EXCLUSIVE: Eddie Murphy's 'Howard Hughes-Style Germaphobia' Was 'Totally Whitewashed From New Documentary on His Life and Career' — 'He's Not Normal!'
A vital part of Eddie Murphy's life was kept out of his Netflix doc.
Nov. 24 2025, Published 7:00 p.m. ET
Eddie Murphy is facing fresh scrutiny over his long-rumored Howard Hughes-style germaphobia, with sources telling RadarOnline.com his most severe obsessions were left out of the new Netflix documentary Being Eddie.
Insiders claim the omissions hide the reality of a star "living in a fortress he's too afraid to leave."
Documentary Sidelines Severe Anxiety
Murphy has faced backlash after sources exposed his extreme germaphobia.
The doc charts Murphy's rise from breakout Saturday Night Live prodigy to global box-office titan through Beverly Hills Cop, Coming to America and The Nutty Professor, but those close to the actor insist the documentary sidelines what they describe as debilitating OCD and severe germ anxiety that have shaped his private world for decades.
Those fears resurfaced online after fans revisited the moment Murphy told police he was "obsessive-compulsive with cleanliness" in 1997, when he was questioned while driving with Atisone Seiuli, a transsexual sex worker, in West Hollywood.
He later admitted: "I'm obsessive-compulsive with cleanliness. After I got home, I wiped off the door handle and the stuff that person had touched."
Murphy admitted in 1997 he was obsessive-compulsive about cleanliness.
One source said: "The documentary celebrates Eddie's brilliance, but it leaves out the scale of the routines he lives by. It shows him looking affable and relaxed at his mansion, but the place is huge and is basically his bubble. He rarely leaves it as he loves routine and cleanliness. The truth is far stranger and far sadder than what made the final cut. He's basically not normal!"
Another insider: "There's a whole world he keeps sealed off – the film only shows the parts he's comfortable revealing."
A longtime associate said the anxieties have intensified since then.
"He's even more locked into routine now," the source claimed. "It's got to the point where he rarely steps outside the estate. Germs on sets, in studios, on press tours – he just can't handle it anymore."
Mel B Recalls Rules and Disorder
Mel B revealed her ex Murphy kept his home immaculate and tightly controlled.
Murphy's ex, Mel B, 50, has also lifted the curtain on some of Murphy's private habits, describing the immaculate mansion he kept during their brief relationship in 2006, which resulted in them having the child Angel, 18, who recently came out as trans.
She said: "His bathroom is perfect and he lives in a paradise home. He doesn't like surprises, he doesn't like disorder; all those seemingly mad, impromptu comedy performances are carefully constructed. There was something about Eddie's house that was like a gilded cage… he was an anxious germaphobe… a total germ freak."
She also recalled Murphy hated when she dismissed his staff and asked him to cook because he "barely knew how to use" his cooker.
"You had to learn Eddie's rules… what nights we could spend with his friends, when to cook, and when we could watch TV," she said. Spice Girls singer Mel added, "I had to brainstorm film choices with his friend because I saw it as a test."
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Insiders explained the comic structured every meal and object in his home with precision.
Another insider said: "Eddie's world is controlled down to the last inch. Every object has its proper place, meals follow strict patterns, and he double-checks the locks every night.
"The documentary gives a soft-focus version of his life at home, but not the reality of someone who's built a kingdom he can't bear to leave. Notably, hardly any of that film is shot outside his mansion, where only a very close circle of friends and his children are allowed."
Mel also said about her life with the comic: "Nothing was really in my control. I knew I could never like this and be part of Eddie's kingdom… (with) his family, chefs, managers always turning up."
