Publicist Jeanine Pepler dead at 50

Jeanine Pepler, the publicist who represented authors Jay McInerney and Candace Bushnell, died by suicide. She was 50 years old.

Pepler, who was born in Cape Town, South Africa, reportedly hanged herself in her Sag Harbor, Long Island, home on June 17.

The publicist committed suicide the same way the fashion designer Kate Spade did recently.

According to her friends, Pepler was discovered by artist Steve Miller, her boyfriend.

“He is just devastated, as are we all,” a friend told Page Six. “She seemed to be doing great. They had a lot of plans for the future”

No other information is available at this time from Miller.

Pepler moved to Sag Harbor a few years ago, where she ran her own boutique agency, AKA Life.

“Her guilty pleasures include golf, white Burgundy, Betty’s Greek wraps and her daily early morning romp in the dog run with Violet, her French bulldog," according to her bio on the website of the agency.

Pepler received an honors degree in English from Cape Town University in South Africa. In 1996, she moved to New York, where she started a career in publicity.

For six years, Pepler had dated McInerney but they ended their relationship in 2005. She then temporary moved into Bret Easton Ellis’ apartment.

“We will still love and care about each other even though we’re not together anymore,” she said at the time, Page Six reported.

Though McInerney married Anne Hearst, a publishing heiress, the former couple were still good friends.

McInerney even dedicated his book, The Good Life, to Pepler.

"For Jeanine: Who rescued me that day and many days thereafter,” the dedication reads.

Pepler was diagnosed with thyroid cancer and had surgery in 2004. But a friend said that she had completely recovered and had been in good health.

The NY State Police's spokesperson stated that Pepler's death is “an active, ongoing investigation.”

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