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Billionaire Banking Heir, Ex-Husband of Jimmy Choo Co-Founder, Dies at Rehab Facility

Matthew Mellon battled with his addiction to Oxycontin for years and revealed to Page Six in a 2016 interview that he was taking 80 pills a day

Billionaire banking heir Matthew Mellon has died. He was 54.

His cousin Peter Stephaich confirmed Mellon's death but declined Tuesday to provide any details. He had struggled with drug addiction, and reports said he died at a rehabilitation center in Cancun, Mexico.

Mellon is survived by his wife, fashion designer Nicole Hanley, and their two children. He also had a child with his ex-wife, Jimmy Choo co-founder Tamara Mellon.

Testifying at a trial where Mellon was acquitted of hiring a private detective to snoop into Tamara Mellon's finances, the luxury shoe maven said she and her husband had met at a meeting of Narcotics Anonymous when both were recovering from addiction.

The two married in 1999 at Blenheim Palace, one of England's grandest homes, with friends Elizabeth Hurley and actor Hugh Grant among the guests. They divorced several years later due to his continued use of drugs and alcohol. 

In an op-ed published in the Daily Mail in 2013, Tamara said she had "no ill feeling toward Matthew,...He was just unwell, with a disease that was poisonous for me to be around."

Mellon battled with his addiction to Oxycontin for years and revealed to Page Six in a 2016 interview that he was spending $100,000 a month on the drugs while taking about 80 pills a day.

"The doctors kept writing prescriptions like they were Smarties. It’s very irresponsible," Mellon said. "OxyContin is like legal heroin. And it needs to be addressed."

Mellon comes from the Mellon and Drexel families of Bank of New York Mellon and Drexel Burnham Lambert.

According to Mellon's LinkedIn account and documents of the Securities and Exchange Commission, he attended the Wharton School and later worked in fashion, telecommunications and finance, most recently as an adviser for the digital currency company Ripple Labs.

Mellon also served for a time as the chairman of the finance committee of the Republican Party in New York.

Copyright AP - Associated Press
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