Paul Murdaugh’s ex-girlfriend claims he beat, strangled her

The hard-partying late son of accused murderer Alex Murdaugh allegedly beat and strangled his ex-girlfriend — and once had his family cover up his drunken driving crash, the former flame claimed.

Morgan Doughty, 23, who dated Paul Murdaugh in high school, spoke out for the first time about the harrowing abuse she allegedly suffered at the hands of the youngest Murdaugh in the Netflix documentary, “Murdaugh Murders: A Southern Scandal.”

His South Carolina legal scion father is currently standing trial, accused of fatally shooting Paul, 22, and his wife Maggie, 52, in June 2021.

Doughty claims Paul allegedly began kicking her after drinking heavily.

She said she begged Paul to stop, but he grabbed her by the throat and punched her. Doughty didn’t elaborate on when the alleged attack occurred.

In the chilling interview, she also described how Paul allegedly drunkenly crashed his truck after a Christmas party in 2017 — prompting members of his powerful family to rush to the scene and hide guns and beer cans in the vehicle before cops arrived.

Doughty said she was driving Paul home on Christmas Day when he “aggressively” demanded that he drive his truck, despite being drunk, then lost control and crashed into a ditch.

She tried to call 911 for help but Paul then allegedly grabbed her cell phone from her and hung it up.

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Instead, he called his well-connected father and grandfather, Randolph Murdaugh, Doughty said.

Paul’s dad, mom, and grandfather then high-tailed it to the scene and cleaned up Paul’s mess for him, the former lover claimed — then scolded her for calling 911 and potentially getting Paul in trouble.

The truck crash came roughly two years before Paul allegedly drunkenly crashed a boat that killed his friend, Mallory Beach, in 2019.

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In that case, he was charged with three counts of boating under the influence but managed to avoid a manslaughter rap  — leading critics to claim the legally prominent family had pulled strings to get him off easier.

“Murdaughs don’t really get told ‘no’ much,” Doughty says in the documentary.

Doughty said she began dating him during her junior year of high school, but their relationship went south when he became a mean drunk.

She claimed Paul’s parents would turn a blind eye to his heavy drinking, even sometimes offering him and his underaged friends booze at their home.

“Whenever I came around the Murdaugh’s, it was very normal for them to be drinking and have a lot of alcohol always stocked in the house,’ Doughty said.

Her abuse claims come during the fifth week of Alex Murdaugh’s salacious double murder trial. 

The pill-popping former lawyer stands accused of shooting dead Paul and Maggie near the kennels on their property in the rural Lowcountry region, where the Murdaugh family had carved out a legal dynasty.

The three-part series, “Murdaugh Murders: A Southern Scandal,” tells the tale of “corruption, power, and cover-ups.”