Who Is Paul Murdaugh's Ex-Girlfriend & What Happened To Her?

This article contains mentions of violence, abuse, and murder.

High school is often a time filled with a myriad typical teenage worries, from acne to friendship drama to stress over college applications. Yet for Morgan Louise Doughty Bostick, her high school experience eventually led to unimaginable tragedy. Originally from Long Island, New York, Doughty Bostick moved to South Carolina for high school, where she met and dated Paul Murdaugh, who was later linked to the now-infamous Murdaugh murders. Although she is known to the public for her connection with the Murdaugh family and for being a survivor of a fatal boat crash that dominated headlines in her small town, Paul Murdaugh's ex-girlfriend tends to keep a low profile these days. She did, however, open up about the deadly incidents in the 2023 Netflix docuseries "Murdaugh Murders: A Southern Scandal." 

The docuseries illustrated the tragedy that surrounded Doughty Bostick as a young adult, but she has said she doesn't let those experiences define her. In the series, the Long Island native spoke about losing a best friend in the boat crash and her past relationship with Paul, who was murdered in 2021 by his father, Alex Murdaugh. People wondered who Alex Murdaugh's wife, Maggie, was and learned who Alex Murdaugh's youngest son, Paul, was, but mystery still surrounded Paul's ex-girlfriend, despite her likeness being portrayed in the show "Murdaugh: Death in the Family." So just who is Paul Murdaugh's ex-girlfriend, and what happened to her in the years after the boat wreck and subsequent Murdaugh murders?

Morgan Doughty Bostick and her family left the East Coast behind and moved to the South after she finished middle school. Changing schools and moving across the country as a preteen are never easy, but Doughty Bostick eventually found community and made a tight-knit group of friends in the small, rural town of Ridgeland, South Carolina. She went to Thomas Heyward Academy, where she met her ex-boyfriend, Paul Murdaugh, during her junior year. In the docuseries "Murdaugh Murders: A Southern Scandal" on Netflix, Doughty Bostick revealed that the pair began dating in 2015 when they were both in high school; the young couple attended school dances as each other's date and shared a group of mutual friends with whom they regularly hung out. 

The Murdaugh family name dotted headlines years later, but when Murdaugh and Doughty Bostick were dating, they casually hung around their families like any other typical teenage couple. However, Murdaugh's relationship with his ex-girlfriend was far from perfect. Doughty Bostick described their relationship in "Murdaugh Murders: A Southern Scandal" and said, "I think that our relationship is just something that I really clung to, just because when it was good, it was really good. But when it was bad, it was really bad." Four years after the couple first started dating, and shortly after a fatal boat crash in 2019 that took the life of one of their close friends, Doughty Bostick's relationship with Murdaugh was over for good. 

Morgan Doughty Bostick's life as she knew it took a turn one early morning after a night of partying turned fatal. Doughty Bostick was with her ex-boyfriend, Paul Murdaugh, and four friends: Mallory Beach, Anthony and Connor Cook, and Miley Altman. According to CBS News, the group of friends, all of whom were under the legal drinking age at the time, attended an oyster roast and party on Paukie Island on the night of February 23, 2019.

The group had taken the Murdaugh family boat to the party across town, but friends reportedly begged in vain for a heavily intoxicated Murdaugh not to drive the boat back while under the influence of alcohol. Doughty Bostick later told police that she tried to get Murdaugh to stop driving, but he only got violent in response, allegedly spitting on and slapping her. Murdaugh reportedly continued driving the boat until it crashed around 2:20 a.m. into Archer's Creek Bridge. Cook's jaw broke, and Doughty Bostick suffered a hand injury in the crash, but it was Beach who was forcefully ejected from the boat. The crash resulted in her tragic death by blunt force trauma, and her body was not found until eight days later. Even hours after the crash, CBS News reported that Murdaugh's blood alcohol concentration was .24 — three times over the legal limit. While the crash survivors' lives are forever changed, Doughty Bostick and Altman memorialized their late friend with a tattoo of her initial, M.

Paul Murdaugh was criminally charged for his role in the fatal boat crash around the same time his relationship with his ex-girlfriend, Morgan Doughty Bostick, ended. Many lawsuits were filed after the tragic night, not only by the late Mallory Beach's family, but also by the other boat passengers and their families as well. According to ABC News, the Beach family filed a lawsuit against both the Murdaugh family and against the owner of the store that sold alcohol to the underage Murdaugh on the night of the party, Greg Parker of Parker's Kitchen. In July 2023, the news outlet reported that the Beach family was finally awarded approximately $15 million in a wrongful death settlement. Additional money from that settlement was allocated to the other survivors, including Murdaugh's ex-girlfriend, who was eventually awarded approximately $1.1 million.

For those wondering what happened to Alex Murdaugh's only surviving son, Buster, he was left to deal with legal matters as a result of the boat crash as well. As mentioned, lawsuits were filed by the crash survivors against the late family members' estates. Almost three years after the deadly incident, in January 2022, Doughty Bostick was also part of a creditor's claim filed against the estates of both Paul and Maggie Murdaugh; she sought personal injury damages for a hand injury she suffered as a result of the violent boat crash.

There are plenty of rumors surrounding the Murdaugh family, the legitimacy of which may never be known for certain. However, Paul Murdaugh's ex-girlfriend offered some insight into the prominent Southern family's dynamics as well as into her own relationship and experiences with her ex-boyfriend. Like other Netflix murder docuseries that explore what happened to accused murderers such as Steven Avery from "Making a Murderer" and Chris Watts in "American Murder: The Family Next Door," a number of people connected to the Murdaugh family were interviewed in "Murdaugh Murders: A Southern Scandal," including Morgan Doughty Bostick. Doughty Bostick appeared in the 2023 docuseries and opened up about many topics, including the night of the boat crash. Murdaugh's ex-girlfriend suffered unimaginable trauma after losing her close friend, Mallory Beach, in the crash and revealed that she has PTSD as a result.

Murdaugh's ex-girlfriend also gave an inside look at their past relationship; Doughty Bostick recounted in "Murdaugh Murders: A Southern Scandal" that alcohol was often involved when hanging around the Murdaugh family. She further claimed that alcohol worsened her ex-boyfriend's temper and fueled his alleged verbal and physical abuse. "It was just very normal for them [the Murdaugh family] to be drinking and just having a lot of alcohol like always stocked in the house," Doughty Bostick said in the docuseries. "Alcohol definitely changed Paul," she explained. 

After Paul Murdaugh died, Morgan Doughty Bostick opened up about the verbal and physical abuse she experienced during her relationship with him in the aforementioned Netflix documentary "Murdaugh Murders: A Southern Scandal." Doughty Bostick claimed that when her ex-boyfriend was drunk, he physically and verbally abused her. She described a disturbing incident that she claims happened on the night of Paul's brother, Buster Murdaugh's graduation, in which a drunken Paul physically assaulted her. "Paul kept, like, kicking me. I yelled at him, and then he got on top of me, and I just remember him screaming, 'I told you to shut up,' just holding down my throat," she said in the docuseries. Doughty Bostick recounted that he then punched her hard in the knee.

Paul's abusive behavior was a pattern noticed by more than just his ex-girlfriend. Doughty Bostick said in the docuseries that the Murdaugh family's housekeeper, Gloria Satterfield, told her, 'You know how he is, and you're just either going to have to learn how to deal with his temper, or you need to get out" (via Fox News). Paul's excessive drinking and abusive tactics once led to his ex-girlfriend crashing a car. Doughty Bostick also revealed in the documentary that on Christmas in 2017, she was driving his truck home when he drunkenly grabbed the wheel and caused them to crash. Rather than allowing his then-girlfriend to call 911, Paul had his family members come and allegedly hide alcohol and guns that were in the truck.

After years of being in an allegedly abusive relationship with Paul Murdaugh, Morgan Doughty Bostick began dating someone new. Murdaugh's ex-girlfriend started dating her now-husband, Robert Batten Bostick Jr., a few months after Murdaugh reportedly caused the deadly boat crash. Although Doughty Bostick was still grieving the loss of her close friend, Mallory Beach, four months after the accident, she found love. According to the couple's wedding website, Zola, they began dating in June 2019 after meeting through a mutual friend, ​​Anna Priester, who lived near Doughty Bostick's parents' house in Knowles Island. They went on their first date on June 6, 2019, and quickly fell for each other. "Two weeks [after the first date] went by and we both said I love you on the roof of the plantation house, where we are set to marry, while looking at our lucky stars," Doughty Bostick wrote on Zola. The Bosticks tied the knot on October 12, 2024, in South Carolina at the location where they shared that first kiss. 

Doughty Bostick was able to leave her abusive relationship behind and start a new, happier life with her current husband. Not only did Doughty Bostick find love again, but in 2025, she also welcomed a new bundle of joy when she gave birth to a baby girl. She shared pictures of her happy ending on her Facebook page; she posted wedding photos and loving pictures with her two dogs and daughter.

Morgan Doughty Bostick spoke about her experiences with the Murdaugh family in "Murdaugh Murders: A Southern Scandal," but that was not the only show made about the infamous family. Doughty Bostick's relationship with Paul Murdaugh was later portrayed in a ripped-from-the-headlines television series called "Murdaugh: Death in the Family." The series, which premiered on Hulu on October 15, 2025, stars actors Jason Clarke and Patricia Arquette as Alex and Maggie Murdaugh, respectively.

"Murdaugh: Death in the Family" was based on the real-life story and inspired by the podcast "Murdaugh Murders Podcast" by Mandy Matney. Paul Murdaugh's ex-girlfriend is played by actor Jessi Case of "Dream Sequence," "Mother's Day," and "Quantum Leap" fame in the emotional miniseries. Although "Murdaugh: Death in the Family" is a dramatization, it portrays the real events surrounding the Murdaugh murders. One of the show's creators and showrunners, Michael D. Fuller, told Entertainment Weekly that "an abundance of sensitivity" toward the tragedies and those affected by them was employed while making the show. In an interview with Entertainment Tonight, the actor who plays Alex revealed that he did not take the role lightly. "You try to attack things with grace, humility, and effort," Clarke said. "I think this story takes you beyond the headlines and what you think you know. I hope it brings people closer to the reality of what he [Murdaugh] did and what transpired." 

Morgan Doughty Bostick was still a young woman processing the trauma of the boat crash and grieving the loss of her close friend, Mallory Beach, when she was thrown into the spotlight. Doughty Bostick's name and face were splashed across the pages of newspapers in her small Southern town and beyond. When Alex Murdaugh shot and killed his youngest son a few years after the boat accident, Paul Murdaugh's ex-girlfriend faced even more unwanted media attention.

After experiencing immense loss and grieving in the public spotlight at a young age, it makes sense that these days Doughty Bostick prefers to stay out of the spotlight. Aside from her appearance in "Murdaugh Murders: A Southern Scandal," Paul's ex-girlfriend keeps a low profile. Not only did she reveal in the docuseries that she had PTSD from the boat crash, but Doughty Bostick also said she sought therapy after everything she experienced; she now seems more focused on her own healing and new life than the past. Doughty Bostick does not have a known public Instagram account, but she continues to share select photos of her husband and daughter on her Facebook page. Paul's ex-girlfriend now prefers a more insular life, surrounded by her family and pets out of the public eye. Still, Doughty Bostick has not left everything from the past behind — according to her Zola page, she remains friends with fellow boat crash survivor Miley Altman, who was a bridesmaid in her wedding.