OxyContin Heiress Joss Sackler Reportedly Offered Ex-Drug Addict Courtney Love $100K To Attend Fashion Show
“The Sackler family has no shame — I won’t sell out to them,” Love said.
getty The United States is experiencing a tragic and apparently opioid crisis. According to the CDC, more than 702,000 people have died from a drug overdose between 1999 and 2017, and in 2017 alone, 70,000 died from drug overdoses. Almost 68 percent of those deaths were related to illicit or prescription opioids.
Just this month, the Trump administration announced $1.8 billion in funding to states to combat the crisis. The funding will expand access to treatment and give real-time data. But the question on everyone’s mind has been: who do we blame?
Big pharma has been slammed with lawsuits from all over the country, including Purdue Pharma, Johnson & Johnson, Endo International, and Allergan. Now, they’re looking to cut deals with attorney generals to resolve the claims. Purdue Pharma, in particular, confirmed a deal could bankrupt the company and force the Sackler family to give up ownership.
Which brings us to the Sackler family. In particular, David Sackler. David is the grandson of the brother of Arthur Sackler, who pioneered the marketing of pharmaceuticals. And his wife is now making headlines.
Who is Joss Sackler? Though she wasn’t born into the Sackler family, she married David and is now an heiress to OxyContin. And it appears this family has no shame or guilt when it comes to the effects of the drugs they were responsible for mass distributing.
According to Courtney Love, the eccentric widow of Kurt Cobain and founder of the band Hole, Joss Sackler offered to pay her more than $100,000 to attend her Fashion Week show to debut her new line, LBV. She allegedly also offered Love hair and makeup, car service, and a custom-made dress embroidered with 24-carat gold thread.
But Love was having none of it, firing back, “The Sackler family has no shame — I won’t sell out to them.”
In an email obtained by Page Six, Sackler’s team emailed Love. The emails say, “Elizabeth Kennedy (LBV creative director) and Joss are huge fans of Courtney... She best embodies the women they are dressing... strong and undeterred... The brand has no relation to Purdue... other than Joss is married to the family.” Her husband, David, is the spokesperson for Purdue and was on the board.
It all just seems in poor taste, as Love has struggled with drug addiction, including to OxyContin and Benzos, and lost her husband, Cobain, to drugs in 1994. Love told the publication:
“I am one of the most famous reformed junkies on the planet — my husband died on heroin — What is it about me that says to Joss Sackler, ‘I will sell out to you?’ Well I won’t.
I never would take their money. Joss is delusional, talking about her fashion line and private members club, their ‘philanthropical arm.’ What about instead giving money to rehab facilities, paying for Narcan (a medication that counters opioid overdoses) or creating a non-addictive painkiller?
This request from Joss Sackler is shameless and offensive after everything I, many of my friends, and millions of other addicts have been through with OxyContin. I’m sober, but I will always be an opioid addict, it doesn’t vanish. I will always be that, I am just in recovery.
And, equally, a fashion line with 24 carat gold thread won’t ever cover up or wash away the stains on Joss Sackler and her family.”
The two then went head-to-head on Instagram, posting throughout the day. Sackler posted screenshots that implied Love wanted more money, but Love shot back denying those claims, saying, Check me out b****. Come for me. Lying #sacklerlies s***.” Sackler also posted a video preview of her line with the caption “it’s show day #dontbelievethehype.”
As it turns out, it seems her show had pretty low attendance. The runway space at Bowery Hotel in Manhattan holds 75-100 people, but the benches in the audience weren’t full. No celebrities showed up, except Ryan Serhant, who is part of Bravo’s Million Dollar Listing. Suki Waterhouse and Julia Restoin-Roitfield were supposed to be there, at least according to Sackler’s team.
Just this past May, Joss Sackler asked to be judged on her own merits. In a quasi-interview for Town and Country Magazine, she said, “I support my family 500 percent. I believe they will be completely vindicated. But they have nothing to do with LBV... I mean, David and I both have things we support, but I’m not the person to speak to about the Sackler family philanthropy. Why don’t you do a big piece instead on LBV?”
This came after eight members of the Sackler family were named in lawsuits, including her husband David.
It appears that the more Sackler attempts to distance herself from the crisis, the worse it gets. But if you continually deny something, you may just start to believe it.
Samantha Maffucci is an editor for YourTango who focuses on writing trending news and entertainment pieces. In her free time, you can find her obsessing about cats, wine, and all things Vanderpump Rules.