A teenage grandson of Denise Rich reportedly killed himself Monday in London. Kai Schachter, one of Rich’s six grandchildren, was 19 and one of four kids of Ilona Rich Schachter and New York art dealer Kenny Schachter.
“Kai’s death is a devastating loss, he was a hugely gifted artist with a wonderful spirit and a sense of humor that touched everyone he met,” the Rich and Schachter families said in a statement. “The family is asking for privacy at this time as they take time to grieve and gather all of the details.”
One source said Kai, enrolled at London’s Slade School of Fine Art, was heartbroken over a busted romance.
The teenager split his time between NYC and London and had been living on the Bowery with his older brother Adrian and two other artists. In November, he told Vogue Italia: “I’m inspired when I’m completely immersed in nature and can vigilantly study the beauty and lines created by mother earth, but I equally draw inspiration from promotional signs on trash cans and the popping images plastered on the side of a bodega in NYC.”
The brothers were members of a London-based collective, Something to Hate On, which was started by Jude Law’s son Raff, 22, and two of his pals.
Denise Rich, ex-wife of the fugitive financier Marc Rich, is no stranger to tragedy. She lost her eldest daughter, Gabrielle, to leukemia in 1996, and founded the charity now called the Gabrielle’s Angel Foundation for Cancer Research in her honor. With the help of its annual Angel Ball, the foundation has awarded $33 million in research grants.
Marc Rich, who fled the US for Switzerland in 1983, was pardoned by President Bill Clinton on his last day in office in 2001.
Denise pleaded the Fifth before Congress at a hearing into whether the pardon was granted in exchange for her $1 million in contributions to the Democratic Party and the William J. Clinton Presidential Center and Park.