Gabi Grecko says Geoffrey Edelsten lost the will to live

Geoffrey Edelsten’s “widow” Gabi Grecko says the controversial businessman was plagued with health issues and debts and “just gave up” before his death.

The “widow” of controversial businessman Geoffrey Edelsten, Gabi Grecko, believes ill health and mounting debt in recent years drained the wily entrepreneur of the will to live and that he “just gave up.”

New York-based Grecko, an artist, fashion designer, amateur rapper and former stripper who calls herself Glitta Fox, revealed on Wednesday that despite being apart since mid-2018 she and Edelsten, who died aged 78 in Melbourne on June 11, were still married.

Grecko, 32, who has started referring to herself as “Widow Foxx”, said she was the one who had called time on their unconventional relationship and that they had not divorced as Edelsten “just left it open if I changed my mind” and wanted to try again.

“I wanted to stay with him but I didn’t think it was good for my mental health (for various reasons) and that’s what I told him,” Grecko said of their split.

Gabi Grecko says she was drawn to Edelsten’s individuality. Picture: Instagram

Grecko has told of the happy days the couple shared together in New York during their 2018 reconciliation.

“We had a pretty great time, before he died, the last time I saw him,” Grecko said.

“We watched a bunch of Hitchcock movies and old movies for days in my apartment and just ordered food and he seemed extremely happy, but his health was not good so he was easily tired with simple things and his blood sugar was always bad because of his diabetes.

“I haven’t found love after him.

“And it’s sad I can never speak to him, even if I wanted.

“I’m definitely trying to grieve in a healthy way despite mean people saying I don’t care.

“This is a person I married (to) and actually did love, so it’s definitely a loss that will affect me.”

She said she was drawn to Edelsten’s individuality.

“What I appreciate in Geoffrey is that he deeply cared what other people thought, yet lived exactly how he wanted in full color without caring because he knew life was just a short moment,” she said.

“Even now he would be happy (that) people appreciated him and remembered.”

Grecko said while they had not been in contact since their last split in 2018, she believed Edelsten’s will to live had been eroded by his health issues in recent years.

“I feel almost bad, I think if he was in better spirits he would have lived, but he had so much debt and his mom passed away and I had left I think he just gave up,” she said.

Gabi Grecko with Geoffrey Edelsten after his marriage proposal.

Edelsten and Grecko after their low-key Melbourne wedding. Picture: Nathan Dyer

Grecko, whose real name is Gabrielle Curtis, said she too had battled health issues — in her case mental health issues that she was managing with magic mushrooms.

“My mental health is better than ever,” she said.

“I’ve used psilocybin known as magic mushrooms the past four years and they’ve helped me overcome a lot of childhood and adult trauma.

“I’m on a strict diet as well and the healthiest I’ve been.

“I pray I stay healthy. I’ve had a lot of health problems for (someone) so young.”

Edelsten and Grecko wed in June 2015 in a low-key registry service in the back of a North Melbourne shop. She was 26 and he was 72.

They memorably posed for their official wedding photos among bins and graffiti in Melbourne’s Hosier Lane.

Their engagement had been a public spectacle with Edelsten getting down on one knee and proposing in the Flemington birdcage at the 2014 Melbourne Cup.

Grecko says she battles a lot of health issues.

Grecko says she and Edelsten were still married. Picture: Instagram

The couple separated just five months later and their relationship fractured further when in early 2017 Grecko was named in a New York corruption case for having group sex with two NYPD officers and three other men aboard a private plane to Las Vegas in 2013.

But in a surprising twist around December 2017 they rekindled their romance and declared their intention to renew their vows at a New York synagogue.

After spending time together in New York their fairytale sadly ended and they parted ways again sometime around mid-2018.

In September 2019 Edelsten confirmed to the Sunday Herald Sun that he was commencing divorce proceedings to officially end his drama-filled marriage to Grecko.

“I will be pleased when it has been finalised,” he said, although this week’s turn of events would suggest the divorce was never completed.

[e-mail]