'Drugs didn't kill Brittany'

LOS ANGELES (AP):

A month after Brittany Murphy's mysterious death, her mother and husband say they are convinced the actress died of natural causes, not drugs or an eating disorder.

In an interview with The Associated Press on Tuesday, Sharon Murphy and Simon Monjack said that Murphy did not use drugs or alcohol and that they are awaiting a determination from coroner's officials that will end speculation that prescription medicine caused Murphy's death on December 20 at age 32.

Monjack said some of the prescription medications found in the couple's Hollywood Hills home belonged to him.

Murphy had a mitral valve prolapse, a common condition where a heart valve does not properly close, but doctors said the actress "would live a long and healthy life", Monjack said.

"She had a fear of dying," Sharon Murphy said. "She would not take too much caffeine. She wouldn't even have a glass of champagne on New Year's. She was just high on life, and people see that as something else, I guess.

Murphy, who appeared in films such as Clueless, 8 Mile and Sin City and the television series 'King of the Hill', was buried in a private funeral on Christmas Eve. At the service, Monjack told mourners that the actress was his best friend and soulmate, sentiments he repeated during the Tuesday interview.

Monjack, a British screenwriter who married Murphy in 2007, said police and coroner's officials have not contacted the family to say his wife's death was from anything other than natural causes.

"She had a fear of dying. She would not take too much caffeine. She wouldn't even have a glass of champagne on New Year's."