.

Did Alex Murdaugh actually steal the settlement of a shopper?

Whereas there is not a shopper named “Alvarez” particularly talked about in public data, Alex was convicted of stealing settlement funds from a number of purchasers, together with those that suffered critical accidents or dying. He diverted these funds right into a fictitious account he managed, often known as “Forge,” which he used to hide the thefts, based on court docket paperwork.

In complete, Alex was discovered to have embezzled greater than $6 million from at the least two dozen purchasers, inflating charges or bills and diverting settlement cash into his personal accounts, per PBS.

In September 2023, he pleaded responsible to 22 federal fees, together with conspiracy to commit wire fraud and financial institution fraud, wire fraud, financial institution fraud and cash laundering, per ABC30.