Eddie Murphy Reveals Shocking Sex Offer from Hollywood A-Lister at Studio 54 Birthday

Eddie Murphy lifted the lid on one of the most surprising encounters of his early fame.

In his new Netflix documentary Being Eddie, the actor claimed that iconic Hollywood heavyweight, Yul Brynner, once propositioned him on the night he turned 21.

The comedian, now 64, alleged the Oscar-winning star approached him with a startling offer while he was celebrating his milestone birthday at Studio 54.

‘My 21st birthday party I had at Studio 54,’ Murphy recalled. ‘Yul Brynner, Ten Commandments, he was with his wife and he was like, “How would you like to go back to my apartment with my wife and I and party?” And I was like, “Nah, I’m cool!” And I realized as I got older, his wife was smiling. Did he want me to go f**k his wife?’

Murphy joked that the story almost became an outrageous legend of its own if he had accepted their proposal.   

‘The story would [have] ended better,’ he quipped. ‘You know, “Yeah, I went back to Yul Brynner’s and f**ked his wife, and he was watching me going, “Et cetera, et cetera, et cetera!”‘

Brynner died just three years later, in 1985, following a battle with lung cancer.

Although Brynner was married four times over his life, he was not married in 1982, the year Murphy turned 21, leaving it unclear whom Murphy may be referencing. 

The documentary also sees Murphy, who is now married to Paige Butcher, opening up about fatherhood and how raising his ten children transformed him from a self-focused young star into a grounded family man.

‘My kids are the center of everything,’ he said. ‘Before kids it’s just about you, once you have kids it’s all about them. I used to stay up two days sometimes before going to bed. When I met [second wife Paige Butcher], I got more on her schedule, and now we watch two episodes of Seinfeld and go to bed.’

The Nutty Professor star shares Eric, 35, with ex Paulette McNeely; Bria, 35, Myles, 32, Shayne, 30, Zola, 25, and Bella, 23, with ex-wife Nicole Murphy; Christian, 34, with ex Tamara Hood; and Izzy and Max with his wife Paige.

Murphy’s personal life has long been intertwined with public scrutiny, particularly his once contentious relationship with Spice Girl Mel B. 

The former couple shares Angel, now 18, who is living as a trans man.

Murphy and Mel B were embroiled in a painful paternity dispute after he publicly questioned whether Angel was his child, a comment that led to years of estrangement. But in recent years, their co-parenting relationship has dramatically improved.

‘[Angel and Eddie] spend time together, they go on holiday together. He has ten kids, he’s a proper father,’ Mel, 50, told Us Weekly.

Reflecting on her past, she added that her ‘abusive’ marriage to ex-husband Stephen Belafonte, allegations he denies, had made it difficult to establish stability with Murphy earlier on.

Now remarried to hairstylist Rory McPhee, Mel says she and Murphy have grown significantly as parents. 

‘Bit by bit,’ she said, their friendship has ‘flourished even more’ as their son has grown up.

She also gushed about Angel’s passions: ‘He went to Japan last year with his girlfriend and just embraced the whole Japanese vibe, he speaks fluent Japanese and he knows exactly what he wants to do and where he wants to go.’

Mel and Murphy first met at a party at the actor’s Beverly Hills mansion in 2006. 

According to Mel, Murphy had planned a ‘massive dinner party’ specifically to meet her, and when they locked eyes, she ‘freaked out’ – describing the connection as instant and overwhelming.

Their whirlwind romance, however, collapsed after she became pregnant.

Mel fled to Leeds, hoping Murphy would chase after her, but instead he said in a TV interview that he would need a paternity test.

During a 2019 appearance on Piers Morgan’s Life Stories, she said: ‘[Eddie] apologises to this day about that. He wishes he never said it because that baby was planned; we planned that baby together, and we were madly in love, and it just went wrong, dramatically went wrong.’

Mel has long insisted their relationship was more serious and longer-lasting than publicly portrayed.

In her 2018 memoir Brutally Honest, she wrote that she and Murphy were so close they even tattooed each other’s autographs on their thighs.

‘We had something special that I’ve never really truly felt with anybody else,’ she said. ‘His [love] was pure. He is the love of my life… he showed me what true love feels like.’

Mel also recalled how Murphy would play Elvis movies, screen Blazing Saddles, and tell her stories of his childhood in New York City, where he and his brother Charlie spent part of their upbringing in foster care while their mother was ill.

‘He was fascinating to me,’ she wrote. ‘He’d had a life I couldn’t imagine.’