14 DAY TRIAL // Katie Cleary, known as the suitcase model on Deal or No Deal and as one of the contestants on America’s Next Top Model, was having marital issues with husband Andrew Stern, a 40-year-old businessman. Over the weekend, he shot himself dead, it has emerged.
It could be just a coincidence, but various media outlets link Stern’s suicide to the leak of several photos of Katie partying with Leonardo DiCaprio in Cannes in May, and of her hanging out with Adrian Grenier, yet another famous Hollywood womanizer, also in Cannes.
It is not yet known if the relationship with DiCaprio or Grenier ever went beyond “good pals who like to party / hang out together” but TMZ seems to think that she was most definitely sleeping with Leo at one point.
Her husband was probably thinking the same and he may have taken his life because he didn’t want to lose her. The same media outlet says he shot himself at a shooting range in the San Fernando Valley.
“We're told law enforcement interviewed various people after the suicide, including Katie, and they were told – among other things – he was suffering significant stress over marital problems. Our sources say Katie told law enforcement she and Andrew – who appeared on ‘Millionaire Matchmaker’ before he got together with Cleary – were in the process of getting divorced,” TMZ informs.
Stern also had “a history of depression and had financial issues” and these, combined with the stress of the divorce, probably pushed him over the edge.
DiCaprio and Greniere were not available for comment on their relationship with Cleary but, at this point, it’s unlikely they will address the matter in any way. However, one source from DiCaprio’s camp tells TMZ that he definitely didn’t sleep with her in Cannes, because “he left the club with his GF Toni Garrn.”
DiCaprio and Garrn have been dating for several months now.
Stern’s friends claim that he never believed that the photos were innocent, since he was convinced the actor and his soon-to-be-ex-wife had an affair. Apparently, the divorce papers were filed in April after they had been separated late last year, but Stern never lost hope he and Cleary would still be able to make it work.
The same friends insist that he was devastated when he saw the photos online – and that they might have sent him over the edge, having already been struggling with issues for a long time.