On and offline, Candice always found a way to come back to their storybook wedding. The event was frequently mentioned on the Mama and Tata account. On their 10th anniversary in 2019, the couple renewed their vows in an elaborate ceremony. “It was the best thing I ever did, being able to relive the greatest day of my life with the family we created!” Candice later told Over the Moon.
This is the riddle posed on many Reddit threads, at East End dinner parties and uptown galas: How does someone wake up one day and suddenly discover her husband is millions of dollars in debt? How does one half of a couple think their financial state is solid enough to take an extravagant European vacation, while the other half is asking friends to borrow $1,000?
Sources told The New York Times that Candice has claimed she was unaware of the family’s financial crisis—even though the Times reported that Ryan Nivakoff, a friend of Brandon’s, told her in May 2024 that her family was broke. Others who were close to the Millers believe that Candice knew something was wrong. Perhaps she wasn’t aware of the exact contours, they say, but she had to have an inkling that all was not right in their world, or with their bank accounts.
The problem had been brewing for years, since COVID-19 cratered the commercial real estate market in 2020—just as Brandon’s firm, REEC, went bullish on office space. Sources speculate that the rented furniture at their Park Avenue apartment, where they moved in 2021, should have been a tip-off to their financial reality.
According to a text exchange, in March 2024, Candice expressed concern about a deal of Brandon’s “going south”—seemingly referring to the $1.5 million his friend Wesley Gradone had invested in a real estate project. By early June, it appeared, according to text messages she sent, that she was putting the disturbing and unnerving pieces together: Brandon owed a lot of people money, and their Hamptons house was highly leveraged. In one June text message, Brandon was already spiraling, writing, “I just can’t believe this is my life. I just don’t know if this will get better.”
Still, Brandon was good at assuring Candice that everything was fine. In fact, he encouraged her to go to Europe with their daughters, the Times reported, falsely claiming the trip had already been paid for. Per the Times, Brandon set up a call with his lawyer after Nivakoff’s call to Candice, giving the impression that there was nothing to worry about.
In the months leading up to this, the couple kept spending at a rapid pace. In May, according to American Express records, a card in Brandon’s name made charges that included $1,713 at Sag Harbor Florist, $1,606 at Valery Joseph hair salon, and $7,855 at The Row on Madison Avenue. A few months earlier, in February, there was a $9,498 JetBlue charge. According to The Real Deal, Brandon died owing American Express $300,000.
