The art industry consultant, who dated the British royal when she was a teen, had struggled with drugs and racked up big gambling debts prior to his death at 41 years old.
- Apr 25, 2024
AceShowbiz - Princess Beatrice was reportedly dealing with grief amid her mother's health issue. The British royal's ex-boyfriend Paolo Liuzzo died of a suspected drug overdose in a Miami hotel in February, soon after her mom Sarah Ferguson revealed her shock skin cancer diagnosis.
Liuzzo, who had repeated run-ins with the law, including over the death of a student and cocaine possession, was found dead in a hotel room on February 7, though the news was not made public until The Sun reported it on Wednesday, April 24.
Officer Michael Vega of the Miami Police Department said police found Liuzzo after being called to a room at the citizenM Miami Worldcenter hotel at 3:22 P.M. on February 7. The time of death was given as 3:34 P.M.
An official cause of death has not been disclosed due to Florida records law, but Vega said, "It was investigated as an overdose death. The investigation is open and ongoing."
The death certificate says Liuzzo had been working as an art industry consultant and never married. He was listed as living at an apartment building near the hotel. His body was flown back to his native Long Island, New York for a funeral on February 16.
Liuzzo had struggled with drugs and racked up big gambling debts prior to his death at age 41, sources said. A pal of Liuzzo said, "Paolo was not doing great on a personal level. He loved to party and gamble. He began using a lot of pharmaceutical drugs but that later led to cocaine and harder drugs."
"It was a very fast lifestyle and we all feared it would catch up with him eventually," the friend shared. "He was always borrowing money to pay loans. It became a vicious cycle."
Beatrice started dating Liuzzo in 2005, when she was just 17 years old and he was 24. Their relationship came to an end in 2006 after he was hauled back to the U.S. for flouting his probation conditions for the fist-fight death of a student in Massachusetts.
Beatrice, who married Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi in July 2020 and welcomed their daughter Sienna Elizabeth Mapelli Mozzi in September 2021, was left "heartbroken" by the shocking death of her ex-boyfriend, according to the U.K. news outlet.
