Paolo Liuzzo, the ex-boyfriend of Princess Beatrice, has been found dead in a Miami hotel room at the age of 41. The cause of death is suspected to be an overdose.
Liuzzo dated Princess Beatrice, the daughter of Prince Andrew, when she was 17 years old in 2005. The couple kept their relationship a secret until they joined her family’s ski holiday to Switzerland in 2006.
Sources told The Sun that Liuzzo had struggled with drugs and racked up gambling debt in recent years. He had several run-ins with the law, including over cocaine possession.
Liuzzo’s death certificate said he had been working as an art industry consultant and lived at an apartment building near the hotel where he died. His body was flown back to his home of Long Island, New York, for a funeral on February 16th.
It has been reported that Princess Beatrice found out about Liuzzo’s death soon after her mother Sarah Ferguson’s skin cancer diagnosis.
A friend of Liuzzo’s told The Sun: ‘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.
‘He was always borrowing money to pay loans. It became a vicious cycle.’
