[imagesource: Ben Rosser/bfa.com]

At the young age of 43, real estate mogul Brandon Miller, the husband of a social media influencer who started the popular lifestyle blog Mama + Tata, died in the Hamptons.

His untimely death at the beginning of the month has cracked open the truth of their life, which it turns out, has not been as lovely and lavish as they’ve always made it seem.

Miller was married to Candice Miller, the socialite who founded Mama + Tata, a lifestyle parenting blog that helped the family paint a really lovely picture of their sweet family life. The couple share two young daughters.

They lived together at Cobb Isle Road in New York, which is one of the most exclusive addresses in one of America’s most exclusive enclaves where multimillion-dollar homes look onto Mecox Bay in the Hamptons.

On July 1, the street was suddenly an emergency spectacle as the local fire department was called in by a carbon monoxide alarm being triggered at the Millers’ $8 million, five-bedroom spread on the waterfront.

There, Brandon Miller was unconscious inside a car in the garage. The carbon monoxide alarm had been triggered by exhaust fumes which had overcome him, the Daily Beast reported. He was rushed to the hospital but proved to be beyond saving and died on July 3 – the confirmed cause of death still unrevealed.

The perfect image of their high life – his big-time job, an influencer wife, a Park Avenue home, his boat called MillerTime, vacations in Paris, and a real estate inheritance – all shattered with reports of the family’s long line of debt that has suddenly come to the fore.

Because Miller was the Instagram husband part of an internet power couple with his wife Candice, his elaborate life was documented on social media for the world to see, and now, so are their problems.

“We tell our story from the perspective of a fashionable mom of two, Candice, and a newly pregnant and inquisitive mom-to-be, Jenna,” the Mama + Tata blog’s about section reads. “We would like to share our experiences and impart our insights on how to be a great mom while maintaining beauty, style, and glamor in everyday life.”

Even though their everyday life included a dizzying picture of an OTT life.

Weekly $800 facials, a personal chef, summertime poolside dinners for 40 in the Hamptons, glittering charity soirees in Manhattan, vacations at elegant European hotels and Thanksgiving in Palm Beach, Florida followed by a double collagen cosmetic mask to repair any damage from sun exposure.

One photo showed mama with her two girls on a balcony at the Hôtel Plaza Athénée in Paris. Suites there start at $2,500 a night.

Candice, and by extension, her family’s ideal existence, was even validated when she was linked to Ivanka Trump’s social circle in Miami after the pair were photographed at the beach in 2021.

“Candice Miller – one half of the sister blogging duo Mama and Tata – attended the event with her real estate developer husband, Brandon Miller and their two daughters. She looked radiant in a chiffon caftan-style gown, her long brown waves flowing down her shoulders.” The Daily Mail article added that Candice Miller had been “spotted palling around with Ivanka Trump.”

But then, on July 3, as her husband was declared dead, the idealistic internet life fell apart and Candice Miller quietly deleted @mamaandtata on Instagram.

Followers who had made the Millers’ Instagram famous ran to Reddit to seek answers.

SCannon95 had followed Candice Miller for the “over the top” lifestyle and had felt jealous of the travel and the parties. Now, she wrote, “I also can’t believe how much of the content I consumed and took at face value.” She allowed that she and other followers had been in the thrall of “what looks like a perfect life online even if we know IG vs. reality is different.”

The family’s real troubles were well hidden from the camera, though.

Brandon Miller was unashamedly a nepo-baby; His father, Michael Miller founded Real Estate Equity Corporation, REEC, in 1978 and started by developing suburban shopping centres in the years of the mall boom. Brandon joined as the company moved into high-end commercial and residential properties in Manhattan, which quickly went into developing prestigious projects including the 2011 construction of a luxury building in Tribeca.

Brandon and Candice – who had been childhood friends before marrying in 2009 – moved into the penthouse, which served as a stage set during the internet ascension of Mama and Tata. Then they bought their Cobb Isle Road home for $3.2 million and watched its value soar.

However, Brandon’s father died, and the secret of his mounting debt came flooding in for his son to deal with. It turned out that a man from Long Island called Donald Jaffe had been financing almost all of the elder Miller’s projects, including the Tribeca building and the purchase of Brandon’s house. Michael had been making his assistant forge any signatures from Brandon needed to make these deals happen.

Brandon’s father’s inheritance was poisoned: his debt to Jaffe was as high as $5.6 million (Brandon Miller settled in 2022), and TD Bank sued Brandon’s mother Barbara for $2.1 million Michael Miller owed, claiming mother and son tried to hide the father’s assets. They strongly contested the allegations.

Miller became REEC’s managing partner, and although he probably did his best to keep the business afloat, a trend emerged of buildings and lots being bought for development only to be delayed and put off to the extent that weeds and rats were all that roamed.

The dream shattered even harder when Miller was sued by Interior Marketing Group (IMG), owned by Cheryl Eisen, once described as “the reigning prop princess of luxury New York real estate.”

The suit accused him of failing to pay $102,730.27 in rental for what it describes as “dining and family room fixtures, area rugs, table lamps, bedroom desks and chairs, credenzas, bed frames, pillows, draperies and sheers and artwork.” He was also said to have refused to return items valued at $64,000.

That is to say, the Miller’s Park Avenue image was a fraud. Even the furniture in the Millers’ videos wasn’t really their own.

This all comes to a poignant end as we realise his influencer wife’s carefully curated charade, telling Gotham Magazine last year July, “My favourite Hamptons memories are going on the boat with my whole family and all my closest friends on July 4 to see the fireworks and have dinner and a little party,” she said.

Only, this July 4, her husband had been dead for 24 hours and her influencer life is over.

[source:nypost&dailybeast]