Former Playboy model Stephanie Adams tragically killed herself and her young son after she jumped from the 25th floor of a New York City hotel, taking the seven-year-old boy with her.
Adams, 47, allegedly wanted to take her son, Vincent, on vacation to Europe, but a custody battle with her ex-husband, Charles Nicolai, stopped Adams from traveling with her son, the New York Post reported Friday. It was the fourth custody battle Adams and Nicolai had scheduled in a year.
In a court case held at Manhattan Supreme Court, Nicolai requested that Vincent not be taken on the trip to Europe, which the judge granted, ruling that Adams hand over her son’s passport.
According to The Post, “Adams came out as Playboy magazine’s first lesbian centerfold in 2003. But she was later married to an investment banker for two years before becoming engaged to Nicolai in 2009.” Nicolai is a Wall Street chiropractor.
Adams was recorded in a two-minute phone call to The Post’s Richard Johnson on Thursday, saying, “All I want to do is take my son and get away from this nightmare for a few days, but they won’t let me.”
One of Adams’ close friends told the Post that the ex-playmate model loved her son, whom Adams homeschooled, and had been close with him “her whole life.”
Adams’ friend continued, “People have these lives you don’t even know about. I didn’t see suicide … She was happy — she wasn’t depressed. But she was unrealistic in her goals. If you put her diagnosis at a 1 to 10, 10 being the worst, she was not a 10.”
