Monsters Controversy Explained: Here’s Why Lyle and Erik Menendez Have Called the Ryan Murphy Series 'A Blatant Lie'

Lyle and Erik Menendez are at the center of controversy once again, 30 years after they were tried for the murder of their parents.

The brothers, who were 21 and 18 at the time, killed their mom Kitty and dad José Menendez on Aug. 20, 1989. The two were tried separately in 1993 then again jointly in 1995, until they were convicted in 1996 for the murder of their parents and sentenced to life in prison without possibility of parole.

Now, Ryan Murphy is bringing their story back to the public eye with Netflix’s Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story, which delves into the alleged sexual abuse they experienced at the hands of their parents, and why they killed them.

While Murphy has said that the show “responsibly” covers male sexual abuse, the brothers disagreed, with Erik sharing in a statement shared on his wife, Tammi Menendez’s, X (formerly Twitter) that he didn’t feel his and Lyle’s story was properly represented.

“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,” Erik said. “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.”

Representatives for Murphy and Netflix did not immediately respond to PEOPLE’s request for comment.

From what Erik has said about the inaccuracies of the series to how Murphy and the cast have responded, here’s everything to know about the controversy surrounding Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story.

Why is there controversy surrounding the show?

Following the show’s release, controversy surrounding the contents grew as people felt it didn’t accurately portray the trauma associated with sexual abuse and insinuated details that may be untrue.

After confessing to killing their parents, Erik and Lyle argued in their trial that they did so because of years of alleged sexual abuse at the hands of their father, and eventual physical abuse from their mother. In addition to portraying abuse, however, the show also implied the two had an incestuous relationship.

In the series, Erik and Lyle share a kiss in episode 2 and their mother finds them showering together in episode 6. However, in real life, they testified that they never had a sexual relationship with one another.

One fan wrote on X, “taking a story about two brothers who suffered from sexual abuse from their dad and turning it into an incestuous fantasy is horrid,” while another wrote that “creating incest fanfiction of real life brothers is INSANE.”

“Some of the controversy seems to be people thinking for example, that the brothers are having an incestuous relationship,” Murphy told E! News a few days after the show’s release, addressing the controversy. “There are people who say that never happened. There were people who said it did happen.”

Is the incest storyline true?

In the seventh episode, journalist Dominick Dunne (Nathan Lane), who covered the trial in real life, suggested that the brothers were “hiding an even darker secret” that had “nothing to do with José.” However, in real life, Dunne never insinuated incest.

Robert Rand, an expert on the case who wrote 2018’s The Menendez Murders book, spoke to The Hollywood Reporter shortly after the show’s premiere, sharing that he didn’t believe Erik and Lyle had an incestuous relationship.

“I don’t believe that Erik and Lyle Menendez were ever lovers,” he said. “I think that’s a fantasy that was in the mind of Dominick Dunne.”

“Rumors were going around the trial that maybe there was some sort of weird relationship between Erik and Lyle themselves, but I believe the only physical contact they might have had is what Lyle testified, that when Lyle was 8 years old, he took Erik out in the woods and played with him with a toothbrush — which is what [their father] José had done with him,” he continued.

He added, “I certainly wouldn’t call that a sexual relationship of any sort. It’s a response to trauma.”

What have the Menendez brothers said about Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story?

While Lyle has yet to comment on the series, Erik shared a statement via his wife’s X, calling the show “blatant lies.”

“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,” he said.

Erik also slammed Murphy for shaping “his horrible narrative” of himself and Lyle using “disheartening slander.”

“Is the truth not enough? Let the truth stand as the truth,” he added. “How demoralizing is it to know that one man with power can undermine decades of progress in shedding light on childhood trauma.”

How has Ryan Murphy responded to the criticism?

At the premiere of his show Grotesquerie, following Erik’s comments, Murphy told E! News that he wasn’t sure the brothers had seen the show themselves.

“I think that’s interesting because I know he hasn’t watched the show. So I find that curious,” Murphy said. “I hope he does watch it. I think if he did watch it he would be incredibly proud of Cooper Koch who plays him.”

As for how the show represents their story, Murphy said the show gives “many, many, many” perspectives and that at the end of the day, the truth of the show — that two people were shot and killed — comes through.

“Our view and what we wanted to do was present you all the facts and have you do two things: make up your own mind about who’s innocent, who’s guilty, and who’s the monster, and also have a conversation about something that’s never talked about in our culture, which is male sexual abuse, which we do responsibly,” he said.

As for critiques that the show didn’t properly address the alleged sexual abuse element of the Menendez brothers’ story, Murphy said he felt Monsters did do so adequately.

“60 to 65% [of the show] centers around Eric and Lyle Menendez talking about their abuse, talking about their victimization, talking about what it emotionally put them through, those two boys in our show get their moment in court,” he said. “In fact, we have a 30-minute episode that Cooper Koch does so brilliantly. Just Erik’s words about what happened to him and why he did what he did.”

What has the cast said about the drama?

Nicholas Alexander Chavez, who plays Lyle, told PEOPLE that he had not spoken to Lyle throughout the filming process or after the show came out, but added that he sympathizes with the Menendez brothers.

“I really sympathize with the brothers, the fact that this was the most traumatic moment of their life, and then having that put on television for the world to see. I would imagine that would be incredibly heavy,” he said.

He added he realizes the response to the show has been “varied, as they should be.”

“It’s sensitive subject matter and I imagine that everyone is forming their own interpretations of what happened as we imagined and intended that they would,” Chavez told PEOPLE of the reaction.

Koch, who played Erik, has yet to comment on the controversy. However, his brother, Payton Koch, a film editor who has worked on Only Murders in the Building, shared that he’s “never felt more proud” of his brother in an Instagram post the day the show came out.

After people commented their concerns about the show on the post — including one person referencing Erik’s response, Payton replied that Koch was sensitive for the issues raised in Monsters.

“I won’t speak for Cooper but I will say that he cares immensely for the boys and stands with them and all victims of abuse,” Payton wrote in a comment on Sept. 20.

“He did everything he could to ensure their stories of abuse were seen on screen and I think in episode 5, it is abundantly clear where he stands,” he continued. “Any true story portrayal is going to be tough, but please trust me when I say he does care about them and their story ❤️‍🩹.”

He has since turned off the comments section of the post.

The weekend after the show released, a source told PEOPLE that Koch, alongside Kim Kardashian, spent time in San Diego at the Richard J. Donovan Correctional Facility where both Menendez brothers are incarcerated.