MIDTOWN MANHATTAN, NY — Dennis Shields, the on-again-off-again boyfriend of “Real Housewives of New York City” star Bethenny Frankel was found dead Friday in Trump Tower, police and reports said.
Officers arrived at the Fifth Avenue skyscraper around 9:20 a.m. Friday morning and found Shields, 51, unconscious and unresponsive, police said. The man — who lived in Trump Tower — was pronounced dead at the scene by EMS, police said.
Shields had been dating Frankel on and off since 2016, according to several reports. Shields is believed to have died of a drug overdose after he lost consciousness before his assistant could administer him with Narcan, a drug that reverses opioid overdoses, the Post reported.
Shields’ ex-wife Jill Schwartzberg confirmed the death in a statement to the Hollywood Reporter.
“Dennis’ family is devastated by this terrible news. He was a loving father and friend. We ask that the media respect our privacy during this time of loss,” Schwartzberg told the publication.
The city medical examiner’s office will conduct an investigation into the cause of death.
Shields was the CEO of LawCash, a Brooklyn-based firm that bankrolls questionable lawsuits against the city — and charges plaintiffs exorbitant interest fees for cash advances on their settlements, according to The Post.
Frankel most recently told Steve Harvey in May that she had a complicated relationship with Shields.
“I’ve been with someone on and off for years,” she said. “It’s like a partnership where if we’re not being teammates and it’s not working and one man is down, then the other man is down. We’re trying to really kind of be good partners and be good teammates and I think relationships oddly are — and this sounds cold — but a little bit like business. If both people aren’t happy about it but slightly uncomfortable and giving up something or giving in [to] something, it doesn’t work. So both partners have to say, ‘All right, I’m in it for this.'”
Frankel’s “Real Housewives” co-star Sonja Morgan called the news of Shields’ death” heartbreaking.”
“This is heartbreaking,” Morgan said in an interview with Radar. “I spoke to Bethenny yesterday to say I was going to Coast Rica, in case she wanted to come and get away. She’s been working so much.”
Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images News/Getty Images
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