Alex Murdaugh's housekeeper reveals explosive family secrets: Bombshell new account of what REALLY went on in marital home and truth of that shocking affair

Sex, drugs and, ultimately, a brutal double murder tore the Murdaugh family apart.

Few people witnessed that unraveling more closely than Blanca Turrubiate-Simpson.

For more than a decade, the family housekeeper held a unique position inside one of South Carolina's most powerful dynasties.

It is why she was called to testify in the original trial - and why she expects to be called again for the blockbuster retrial, after Alex Murdaugh's murder conviction for the killings of wife Maggie and son Paul was sensationally overturned last month. 

Turrubiate-Simpson had a front-row seat to the family dynamics between husband and wife Alex and Maggie, and their two sons, Buster and Paul. 

She helped raise the boys, standing by the family when many turned their backs after Paul was involved in a deadly boat crash.

And she was one of Maggie's closest friends, sharing a close bond and confiding in each other about everything from their families and marriages to clothes and cooking.

In an exclusive interview with the Daily Mail, Turrubiate-Simpson is sharing some of those family secrets - finally revealing the truth about those divorce rumors, extramarital affairs, a decade-long addiction and the mystery of millions of missing dollars.

For years, speculation has swirled over the state of Alex and Maggie Murdaugh's marriage in the months before the killings, fueled in part by reports that Maggie had consulted a divorce attorney. 

But Turrubiate-Simpson poured cold water on those rumors - to her, it was nothing more than a family joke taken out of context.

'Maggie was always saying that she was going to divorce Alex and marry her man, the football player Tom Brady,' Turrubiate-Simpson smiled.

'It was a running joke in the house. I truly believe that somebody must have heard that and taken it out of context.'

Previous reports suggested Maggie had discussed divorce with her nail technician.

But Turrubiate-Simpson doesn't buy it. If Maggie was going to confide in anyone about marriage troubles, she believes it would have been her.

Instead, she is certain that Maggie had no idea what her husband was allegedly capable of and thought their marriage was in a good place. 

Turrubiate-Simpson said Alex did have one affair around 15 years before the murders - a detail made public during the original trial. 

Maggie found out about it and kicked her husband out of the house briefly, according the live-in maid, but the couple ultimately reconciled and worked through the crisis together.

Despite her close friendship with Maggie, Turrubiate-Simpson said the affair was one of the few topics too personal to discuss in detail.

'I never asked her about it because they were in a good place. She had already forgiven him and they had worked it out,' she told the Daily Mail during an interview at CrimeCon last week.

Even now, after everything, Turrubiate-Simpson cannot bring herself to utter a bad word about Alex's treatment of his wife.

The couple still acted very much in love and treated one another like young 'college sweethearts,' the housekeeper said.

Their marriage had fallen into traditional roles, with Alex being the financial provider and Maggie the stay-at-home mom, the true 'Southern Belle' who took care of the family and home and played host to guests, as Turrubiate-Simpson put it.

It was a role that Maggie thrived at but which Turrubiate-Simpon knew left her somewhat 'disappointed.'

'I could see it in her expressions. But she had agreed to those terms prior to them getting married,' she said.

By the summer of 2021, Buster was 25 and Paul 22 and Maggie and Alex were 'pretty much empty nesters.'

'They were enjoying that. I never heard him talk down to her other than little comments,' she said. 'I never even saw them arguing.'

And when Alex did upset his wife, he would come home armed with flowers or a gift and they would quickly make amends.

'That was his way of apologizing, and it worked for them,' she said.

'Every couple has their moments. But, for the most part, he tried to make it up to her if he was rude.'

Looking back even with the benefit of hindsight, Turrubiate-Simpson insists she never saw any signs of violence within the home prior to the night of the June 7, 2021 murders when Maggie and Paul were shot dead at Moselle.

And, given she was a constant presence in the home and Maggie confided in her about almost everything - so much so that she refuses to divulge the late 52-year-old's biggest secrets even today - Turrubiate-Simpson is certain that she would have known had there been any violence or abuse before the murders.

'It would have carried on when I was there and she would have told me,' she said.

'And I would have said something to Alex if he ever did anything to her. I wouldn't have put up with that.

'He did have a temper, don't get me wrong. There was this Tasmanian devil character side to him but I never saw that character with her. He only became that when he needed to, usually when he was in court or if somebody was disrespectful.'

The lack of red flags or warning signs made it all the more difficult for Turrubiate-Simpson to believe for a long time that he could have killed Maggie and Paul.

But despite her belief that the couple remained very much in love, there were some clues that their relationship had started to shift. 

Looking back now, in the two months leading up to the murders, there had been some subtle changes that only someone embedded within the family for years would notice.

The couple started sleeping in separate rooms. At the time, it was explained away as them simply having different tastes in TV shows. Maggie was also spending an increasing amount of time away from Moselle, staying at their beach house in Edisto alone instead.

In her book, Within the House of Murdaugh, Turrubiate-Simpson reveals that Maggie had confided in her just a few weeks before her murder that she was worried about her husband.

Maggie feared that he wasn't being honest with her, that he seemed very stressed and wasn't eating properly or getting enough sleep. 

She believed that he was all-consumed by the multi-million-dollar lawsuit brought by the family of Mallory Beach, the 19-year-old killed in a 2019 boat crash for which Paul was facing criminal charges and the Murdaugh family civil charges.

Just one month before the murders, Paul - who Maggie referred to as her 'Little Detective' - then confronted his dad about several bags of pills they found in the home.

While to the outside world Murdaugh was a seemingly successful attorney and devoted family man, behind closed doors, his drug abuse was no secret.

Three months after the murders - days after he orchestrated an alleged botched hitman plot - Murdaugh checked into rehab for what he claimed was a 20-year opioid addiction.

When Murdaugh was arrested and later admitted to stealing millions from his law firm clients, he claimed he did it to fund his addiction.

But, based on what she saw, Turrubiate-Simpson believes the numbers don't add up.

'I don't believe that the amount of drugs they said he was taking is true. I think it has been over-exaggerated because he was working and functioning normally,' she said.

Over two decades, Murdaugh stole $12 million from vulnerable law firm clients including the family of his late housekeeper Gloria Satterfield.

To this day, around $6 million is still unaccounted for and a huge question remains around what he did with that money.

The family was certainly not shy about spending money, Turrubiate-Simpson said, but there is no way that amount of missing money went towards their lifestyles or his drug habit.

'As far as their lavish lifestyle, they vacationed and they did spend a lot of money. But not $12 million. And any person taking the amount of drugs that they claim would be dead yet he was functioning normally,' she said.

'It doesn't make sense to me. Any reasonable human being knows that is too much.'

One thing she recalls is that Murdaugh used cash while Maggie used debit and credit cards.

'I think they need to look really hard into where the money went. I really do,' she said.

While Murdaugh pleaded guilty to state and federal financial crimes, he has always maintained his innocence of murdering Maggie and Paul.

For a long time, Turrubiate-Simpson believed him.

But ultimately, the evidence presented at his first trial and the bizarre behavior she noticed in the days surrounding the murders brought her to the unthinkable conclusion that he is the killer - and that he didn't act alone.

It's something she firmly stands by, even after his conviction was overturned and a second trial ordered.

Having been part of the family and seeing him almost daily for more than a decade, Turrubiate-Simpson believes there is only one reason he continues to fight the murder charges: 'Pure ego.'

Join the weekly Crime Desk newsletter HERE to keep up to date with the most chilling cases and investigations by signing up for free