REST IN PEACE: Former NFL running back O.J. Simpson has died from cancer at the age of 76, according to his family.

O.J. Simpson, the former NFL star who was convicted of murdering his ex-wife and her friend in a televised trial that captivated the country, died of cancer, according to his family.

He was 76.

“He was surrounded by his children and grandchildren,” the family wrote in a statement on X. “During this time of transition, his family asks that you please respect their wishes for privacy and grace.”

Reports circulated in February that Simpson had been diagnosed with prostate cancer and was in hospice care as he underwent chemotherapy. He denied that he was in hospice in a video posted on X, but did not address whether he’d been diagnosed with cancer.

“Hospice? Hospice? You talking ‘bout hospice?” he said in the video with a laugh, adding that he doesn’t know who started the rumors.

Orenthal James Simpson played 11 seasons in the National Football League and was known as “The Juice” to his fans, but his sports legacy was tarnished forever in the 1990s after his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ronald Goldman were killed.

Brown Simpson, 35, and Goldman, 25, were discovered stabbed to death outside her Los Angeles home in 1994.

On June 13, 1994, Goldman was returning sunglasses that Brown Simpson’s mother had left at the restaurant where he worked. The two were stabbed and slashed numerous times, and their bodies were discovered the next day.

When Los Angeles police officers went to Simpson’s home to speak to him about the slayings, Simpson did not answer the door but officers noticed a trail of blood leading to his car, as well as blood on his car.

Once a revered athlete, Simpson went from a Hall of Fame icon to a murder suspect.

Days later, Simpson was accused with the murders, and he attempted to flee, sparking an epic hours-long police pursuit down Southern California freeways in his white Ford Bronco.

Simpson’s trial took place in 1995, and millions of people around the country watched it. The court case was termed the “trial of the century” because it lasted months and became a public spectacle.

The trial has sparked conflicting reactions over the years, with many accusing the Los Angeles Police Department of racism in its handling of the case. Others feel Simpson’s ability to hire powerful counsel enabled him to get away with murder.

The trial made prosecutors Christopher Darden and Marcia Clark household names, in addition to Simpson’s defense attorneys Johnnie Cochran, Alan Dershowitz and Robert Kardashian.

He was acquitted of both murders in a controversial verdict. Two years later, he was found civilly liable for wrongful death in the double homicide case.

Despite his acquittal in the criminal trial, many still believed Simpson was guilty, a belief bolstered by a jury ordering him to pay $33 million to Goldman’s family in the civil case — damages that were never paid in full.

Goldman’s father, Fred Goldman, spoke with NBC News by phone Thursday and said Simpson’s death was “no great loss.”

“The only thing I have to say is it’s just further reminder of Ron being gone all these years,” he went on to explain. “It’s not a tremendous loss for the world. It serves as another reminder that Ron is no longer among us.”

Bob Costas, the sports announcer who worked with Simpson for years at NBC Sports covering the NFL, stated that Simpson leaves behind “a complicated legacy, to put it mildly.”

“I can’t think of anyone historical or someone that we may have known where the first chapter and the second chapter of their lives are such a stark contrast … revered and then reviled,” Costas said on NBC’s “TODAY” show Friday.

In 2007, Simpson led an armed robbery attempt of a sports memorabilia dealer in Las Vegas. He argued in court that he was recovering his own stolen items, but his defense failed to sway the jury.

He was convicted and sentenced to 33 years in prison, but he spent only nine before being freed on parole.

Simpson told The Associated Press via phone in 2019 that he was well and happy living in Las Vegas. He stated that he thought his robbery conviction was unfair, but added, “I believe in the judicial system and I respect it. “I served my time.”

The Simpson murder trial was reenacted and retried decades later in FX’s “The People v. O.J. Simpson,” a 2016 chapter of the network’s acclaimed “American Crime Story” series. The Academy Award-winning documentary “O.J.: Made in America,” which chronicled Simpson’s rise and fall, was released the same year.

Simpson was born in San Francisco and reared in public housing, attending a local community college before transferring to the University of Southern California. He was part of the school’s national championship team in 1967 and won the Heisman Trophy the following year.

The Buffalo Bills drafted him as the first overall pick in 1969.

Simpson, according to NBC Sports, was the first player in the NFL to dash for 2,000 yards or more in a season and is regarded as the best running back of his period.

Simpson’s first marriage to Marguerite Whitley produced three children, one of whom died in a drowning accident as a baby.

He also shared two children with Brown Simpson.

Following her murder and his acquittal, Simpson won custody of their shared children and moved to Miami with them. His custody fight with his former-in-laws also drew headlines as the children’s grandparents took him to court in a bitter legal battle.

GET RELATED CONTENTS ON: BLACKSPORTNEWS.CO.UK