Los Angeles - O.J. Simpson, the former American football star who was accused of and ultimately acquitted of murdering his ex-wife and her friend, died of cancer at 76, his family announced on Thursday.

"On April 10th, our father, Orenthal James Simpson, succumbed to his battle with cancer," the Simpson family said in a post on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, adding that "He was surrounded by his children and grandchildren."

"During this time of transition, his family asks that you please respect their wishes for privacy and grace," the post noted.

Simpson reportedly passed away in Las Vegas, U.S. state of Nevada.

The former star holds many records of the National Football League (NFL) and is considered one of the greatest running backs in the league's history. But Simpson has tangled with the legal system over the last decades, most famously in 1995 when he was acquitted of charges that he murdered his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her boyfriend, Ron Goldman, in 1994.

In 2007, Simpson led a group of five men into a Las Vegas hotel and casino to rob what he claimed to be his own sports memorabilia. He was sentenced to 33 years behind bars and was released on parole in 2017 after serving nearly nine years in prison in Nevada.