The New York Jets announced Monday that Casey Johnson, a daughter of the team?s owner, Woody Johnson, had died in Los Angeles. The cause of the death was undetermined. Ms. Johnson was 30.
Ms. Johnson, whose great-great-grandfather was a co-founder of the Johnson & Johnson health products manufacturer, grew up on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan. She and her socialite cohorts, including Paris and Nicky Hilton, the hotel heiresses, were featured in the 2002 documentary, ?The It Girls.?
"The Johnson family is mourning its tragic loss, and asks for privacy during this very difficult time," the Jets said in a statement.
Ms. Johnson?s death capped several months in which she drew tabloid headlines for her tempestuous relationships and public behavior. In a rambling, racy Web video last month, Ms. Johnson and Tila Tequila, a reality television star, announced their engagement. The couple, never bashful in their displays of affection, became favorites of the paparazzi.
?This is a very heartbreaking time for me,? said Ms. Tequila, on Twitter, requesting privacy ?as I deal with the loss of my Fiancé Casey Johnson.? She added that her ?heart is shredded.?
Diagnosed with diabetes as a child, Ms. Johnson wrote a book with her father and mother, Sale Johnson, in 1994, ?Managing Your Child?s Diabetes? (Mastermedia). Her illness drove her father?s passion for treating the disease, and he serves as chairman of the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation.
Ms. Johnson is survived by her parents, two sisters and a daughter, Ava-Monroe, whom she adopted from Kazakhstan in 2007. The news of her death was first reported by TMZ.com.
The Johnson family name is one of the most prominent in the country, with interests in sports, health care, business and philanthropy through the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. Mr. Johnson bought the Jets football team in 2000 for $635 million.
Ms. Johnson appeared to have an ambivalence toward the fame her lineage brought her. ?You really have to get to know why someone wants to be your friend. I?ve learned that the hard way,? she said in a 2007 interview with Life/Style Television. ?I?m Casey Johnson. I?m not, ?The Johnson & Johnson Girl.??
Ms. Johnson?s cousin, Jamie, produced the documentary ?Born Rich? in 2004, in which he interviewed 11 other heirs to similarly vast fortunes, exploring the ways in which inherited wealth had often been, in effect, a curse on their later lives.
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