Pubdate: Thu, 07 Mar 2002 Source: Independent (UK) Copyright: 2002 Independent Newspapers (UK) Ltd. Contact: http://www.independent.co.uk/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/209 Author: Cahal Milmo TRAGIC HEIRESS DIED OF DRUG OVERDOSE AFTER 20-YEAR BATTLE AGAINST ADDICTION A Norwegian heiress who married into Monaco's royal family and led a jet-set lifestyle with an array of celebrity friends and lovers died alone as a hopeless drug addict, an inquest was told yesterday. The body of Baroness Michelle Lutken de Massy, 41, was found in a flat in Kensington, west London, on 25 November after she overdosed on a cocktail of heroin and sleeping tablets "cooked" on a silver spoon. Hours before her death, she promised a friend who had been looking after her home while she underwent treatment at an addiction clinic in Monaco that she would not "do anything silly". Westminster coroner's court was told the former model had attended 13 different treatment centres to try to beat an addiction that began while she was working in the Milan fashion industry, aged 17. A statement from the Princess Grace Hospital in Monaco, where she was admitted last September, described her as suffering from a multi-addiction to opiates, cocaine and alcohol. PC Stephen Shakeshaft, who was called to de Massy's flat after her body was found, told the inquest: "I saw the lifeless body of a female. She was lying on her back with her leg outstretched to her side. There was a puncture wound on the back of her hand." The daughter of a wealthy Norwegian businessman, she married Baron Christian de Massy, a nephew of Prince Rainier, head of Monaco's royal family, while still a teenager. The couple moved to New York where their acquaintances included the artist Andy Warhol and the singers Grace Jones and Marvin Gaye. Among her friends in Europe was the tennis player Bjorn Borg and she was a regular at the Tramp and Raffles nightclubs. She once described how she invited 80 guests to a party at a Manhattan restaurant and for dessert served half a gram of cocaine. But the high life also brought tragedy. She was involved in a serious car crash in Miami that badly damaged her memory. Her relationship with her husband deteriorated and they were divorced in 1987. Drugs also tainted her relationships. She was the friend and mistress for more than 20 years of Constantine Niarchos, an heir to the vast shipping dynasty founded by Greek billionaire Stavros Niarchos. Constantine died three years ago from a cocaine overdose at his flat in Mayfair, 17 days after becoming the first Greek to conquer Mount Everest. The baroness, who was also known as Anne, said in a statement at Niarchos's inquest that the pair had snorted cocaine together on the night of his death but his craving had been so extreme he had eaten the drug by the spoonful. Yesterday's inquest into de Massy's death heard that she had spent UKP200,000 of her own fortune on cocaine.George Crump, the friend who found her body, told the hearing she returned to her flat from Monaco, where she had been receiving treatment for her addiction, on 24 November and he found her unconscious from an overdose on that day. He managed to revive her, and she promised not to take more drugs, but a day later she injected the fatal mixture. Recording a verdict of death by misadventure, Dr Paul Knapman, the Westminster coroner, said: "It's a tragedy that her lifestyle and its effects have finally caused her death at the age of only 41." - --- MAP posted-by: Richard Lake