Billionaire banking heir Matthew Mellon dies, aged 54

Billionaire banking heir Matthew Mellon has died, aged 54, reportedly while attending a rehabilitation centre in Mexico.

His cousin Peter Stephaich confirmed Mellon's death but declined to provide any details. 

Mellon had struggled with drug addiction, with reports saying he died at the rehabilitation centre in Cancun.

The billionaire banking heir was the ex-husband of Jimmy Choo co-founder Tamara Mellon and of designer Nicole Hanley, his second wife.

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

According to his 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.

Mellon is survived by his first and second wives and three children. 

Testifying at a trial where Mellon was acquitted of hiring a private detective to snoop into Tamara Mellon's finances, the Jimmy Choos co-founder 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.