Erik Menendez Slams 'Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story' as a "Dishonest Portrayal"—"Is The Truth Not Enough?"

One of the subjects of Netflix's latest Ryan Murphy-produced true-crime hit has spoken out. On September 19, Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story premiered on the streaming giant, and the miniseries about the titular brothers—who murdered their parentsm Jose and Kitty Menendez, after enduring years of alleged abuse—quickly became the no. 1 TV show on the platform. Since then Erik Menendez has slammed the series, which he says is "rooted in horrible and blatant lies."

In a statement shared by his wife, Tammie Menendez, and written "in Erik's words," the younger Menendez brother blasted Netflix and Murphy for the series and its depiction of his brother, Lyle.

"I believed we had moved beyond the lies and ruinous character portrayals of Lyle, creating a caricature of Lyle rooted in horrible and blatant lies rampant in the show," the statement begins. "I can only believe they were done so on purpose. It is with a heavy heart that I say, I believe Ryan Murphy cannot be this naive and inaccurate about the facts of our lives so as to do this without bad intent."

In Monsters, Erik Menendez (played by Cooper Koch) is depicted as a more sensitive and shy character, while Lyle (Nicholas Chavez) is presented as blatantly arrogant and entitled. The real-life Erik's statement was released on the same night that the limited series was released.

Menendez went on to criticize the series' decision to rehash stigmas about sexual abuse that have long been disproven.

"It is sad for me to know that Netflix’s dishonest portrayal of the tragedies surrounding our crime have taken the painful truths several steps backward — back through time to an era when the prosecution built a narrative on a belief system that males were not sexually abused, and that males experienced rape trauma differently than women," the statement continued. "Those awful lies have been disrupted and exposed by countless brave victims over the last two decades who have broken through their personal shame and bravely spoken out" adding, "now Murphy shapes his horrible narrative through vile and appalling character portrayals of Lyle and of me and disheartening slander."

Menendez ended the statement with a message to Murphy, asking, "Is the truth not enough? Let the truth stand as the truth."

“How demoralizing is it to know that one man with power can undermine decades of progress in shedding light on childhood trauma," the statement continued. "Violence is never an answer, never a solution, and is always tragic. As such, I hope it is never forgotten that violence against a child creates a hundred horrendous and silent crime scenes darkly shadowed behind glitter and glamor and rarely exposed until tragedy penetrates everyone involved."

Menendez concluded his words by thanking those who have "reached out and supported" him.

Neither Netflix nor Monsters co-creators, Ryan Murphy and Ian Brennan, have addressed Menendez's statement as of time of this story's publish.

Menendez is not the only one to criticize the controversial series. Over its first weekend of streaming, many viewers took to social media to call out the show for its depiction of Erik and Lyle's relationship, arguing that it implies that the brothers had an incestuous relationship and at times makes light of the abuse allegations the brothers brought against their father. Many have also pointed out new evidence that has come forth in recent years which allegedly corroborates the claims that Jose Menendez was sexually abusive.

The backlash against Monsters also calls back to the controversy against 2022's Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story. Though Murphy and Brennan's previous series became one of Netflix's most-watched series, racking up over one billion hours watched and spurring the anthology that brought forth Monsters, it was also heavily criticized for revisiting the serial killer's heavily-sensationalized story. Several family members of Dahmer's victims also claimed that the series retraumatized them.