The stormy nine-year relationship between O.J. Simpson and his brutally murdered ex-wife, Nicole Brown, was peppered with violent fights triggered by the football hero’s explosive fits of jealousy.

Insiders describe Nicole’s union with O.J. as a “marriage from hell” and say the two years since their divorce were filled with rows over getting back together and her dating other men – which often had to be broken up by the police.

It was a love-hate relationship. O.J., 46, couldn’t live with the 35-year-old blonde – and didn’t seem to be able to live without her, either.

During one boozy blowup on New Year’s Eve, 1989, Nicole ended up in hospital and O.J. wound up in court.

Cops responding to Nicole’s call at 3.30 a.m. showed up at the couple’s home and found her with “swollen bruises on her forehead, scratches on her upper lip, a cut on her inner lip and many scratch marks on her neck.

“She said her husband had beaten her up,” an investigating officer wrote in his report. “He had slapped her with both open and closed fists, kicked her with his feet and pulled her hair.

“She also said Simpson had yelled: ‘I’ll kill you!'”

O.J. later pleaded no contest to spousal battery, was fined $700, and ordered to perform 120 hours of community service and seek psychiatric counseling.

But insiders say that despite the bitter fights and the divorce, O.J. was still obsessively in love with Nicole, and had been romancing her over the past year, pressuring her to get back together.

“O.J. and Nicole began dating again in March, 1993,” says a source. “That April, they went to Cabo San Lucas with good friends and then to Hawaii in July.

“They’ve also spent romantic weekends together in Newport and at O.J.’s home in Laguna Niguel.

“At first they were just being close friends, but as of last October, they were dating up a storm.”

But Nicole’s life ended in a bloodbath on Sunday, June 12, when her body and Goldman’s were found by a neighbor shortly after midnight at the stairs to her condominium – both with multiple stab wounds and slashed throats.

Cops say Goldman, who worked at Nicole’s favorite restaurant Mezzaluna, had gone to her condo to return her glasses, which she’d forgotten while dining there earlier with her children.

O.J.’s attorney, Howard Weitzman, said the professional football great is innocent of the gruesome murders and he didn’t even know Goldman.

“He had nothing to do with this tragedy,” said the lawyer.

Globe Magazine (June 28 1994)