How a Near-Death Experience Inspired Nicole Brown Simpson’s Ex To Share Their Untold Story (Exclusive)

Liz McNeilThu, June 18, 2026 at 3:30 PM UTC

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Joseph Perrulli with some of his personal artifacts from his time with Nicole Brown Simpson, shot for PEOPLE in Laguna Beach, May 28, 2026Credit: Amanda Friedman

Nicole Brown Simpson's ex, Joseph Perrulli, explains how a near death experience in 2024 led him to share their love story in a new book.

When he first met Nicole in 1989, he sensed "a certain sadness about her." Three years later after she'd separated from O.J., she was a different person.

"She was far different than how she was portrayed," he says, "much more spiritual and down to earth."

Joseph Perrulli never planned to write a book about his love affair with Nicole Brown Simpson but an unusual series of events — and a near death experience in 2024 — ultimately led to his intimate new memoir, The Forgotten Briefcase.

That briefcase was a time capsule back to 1989 when Kris Jenner first introduced him to Nicole, while she was still married to O.J. Simpson. “I sensed a certain sadness about her — that she was harboring something dark,” Perrulli recalls.

Three years later, Jenner called to say Nicole, newly separated, had asked about him and they all had dinner together. “I became enchanted," says Perrulli. "Anybody like that who’s been in a bird cage for so many years, all of a sudden their wings are spreading — and she was captivating.”

On a romantic trip to Mexico with a group of friends, he and Nicole confessed their love for one another. Once back home, Nicole said, “I told O.J. I’ve fallen in love with you.” When he asked why, she said, “Look, I’m living my life openly and honestly and I’m going to tell him how I feel. And I don’t want him coming between what we have.”

Ultimately that's exactly what happened. From hiding in the bushes outside her home while Perrulli was there, to showing up unannounced while they were jogging, O.J. Simpson became such a threatening presence that Perrulli ultimately ended the relationship: “I didn’t think I could live my life like this, feeling like this man is lurking everywhere I go.”

Joseph Perrulli and Nicole Brown Simpson in Cabo San Lucas, May 1992Credit: Courtesy of Joseph Perrulli

One night, he had a premonition about the danger they were in. “We were flying off this cliff in her car and we died,” he recalls. “When I woke up, I collected all the things we’d shared — the books, journals, cards and letters — and I put it away in a briefcase which I purposely tried to forget for the better part of 33 years.”

Perrulli, 65, regrets that he never fully explained to Nicole why he’d broken it off. “I didn’t admit to being afraid for not only her life but my own,” he says. “Those things were in the back of my mind but I didn’t admit to it.”

One night, he heard her car drive up to his Brentwood rental home at midnight, and she dropped off a photo album (featuring pictures they'd taken) with a note on the back of a grocery bill: “Thanks for the memories.”

That summer, she told him about an audition for an actor who could rollerblade (Perrulli was doing small acting gigs on the side by then). She gave him a check made out to the local sporting goods store. She said, “Get me a pair. Here’s my size. We could learn together.” He still has the uncashed check.

They met for lunch before Christmas of 1992. “I had given her the book Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse which was very important to me and she returned it. She had found it in my gym bag and was curious and I gave it to her. She said, ‘This book changed my life forever. I’m giving a copy to everyone I love. I even gave it to O.J.”

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She also gave him her favorite book, Celebrate the Sunby James Kavanaugh, which she was reading to her kids, Sydney and Justin. When he tried to return the photo album, she refused, saying, “No, I want you to look at it and I want you to miss what we shared.”

When he learned that Nicole had been murdered, he immediately thought of O.J. “I thought, Oh he did it.He murdered her,” says Perrulli. “He was someone with an extremely volatile temper that was uncontrollable and the way she had described him, that’s what I imagined — where somebody just snapped.”

Joseph Perrulli and Nicole Brown Simpson in Cabo San Lucas, May 1992Credit: Courtesy of Joseph Perrulli

Later that day, he drove to his former home in Brentwood to look for the briefcase with all the mementos. “They were already dissecting her life, picking everything they could find on this poor girl," he says, "and I thought I’d find a piece of her that they couldn't take away.“ But, he says, "The briefcase was gone and I never really grieved her death.“

He eventually moved to New York, entered the wine business and began building prototypes for what would become Govino, the shatterproof wine glass he later invented. One day in the late nineties, he got a call from the Brentwood homeowner who had found his briefcase. “It was too raw at first,” says Perrulli who stored it in a closet. He told his wife that he’d never really looked at it, “never really dealt with it,” he says.

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Several house moves later, he found it in a desk drawer. In 2024, he opened it up. “I sat on the stairs for probably four hours and read her notes, and re-read the copy of Siddhartha that I’d given her, and it felt like it’d traveled back in time — and I began to truly grieve her death.”

He started to transcribe her letters and his own journal entries with no real plan in mind. But a near-death experience in 2024 when he had a severe ischemic stroke changed that. “Out of nowhere, my left side of my body completely shut down. I couldn’t feel anything," he says. "I couldn’t move. I was close to dying in the ambulance and then I heard my wife’s voice and became aware again."

'The Forgotten Briefcase' by Joseph Perrulli

When he woke up, “I realized my laptop bag had the journals and Siddhartha and I thought of Nicole and I realized I had to see this through. That there was a bigger purpose to share her story, her favorite book. And I remember thinking, if I have to type this with one hand, because I couldn’t move my left arm at all, I would see it through no matter what.”

Now recovered, Perrulli hopes the book will remind people who she really was. "She was far different than how she was portrayed," he says. "She was much more spiritual and more down to earth and when I met her, she was in the process of reclaiming her life."

If you are experiencing domestic violence, call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-7233, or go to thehotline.org. All calls are toll-free and confidential. The hotline is available 24/7 in more than 170 languages.

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