Jimmy Choo founder’s ex dies in rehab aged 54 af ter £70k-a-month drug battle
BILLIOnAIRE banking heir Matthew Mellon, ex-husband of Jimmy Choo founder Tamara, has died in a drug rehab clinic.
The 54-year-old American tycoon was deeply addicted to the powerful painkiller OxyContin and had previously admitted to spending £70,000 a month on an 80 pilla-day habit.
He ‘died suddenly’ in the Mexican resort of Cancun where he had been attending a drug rehabilitation centre – one of many he had visited during decades of addiction – according to a family spokesman.
Mr Mellon had described his habit as a ‘death zone’ and claimed he became hooked on OxyContin after a surfing injury. ‘The doctors kept writing prescriptions like they were Smarties. It’s very irresponsible,’ he had said. ‘OxyContin is like legal heroin. And it needs to be addressed.’
He married British fashion designer Tamara Mellon, now 50, in a lavish ceremony at Blenheim Palace in 2000.
They had a daughter called Araminta – known as Minty – but the couple divorced five years after getting married. Mr Mellon was a descendant of the founders of two new York banks and the man who set up Gulf Oil.
He once served as chairman of the new York Republican Party’s finance committee and had written speeches for the city’s former mayor, Rudy Giuliani.
He increased his inherited fortune independently when he turned a $2million (£1.4million) investment in a cryptocurrency into a $1billion (£700million) return. Mr Mellon was notorious for his chaotic private life. He squandered a £12.5million inheritance he received at 21 on Ferraris, yachts and cocaine.
He and Mrs Mellon both had problems with the drug and met at narcotics Anonymous in 1997.
They married at Blenheim Palace in 2000 where guests included Hugh Grant and Liz Hurley.
At one point during his disastrous battle with drugs, he was found hiding under a bed in a crack-house in notting Hill.
In her memoirs, Mrs Mellon wrote: ‘His addiction would take over and he might step out to buy a paper and not come back for days. I was constantly trying to track him down.’
As the marriage imploded, Mr Mellon started a three-month affair with Russian millionairess Katia Moulari. However, she became alarmed by his rampant drug addiction and said he would not sleep for three or four days in a row during each cocaine binge. Mr Mellon later became engaged to American model noelle Reno but they split acrimoniously as she cited his erratic behaviour.
He married fashion designer nicole Hanley in Barbados in 2010 and they had two children– Force and Olympia – before splitting in 2015. Mr Mellon returned to London in 2016 after spending £500,000 on rehab for his 80 pill-a-day habit, saying: ‘I’m back in town and determined to stay clean.’