Where’s Mandy Matney Now? Here’s What Really Happened to Her After Her Podcast Exposed Alex Murdaugh’s Crimes
The Murdaugh Murders wouldn’t have gotten widespread attention across the nation if it weren’t for Mandy Matney. The podcaster helped spread awareness about the case, and now her podcast is the basis for the new Hulu show, Murdaugh: Death in the Family.
Mandy Matney created the Murdaugh Murders Podcast, which chronicled the live events of Alex Murdaugh’s trial as it was happening. With constant research about the topic in her locality, she was able to update listeners in real time. “I started the podcast primarily because I wanted people to understand the story,” Matney told Kansas Alumni Magazine. “A lot of the national media were pointing at the boat crash victims as being suspects in Paul and Maggie’s murders. They weren’t understanding all the different layers of how corrupt this area is and the different power dynamics involved.”
When Alex Murdaugh was convicted, she celebrated with The Guardian, “The case is a huge wake-up call to people who have been abusing the system and relied on old traditions and horrible ways of thinking. Pretty much all of Alex’s victims are Black people, children and the infirm. They’re getting justice, too.”
Where is Mandy Matney now?
Mandy Matney still hosts true crime podcast True Sunlight Pod and serves as an executive producer on Hulu’s Murdaugh: Death in the Family. She’s played by Brittany Snow in the drama series.
After the trial was complete, Mandy Matney revealed that she had dealt with a lot of online hate surrounding her podcast. “Anxiety and fear began to take over my life. I barely slept at night; the cases and the harassment had infected my dreams,” she wrote in an essay in Newsweek. “Sometimes I’d wake up in a panic, convinced an intruder had gotten into the house.”
She continued, “My fiance knew how to calm me down and bring me back to reality; and Liz helped me cope while we nicknamed the rude awakenings ‘Murdmares.'”
In preparation for the series, Matney is re-releasing episodes of the original Murdaugh Murder Podcast and will be releasing reflections on the past. When asked if the episodes aged like fine wine by Cup of Justice pod, she agreed that it did. “It’s always very weird to listen to your own voice, and I’m proud of listening to those episodes. To see how far we come on this, and to hear the progression of the my voice and how I was scared and not confident about the things I talked about and was mostly accurate for all of it.
In an interview with TV Insider, showrunner Michael D. Fuller revealed that it was important to get Matney’s insight on the show. “The thing that we just focused on was what we had in terms of Mandy’s access, Mandy’s insights, and then what our own feelings were in terms of what this story could be, and what it was. And I think that when we were able to see our cast come together the way that it felt like it was a very specific and real reason that this would stand on its own…. What was it like for them at their kitchen table in the wake of the boat crash? What was it like for the families that were caught up in the vortex of the boat crash saga, and or who were people who worked with Alex, or were friends with Paul, or any of those things?” Fuller said. “
” It’s really with the benefit of Mandy’s reporting and her insight and her personal connections to the quasi-Murdaugh community of people who lived through it, survived it, and then, a cast of this magnitude that’s able to bring to life what they’re able to bring to life,” he continued. “And I think it’s really going to feel, hopefully, exciting and compelling… It’s a tragedy, but it’s hopefully one that people will find the level of humanity within this very complex, very complicated family.”
