Matthew Mellon Had It All, But Also Had Opioid Addiction

Member of great banking family struggled with addictions for years.

Nicole Mellon and Matthew Mellon attend the Hanley Mellon Spring 2015 Collection at  Hudson Mercantile on September 10, 2014 in New York City.  (Photo by Eugene Gologursky/Getty Images for Hanley Mellon)
Nicole Mellon and Matthew Mellon attend the Hanley Mellon Spring 2015 Collection at Hudson Mercantile on September 10, 2014 in New York City. (Photo by Eugene Gologursky/Getty Images for Hanley Mellon)

Matthew Mellon was born into one of the country’s oldest banking families — inheriting many of the privileges and pressures that came with high society.

By the time of his death at the age of 54 earlier this week, his dalliances with cryptocurrency may have made him wealthier, and the father of three young children seemed to have at least flirted with an idyllic existence for much of his adulthood. He had previously been married to Tamara Mellon, a founder of Jimmy Choo, and more recently to Nicole Hanley, another product of a rich family. He had been a fixture in the fashion industry, starting with a stint as creative director of Jimmy Choo’s collection of men’s shoes.

But Mellon also had a history of addiction – and by 2016, he told the New York Post that he was taking 80 OxyContin pills a day.

“And, last weekend, Mr. Mellon traveled by private plane to Cancun, Mexico,” wrote the New York Times. “He was going to get a “touch-up treatment” at a rehab facility he had visited earlier this year, said Mr. Mellon’s stepfather, J. Reeve Bright — and had been sober for about 70 days. He never made it there.”

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