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Definitions of 'jaunt', pronunciations of 'jaunt'.

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Synonyms of 'jaunt', collocations with the word 'jaunt', examples of 'jaunt'  in a sentence, translations of 'jaunt'.

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Definition of jaunt noun from the Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary

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Definition of jaunt – Learner’s Dictionary

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(Definition of jaunt from the Cambridge Learner's Dictionary © Cambridge University Press)

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• 1.1 Etymology
• 1.2 Pronunciation
• 1.3.1 Translations
• 1.4.1 Derived terms
• 1.4.2 Translations
• 1.5 References
• 1.6 Anagrams

Origin uncertain. Perhaps a palatalised alteration of daunt ( “ to discourage ” ) . Compare Scots jaunder ( “ to ramble, jaunt to taunt, jeer ” ) , dialectal Swedish ganta ( “ to play the buffoon, romp, jest ” ) ; perhaps akin to English jump . Compare jaunce . Modern usage likely influenced by jaunty .

Pronunciation

• IPA ( key ) : /ˈd͡ʒɔːnt/
• ( Received Pronunciation ) IPA ( key ) : /d͡ʒɔːnt/
• ( cot – caught merger ) IPA ( key ) : /d͡ʒɑnt/
• Rhymes: -ɔːnt

jaunt ( plural jaunts )

• 1671 , John Milton , “The Fourth Book”, in Paradise Regain’d. A Poem. In IV Books. To which is Added, Samson Agonistes , London: [ … ] J [ ohn ] M [ acock ] for John Starkey   [ … ] , →OCLC : Our Savior, meek, and with untroubled mind After his aëry jaunt , though hurried sore. Hungry and cold, betook him to his rest.
• 1597 , William Shakespeare , Romeo & Juliet : Fie, what a jaunt have I had.
• 1902 , John Buchan, The Outgoing of the Tide : Some days later it happened that young Heriotside was stepping home over the Lang Muir about ten at night, it being his first jaunt from home since his arm had mended.

Translations

jaunt ( third-person singular simple present jaunts , present participle jaunting , simple past and past participle jaunted )

• ( intransitive ) To ramble here and there; to stroll ; to make an excursion .
• ( intransitive ) To ride on a jaunting car .
• 1818 , Cobbett's Weekly Political Register : To get into a Grecian car, and to be drawn, with Minerva at his back [ … ] four or five miles through the streets of London‥after having quietly suffered himself to be jaunted about in this manner
• ( obsolete ) To tire a horse by riding it hard or back and forth.

Derived terms

• jaunting car
• jantu , junta

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† jaunt noun 2

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What does the noun jaunt mean?

There is one meaning in OED's entry for the noun jaunt . See ‘Meaning & use’ for definition, usage, and quotation evidence.

This word is now obsolete. It is only recorded in the early 1700s.

Entry status

OED is undergoing a continuous programme of revision to modernize and improve definitions. This entry has not yet been fully revised.

Where does the noun jaunt come from?

Earliest known use

early 1700s

The only known use of the noun jaunt is in the early 1700s.

OED's earliest evidence for jaunt is from 1706, in Phillips's New World of Words .

jaunt is a borrowing from French.

Etymons: French jante .

Nearby entries

• jaundiced, adj. 1640–
• jaune, adj. 1430–
• jaune antique, n. 1875–
• jaune brillant, n. 1851–
• Jaune Desprez, n. 1837–
• jaune jonquille, n. 1910–
• jaunette, n. 1423–1673
• jaunish | jawnish, adj. 1597
• jaunsel, v. 1590
• jaunt, n.¹ 1597–
• jaunt, n.² 1706–21
• jaunt, v. 1570–
• jauntily, adv. 1828–
• jauntiness, n. 1712–
• jaunting-car, n. 1805–
• jauntingly, adv. 1839–
• jaunty, n. 1902–
• jaunty, adj. 1662–
• jaup | jawp, n. 1513–
• jaup | jawp, v. 1513–
• Java, n. 1743–

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Meaning & use

Entry history for jaunt, n.².

jaunt, n.² was first published in 1900; not yet revised.

jaunt, n.² was last modified in July 2023.

Revision of the OED is a long-term project. Entries in oed.com which have not been revised may include:

• corrections and revisions to definitions, pronunciation, etymology, headwords, variant spellings, quotations, and dates;
• new senses, phrases, and quotations which have been added in subsequent print and online updates.

Revisions and additions of this kind were last incorporated into jaunt, n.² in July 2023.

Earlier versions of this entry were published in:

OED First Edition (1900)

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OED Second Edition (1989)

• View jaunt, n.² in OED Second Edition

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Citation details

Factsheet for jaunt, n.², browse entry.

Synonyms of jaunty

• as in lively
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Thesaurus Definition of jaunty

Synonyms & Similar Words

• enthusiastic
• effervescent
• wide - awake
• open - eyed
• high - spirited
• high - strung

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

• lackadaisical
• languishing
• unambitious

Examples of jaunty in a Sentence

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'jaunty.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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Cite this entry.

“Jaunty.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus , Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/jaunty. Accessed 14 Aug. 2024.

More from Merriam-Webster on jaunty

Nglish: Translation of jaunty for Spanish Speakers

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Big changes for ANCHOR property tax relief, and new deadlines. What you need to know.

• Updated: Aug. 14, 2024, 12:23 a.m.
• | Published: Aug. 13, 2024, 10:00 a.m.
• Karin Price Mueller | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com

The new ANCHOR property tax benefit season is officially underway.

The state Treasury Department will send notification letters on Aug. 19 to 1.5 million New Jersey taxpayers, letting them know their ANCHOR applications will be filed automatically , NJ Advance Media has learned.

The letters will tell homeowners and renters whose eligibility information the state already has that they don’t need to do anything to get their benefits as long as none of their information has changed since last year.

Then on Aug. 26, residents who did not receive a letter will get an application packet in the mail — green for homeowners and purple for renters — which will have the all-important ID number and PIN needed to complete the application.

New this year: Whether you get a letter or an application packet, if any of your information has changed, you’ll have a file a brand new application by Sept. 15, 2024, a deadline that’s earlier than years past.

Also new this year: Some taxpayers, including some who receive the notification letters and application packets, will need to go through an extra level of identity verification through ID.me . Those residents will be notified when they log in to anchor.nj.gov of the need for the extra step.

If you don’t receive a notification letter or an application packet, you can still apply, but you’ll first have to log in to anchor.nj.gov and verify your identity using ID.me. Once you do, your needed ID number and PIN will be provided on the screen.

The Treasury Department also said it has eliminated the need to file paper applications, something that used to be required, for example, by those filing on behalf of an estate or a trust, or by those who needed to share copies of documents to support name changes and changes in marital status. The agency is offering a new secure portal so people can upload their documents, it said.

But if you aren’t comfortable doing it all online, you can still download and print a paper application.

“You can still file by paper but there is no longer a need to,” the agency said.

The deadline to file a new application is nearly a month earlier this year. You have until Nov. 30, 2024 to file, the agency said.

All payments will be issued on a rolling basis beginning in November, the Treasury Department said in a press release. Last year, it initially said payments would start around that same time, but the first round of direct deposits went out on Oct. 12. More rounds of direct deposits and checks were sent in subsequent weeks.

The ANCHOR payments, which are for the 2021 tax year, will pay up to $1,500 to homeowners and $450 for renters, with senior homeowners and renters getting an extra $250.

If you need help with your application, you can call the ANCHOR hotline at (888) 238-1233 or (609) 826-4282. You can also visit a regional help center. You can see all the locations here. Though appointments are not required, you can make one on the state website.

Stories by Karin Price Mueller

• Car rental company threatens driver with arrest and prison after police took vehicle
• Where is my ANCHOR payment? Everything you need to know about this property tax relief.
• StubHub failed to deliver Taylor Swift tickets for concert in Germany. Buyer wants his money back.

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Karin Price Mueller may be reached at [email protected] . Follow her on X at @KPMueller .

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Can I use my 401(k) as an ATM? New rules allow emergency withdrawals.

Need $1,000 to cover an unexpected expense? Starting this year, you may be able to withdraw the money from your 401(k) with relative ease.

New rules make it easier to tap your retirement account for emergency funds. In 2024, you can cash out as much as $1,000 from a traditional 401(k) or IRA to cover an urgent need. And here’s a big change: You get to define what counts as an emergency.

More Americans are raiding retirement accounts for emergency cash. The share of savers making hardship withdrawals from retirement plans has doubled in three years , from 1.7% in 2020 to 3.6% in 2023, according to a Vanguard analysis of its plans.

Traditional tax-sheltered retirement accounts are designed to reward those who save for retirement and penalize those who withdraw the money early. You generally contribute pretax dollars to the account and pay the tax when you take the money out.

Early withdrawal, typically before age 59 ½, triggers an additional tax equal to 10% of the sum. If you are paying a 15% tax rate and make an early withdrawal, you effectively lose 25% of the money before you spend a dime.

There have long been exceptions to that rule . They include higher education expenses, birth or adoption, a first-time home purchase, and the death or permanent disability of the account owner. In such cases, you can generally withdraw retirement funds and pay only ordinary income tax.

Your wallet, explained: Sign up for USA TODAY's Daily Money newsletter.

New rules allow 'emergency' IRA withdrawals, you define the emergency

The rules changed this year, courtesy of the 2022 legislation known as Secure 2.0 . Now, you can withdraw up to $1,000 to cover an emergency personal expense, a scenario defined as “meeting unforeseeable or immediate financial needs relating to necessary personal or family emergency expenses.”

The new language is pretty broad, covering not just specific categories, but also “any other necessary emergency personal expenses.”

Consider the range of expenses that a reasonable person might deem an unforeseeable or immediate emergency: Car repairs. Delinquent utility bills. Urgent dental needs. A roof leak. A parking ticket. Putting dinner on the table.

Congress tailored the law to make such withdrawals simpler and faster, retirement experts say, on the theory that Americans should be able to tap their retirement accounts for an urgent need.

“The ability to draw money out of a 401(k) for any type of financial emergency, it can help make 401(k) plans a little bit more attractive,” said Jeff Clark, head of defined contribution research at Vanguard.

It's tempting to think of your 401(k) as an ATM

The downside: It’s tempting, under the new rules, to think of your 401(k) as a cash machine.

“Most people aren’t saving enough for retirement,” said Keith Singer , a certified financial planner in South Florida. “Helping them consume their retirement accounts early because of a hardship will only create a bigger hardship down the road when they don’t have enough retirement assets to support their lifestyle.” 

Policymakers want to encourage Americans to save for retirement. Social Security covers only some of the expenses retirees face. Pensions are in decline. The more money we sock away in retirement accounts, the theory goes, the more we will thrive in retirement, and the less we will strain government-funded social services.

Tax breaks are supposed to make retirement savings more attractive. Yet, only about half of American households  have retirement accounts , according to the federal Survey of Consumer Finances. Savings rates are particularly low among low-income households. Many cash-strapped Americans don’t feel they can afford to save, for retirement or anything else.

Therein lies the appeal of the emergency withdrawal. In theory, it should be easier to convince lower-income Americans to open retirement accounts if they know they can reclaim the funds in a pinch.

“There are many households that don’t have liquid savings. There are many households that don’t have emergency funds. For many households, the 401(k) is their only savings,” said  Caleb Silver , editor-in-chief of Investopedia.

One solution to that problem is the Roth IRA . In a traditional retirement account, you pay taxes when you withdraw the money. With a Roth, you pay taxes upfront. You can generally withdraw the funds without taxes or penalties, as long as you had them invested for five years .

The Roth is a good option for anyone concerned about cash flow, economists say, because the money is there if you urgently need it. State governments favor the Roth in their auto-IRA initiatives , which automatically enroll workers whose employers don’t have retirement plans.

Under the new emergency-withdrawal rules, a conventional retirement account behaves a bit more like a Roth: Some of the money, at least, sits within easy reach.

Am I too old to open a Roth IRA? Don't count yourself out just yet

What are the rules for emergency retirement fund withdrawals?

Here are the details:

◾ You can make one withdrawal per year.

◾ You can’t take out more than $1,000.

◾ You can’t make an emergency withdrawal that brings your account balance below $1,000.

◾ If you have a 401(k), your employer doesn’t have to allow emergency withdrawals. Not all do.

To justify the withdrawal to an employer, you need only certify in writing that your situation “satisfies the conditions” for an emergency.

After you make an emergency withdrawal, you aren’t allowed to make another one for three years, unless you either repay the money or make new contributions to cover the balance. If you repay the withdrawn funds, you can avoid paying income tax.

What's a hardship withdrawal?

Before this year, hardship withdrawals from 401(k) plans were allowed, and you could cash out more than $1,000, but the rules were comparatively strict.

To make a hardship withdrawal, under the older rules, you must demonstrate an “immediate and heavy financial need,” such as funeral expenses, damage to your home, or an imminent eviction. It’s generally up to an employer to determine whether the worker has an “immediate and heavy” need, and you can’t pay the money back.

However, hardship withdrawals cover a narrow range of categories.

"Let's say your car breaks down. You need to get your car to work. Now, that doesn't qualify for a hardship (withdrawal)," said Michael Shamrell, vice president of thought leadership at Fidelity Investments. "But that's an emergency."

Under the new rules, you can withdraw a limited sum from a retirement account for an emergency with less red tape and more flexibility. That does not, however, mean that an emergency withdrawal is always a good idea.

Any time you make an early withdrawal from a retirement account, “you’re reducing your balance, and you’re effectively minimizing your future returns,” Silver said. “You’re interrupting the compounding that happens inside a 401(k) or a 403(b) or an IRA, and compounding is really how you make your money over time,” as you earn interest on the rising balance of your account.

“You’re effectively robbing your future self,” Silver said.

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How an Instagram-Perfect Life in the Hamptons Ended in Tragedy

Candice and Brandon Miller showed the public a world of glittering parties and vacations. The money to sustain it did not exist.

Candice and Brandon Miller. In photographs shared online, their lives were full of parties and luxurious vacations. Credit... Joe Schildhorn/BFA.com, via Shutterstock

Supported by

By Katherine Rosman

• Published Aug. 8, 2024 Updated Aug. 9, 2024

In the modern Gilded Age of New York, where Instagram is awash in unrestrained displays of wealth, Brandon and Candice Miller were royalty.

At their 10th wedding anniversary “Midsummer Night’s Dream” party, they celebrated with a few dozen friends in the backyard of their 5,500-square-foot vacation home in the Hamptons.

Beautiful women in gowns watched with their handsome husbands as the couple renewed their vows near a swimming pool strewn with peonies and rose petals beneath a canopy of lights.

It was a grand public display of their perfect life and marriage. Ms. Miller told a lifestyle blogger who wrote about the party that her husband’s speech “made me cry by the end with his authentic, raw emotion and romantic words.”

It all culminated in the kind of envy-inducing images anticipated by the roughly 80,000 followers of “Mama and Tata,” Ms. Miller’s popular Instagram feed, which featured a near-constant stream of photographs and videos of her glittering life.

The Midsummer Night party was in 2019. Five years later, the glamorous image that Ms. Miller cultivated and promoted has disappeared, replaced with heartbreak, anger and a mountain of once-secret debt.

Her husband is gone. The home they so ostentatiously lived in, saddled by several mortgages, is not truly their own. Lawsuits from creditors, business bankruptcies, botched investments and even a repossessed boat — the “Miller Time” — indicate that the wealth needed to maintain their lifestyle had evaporated, if it ever truly existed.

Mr. Miller, 43, died on July 3 at a Southampton hospital. A suicide note indicated he had killed himself while his wife and children were on vacation on Italy’s Amalfi Coast, according to a Suffolk County law enforcement official. He said Mr. Miller wrote that a business deal he had hoped would ease the family’s financial strain had collapsed.

His family was stunned. When Ms. Miller was contacted for comment, a family spokesman said she and the children were overwhelmed by grief. “Candice is devastated by the loss of her soul mate, and her two young daughters’ lives are forever impacted by the loss of their beloved daddy,” he said.

The Millers’ downfall has become the focus of obsessive talk in the Hamptons and among internet sleuths who have scoured Ms. Miller’s social media presence for clues to what went wrong.

This account of the family’s rise and fall is drawn from property records, legal filings and interviews with those who knew and worked with Mr. Miller. Because of the sensitivity of the subject, few agreed to be cited by name.

That Mr. Miller’s death occurred in the Hamptons during the height of the social season almost certainly has added to the intrigue, said Neil J. Young, a historian who is writing a book about the Hamptons. Here, the only thing as fascinating as opulent wealth is its sudden disintegration.

“This place is predicated, for a certain set, on showing off,” Dr. Young said. “It’s the homes one has, the things one does out here — from the restaurants to the workouts to the parties. But it’s a place where one can get overextended really quickly, where a house of cards can suddenly collapse .”

A chasm separated the Millers’ shimmering public lives and painful private reality. But their fall is also a source of very real grief — a story about trying to have it all, and what happens when you cannot.

“What people aren’t discussing in all of this is the loss of my little brother, someone I have loved unconditionally,” Mr. Miller’s sister, Maurley Miller, said in a statement after being contacted by The New York Times. “I have a hole in my heart that will never be filled. I am completely devastated.”

‘Mama and Tata’

Perhaps no place in America is as perfectly Instagram-ready as the Hamptons, where striking natural beauty and extravagant wealth are juxtaposed in abundance. Lifestyle and fashion influencers spend their summers at the eastern end of Long Island, documenting their sumptuous lives.

Ms. Miller, 42, added to that canon when she and her sister, Jenna Crespi, started the “Mama and Tata” website and Instagram account in 2016 to provide fashion, shopping and decorating tips for wealthy women.

The account highlighted people in Ms. Miller’s orbit, like Ivanka Trump and Ms. Miller’s cousin-by-marriage, Arielle Charnas , an Instagram personality who influenced her influencer aspirations. The fitness impresario Tracy Anderson and the fashion designer Rachel Zoe made regular appearances.

But it mostly showcased Ms. Miller’s personal life and tastes. “Mama and Tata” became an alter ego and self-promotional marketing machine. Ms. Miller and some friends even started a fashion label that she celebrated with a launch party at the Hotel Bel-Air in Los Angeles. Her followers got regular glimpses of her active social life against the backdrop of grand homes in Manhattan and Southampton, European resorts, private planes, classic sports cars and speedboats.

She was known for her vintage designer gowns and for private fitness sessions (about $250 per hour on top of $900 monthly studio membership fees) that she filmed and shared online.

The Miller children’s birthdays were also an opportunity for Ms. Miller to entertain on a grand scale — for friends and for online fans. A Coachella -themed party for one daughter spawned a torrent of Instagram posts tagging the vendors Ms. Miller hired: a party planner, a florist and a DJ. Helping to keep it all afloat were nannies, housekeepers, drivers, boat captains and personal chefs.

But while “Mama and Tata” reveled in luxury, it spent no time delving into how the splendor was being paid for.

Though Ms. Miller poured time into her Instagram feed, it did not generate much revenue. Instead, “Mama and Tata” enhanced her profile in other ways.

In a 2019 article for an online magazine about the Millers’ Manhattan home — “our townhouse in the sky,” she called it — she posed for photographs with her two young daughters. The living room was decorated in all white, down to the white-spined books on the shelves. “It is so beautiful to sit in, as long as you aren’t wearing anything that bleeds, and exclusively drinking water,” she said.

Mr. Miller, on the other hand, eschewed social media — he primarily used a flip phone. Friends described him as a movie buff, basketball fan and car aficionado.

But when it came to his wife’s devotion to sharing their life online, she said he was all in. “I have the most supportive husband who encourages me to do whatever I love,” she told a lifestyle blog.

Off camera, they maintained traditional separations of duties, said a person familiar with their family dynamics. Ms. Miller oversaw the daily care of the children, and Mr. Miller focused on his business, which they rarely discussed.

She had visited his office only once, and she met his business partner just three times — including, most recently, beside her husband’s grave.

‘People who can lose everything’

Brandon Miller developed commercial and residential projects in TriBeCa, Harlem and the Meatpacking District. He appeared to be a successful businessman in a city filled with them.

Yet by last fall, he was under so much pressure that when he attended a business meeting in a Midtown high rise, according to three people familiar with what happened, Mr. Miller sat at a conference table and began to weep.

He was in a financial free-fall that confidants are now struggling to piece together.

Mr. Miller began working in real estate a few years after graduating from Brown University, joining his father’s firm. Early in his marriage, the company developed a residential building in TriBeCa, and Mr. Miller acquired Unit 3 — the penthouse — for his family.

He and his father also bought two connecting lots in the Hamptons, one on the water and one behind it. They built homes on both, and sold one on the open market. Mr. Miller kept the other — a lavish home with expansive grounds that easily accommodated sit-down dinners for 60 friends.

The homes acquired from his father’s firm allowed the Millers to live as if they were mega-millionaires.

But Mr. Miller’s primary focus was commercial development. In a typical project, he raised money from investors to secure a long-term lease on a parcel of land before commissioning architects to plan a building. Once permits were in place, he sold the lease, the building plan and its permits to another developer for a profit, or took on more debt to cover construction costs.

Even when such projects go smoothly, the work can require developers to leverage many assets to secure loans that will carry them through the process.

“You’re dealing with people who can lose everything,” said Jay Neveloff, a real estate lawyer in New York.

Mr. Miller’s father, Michael Miller, managed that risk for many years, but his assets were highly leveraged when he died unexpectedly in 2016. His company and survivors were hit with lawsuits.

After his father’s death, Mr. Miller took over the company, alongside his father’s former partner. But soon, the pandemic made a challenging business even more difficult, as the city’s real estate market plunged. And while the residential market rebounded, the demand for office space did not return to prepandemic levels.

Mr. Miller found himself in a financial crunch. In 2021, near the bottom of the pandemic market, he sold the family’s TriBeCa home for just over $9 million, according to city records. The family set their sights on living uptown, in the type of co-op building that Mr. Miller had grown up in. But buying on the Upper East Side would have required significant cash.

Instead, they rented a 4,382-square-foot, five-bedroom apartment on the corner of Park Avenue and East 71st Street, according to court records — keeping up appearances for $47,000 per month. They decorated with rented furniture for which they paid $180,000 for one year, according to a lawsuit filed this spring, and $12,000 per month after the first year.

If this was downsizing, it wasn’t enough.

Mr. Miller stopped paying some of the family’s bills, including, according to a lawsuit, the maintenance and docking fees for their Van Dutch speedboat — a frequent backdrop for late-night parties shared on Instagram. Such models generally sell for more than $1 million.

And he leveraged the family’s prize asset, the Hamptons home, piling one mortgage atop another. He took out a $6.1 million loan from a conventional bank. Then, records show, he arranged another $2 million mortgage from a company that advertised cash loans that close in less than 24 hours.

The Millers continued to entertain in high style. In August 2022, they hosted a “Love Boat” party at Duryea’s , a beachfront restaurant in Montauk. Ms. Miller posed for photos with friends in a sleek white dress.

But Mr. Miller’s desperation was growing. A few weeks later, he borrowed yet more money against the house: a $2 million mortgage from a lender in Naples, Fla., facilitated by a family friend, Ryan Nivakoff , who contributed cash to the loan, according to public records and three people familiar with the Millers’ finances. Mr. Nivakoff declined to comment.

None of this was apparent to Ms. Miller’s online audience. In a video posted by Hamptons Magazine last July, Ms. Miller, in a strapless summer dress, answered questions about her preferred hot spots. Chicest shopping? “Chanel, East Hampton,” Ms. Miller answered.

A fateful meeting

By the fall of 2023, Mr. Miller could no longer hide the strain. His friends, aware of both his family’s expensive lifestyle and the sluggish real estate market, assumed he was struggling with debt.

Three of them arranged an intervention of sorts, according to three people familiar with the meeting.

The day before the meeting, the friends spoke by phone to discuss their approach. As they did, one of them searched the internet for a property that Mr. Miller was ostensibly developing in Brooklyn. The friend had invested $1 million in the project and had encouraged several colleagues to invest an additional $500,000 in all.

What he found online was alarming: The property had been purchased more than a month earlier by a developer with no connection to Mr. Miller.

Mr. Miller arrived at the meeting looking glum, according to three people familiar with what happened. He had just visited his father’s grave on the seventh anniversary of his death — an event from which those close to Brandon say he never fully recovered.

The friend who had given him money for the Brooklyn project told Mr. Miller that he felt misled and angry.

Mr. Miller broke down in tears. He insisted he had not done anything wrong but lamented that he had let his friend down.

The friend became teary-eyed and walked out. After a 15-year friendship, he and Mr. Miller never spoke again.

Reached for comment, the friend said their fractured relationship and Mr. Miller’s death have devastated him, and he otherwise asked for privacy. He has told others that he believed Mr. Miller had sincerely intended to use his money as a business investment before the deal went awry. Then, he believed, Mr. Miller let his financial burdens cloud his judgment.

Mr. Miller’s business troubles did not abate. He took over a land lease near the High Line in Manhattan that would require annual payments of more than $2 million, according to a person familiar with the transaction. He immediately borrowed $1.5 million against it, according to public filings and people familiar with the transaction.

Within months, Mr. Miller fell behind in making the lease payments, Benny Barmapov, the landowner, said in an interview.

The pressure intensified when a private equity firm that had lent Mr. Miller’s company $36 million to help finance a development tried to collect on the overdue repayment.

At home, creditors were demanding money too. The marina that serviced the Millers’ boat sued for $55,000. The furniture rental company claimed in a lawsuit that he owed $100,000 in fees and had refused to return $64,000 in borrowed furniture.

Although his friends could sense something was wrong, Ms. Miller has said she was unaware of the family’s financial crisis, according to two people familiar with her thinking.

In January she was quoted in The Times , extolling the benefits of an $800 facial over filler injections and plastic surgery. “This makes you feel like your face doesn’t need that stuff,” Ms. Miller said, “if you’re truly committing to going every week or every other week.”

A canceled vacation

Earlier this year, the Millers were invited to spend a few days in the Bahamas at the home of Mr. Nivakoff, the friend who had helped underwrite one of Mr. Miller’s mortgages. But as the trip approached, Mr. Nivakoff wanted Mr. Miller to tell his wife about the debt or forget about the trip, according to two people with knowledge of the discussion.

Mr. Miller canceled the trip, but Mr. Nivakoff did not relent.

In May, he called Ms. Miller directly, according to two people she told, and informed her that her husband owed him money. Her family, Mr. Nivakoff told her, was broke. Her house was carrying several mortgages, including one he had invested in.

Ms. Miller confronted her husband and asked to see their financial documents. He arranged a call with a lawyer to reassure her and eventually persuaded her that everything was under control.

Even then, their financial straits were growing more perilous. In early June, he borrowed $208,000 against the house from a company offering short-term loans. He never paid it back, according to the lender.

Later that month, the family had plans to travel to Europe, but Mr. Miller told his wife he had to stay home to close a deal that would help their financial situation, according to three people familiar with the discussion. He encouraged her and the children to go without him — after all, he told her, the trip was already paid for.

Ms. Miller took their daughters abroad and posted photographs from Spain and Italy. Only later did they learn the trip had not been paid for; after her credit card was declined, her travel agent had to guarantee the hotel bill would be paid.

On June 28, Mr. Miller texted his wife to tell her the deal intended to ease their money crisis had closed, according to two people familiar with the situation.

But he also reached out to at least one friend that week for a loan that should have been pocket change for someone like him: $1,000, according to two people aware of the request. On June 29, he attended a polo match and barbecue in the Hamptons.

On June 30, the police were notified that a carbon monoxide alarm had gone off at the Millers’ home. Emergency medical workers found Mr. Miller unconscious in a white Porsche Carrera that he had rigged to poison himself, a Suffolk County law enforcement official said. Rescue workers found a photo of him, his wife and their children in the car.

Mr. Miller was rushed to a hospital and placed on life support.

In an email left for his wife, Mr. Miller admitted he had lied. The business deal he hoped would save them had fallen apart, he said.

He expressed his love for his wife and children. He wrote that he believed he was doing what was best for them — the note mentioned two life insurance policies totaling about $15 million. He wrote that he had struggled against dark feelings for years.

In a graveside ceremony attended by family and a small circle of friends, he was laid to rest next to his father.

The dismantling of their dream life began almost immediately. A mortgage lender sued Ms. Miller for $800,000 in missed payments and interest. The Miller Time was repossessed. And the “Mama and Tata” Instagram account was pulled offline.

If you are having thoughts of suicide, call or text 988 to reach the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline in the United States, or go to SpeakingOfSuicide.com/resources for a list of additional resources. Go here for resources outside the United States.

Lauren Hirsch contributed reporting. Susan C. Beachy and Kitty Bennett contributed research.

Katherine Rosman covers newsmakers, power players and individuals making an imprint on New York City. More about Katherine Rosman

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Guided by Hand-Drawn Maps: Nostalgic for a time before ubiquitous connectivity, a writer trekked across Switzerland using maps made by people he met along the way .

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Why J Balvin Invited Will Smith to Join His Coachella Set: 'A Mistake Cannot Define You'

"I felt his pain because I was going through a similar situation when I felt that some part of the world was against me for mistakes," Balvin said

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J Balvin feels a special connection to Will Smith .

In a new Rolling Stone interview published on Tuesday, Aug. 13, the "Mi Gente" singer, 39, revealed why he was so eager to include Smith, 55, in his Coachella set in April.

"My inner child was screaming to have him in my show because there was no one better than him," he told the outlet.

Balvin brought Smith out onstage during his alien-themed UFO set at Coachella, where the Oscar-winner performed his 1997 hit "Men in Black" from the film of the same name. The two performed the song's famous dance moves side-by-side while Smith rapped in-character as Agent J from the movie.

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According to Balvin, it took some work to convince Smith to join him onstage, but he persevered until the actor said yes.

"I told him my vision. He said, ‘Give me a week.’ And I kept pressuring, man," he said. "I kept sending him pictures of me praying, until he called and said he was down, and it was a beautiful moment to see us together, man."

Balvin also revealed that he feels "connected" to Smith, whom he describes as his "idol."

He said, "Will Smith has always been one of my biggest idols. Period. I feel really connected with him. You cannot judge a person for some mistakes."

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In 2022, Smith was banned from attending the Oscars for 10 years after he slapped Chris Rock because the host made a joke about his wife, Jada Pinkett-Smith . Balvin told the outlet that he understood how the King Richard star felt in the months following the incident.

"A mistake cannot define who you are because if it’s like that, we all are bad," he said.

Balvin added, “[With] what happened with Will Smith, I felt his pain because I was going through a similar situation when I felt that some part of the world was against me for mistakes."

The Colombian singer is most likely referring to his 2021 music video for "Perra," with Tokischa, which sparked controversy and accusations of "misogynoir" for its depictions of Black women on leashes.

At the time, Balvin apologized for the video , saying in an Instagram Story, "I want to say sorry to whomever felt offended, especially to the Black community. That's not who I am."

Balvin noted to Rolling Stone that feels both he and Smith are in better places now.

"I'm happy right now for his new season, too," he said. "As I'm having a new season, he's having his new season, and I salute that."

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Rep. Andy Biggs: Kamala Harris Gives A New Definition To The Term Artificial Intelligence

• Fox Across America

Arizona Republican Congressman Andy Biggs joins Fox Across America With Jimmy Failla to shed light on Vice President Kamala Harris’ willingness to shift her positions on certain policies now that she is the Democratic Party’s presidential nominee.

“She is the deep fake. I mean, but she’s not there. I mean, I don’t know how else to say it. I mean, you just can you can go back to when she was in San Francisco. You can go back when she was on the campaign trail and she got no votes. And, you know, four years ago, she had to drop out before Iowa, before the first Iowa caucus she was gone. So when you look at it, you say, this person, she can’t communicate. And if there’s anything behind the eyes, a reference to The Who, we don’t know what it is because she just can’t tell you. I mean, there’s just lights on, nobody’s home. I don’t even know if there’s lights on.”

Rep. Biggs and Jimmy also discuss President Biden’s lack of actual authority in this current administration. Listen to the podcast to hear what else they talked about!

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