NEW YORK, Jul 14, 2002/ FW/ -- The untimely death of Kevyn Aucoin, Hollywood's master make-up artist and best-selling author of several books on beauty, was the result of a addiction to painkillers, reports this week's issue of New York Magazine, on-sale Monday, July 15, 2002.

When Aucoin died last month, after years of struggle with a painful pituitary condition, it was reported that complications from his condition killed him.

But according to New York Magazine, Aucoin had become addicted to the prescription medications -- Vicodin, Lorcet, Xanax and Soma -- he took to relieve the constant pain and insomnia caused by his condition.

The drug use eventually led to massive liver damage and kidney failure, the magazine reports.

New York reports that just three months before his death, Aucoin and his partner, Jeremy Antunes, who Aucoin called his husband, underwent couples therapy at a treatment center outside of Phoenix in an attempt to overcome Aucoin's spiraling addiction.

In December, Aucoin collapsed on a shoot for a Cher video. "I grabbed him and hugged him and I said, 'You have got to do something,'" Cher told New York.

"The last eight months of our relationship was us fighting about this issue," model Joanne Russell told New York. "One time, I tried to take the pills away from him, and he got angry and said, 'You're not my mother!' But I had no idea -- it would never have occurred to me in a million years -- that Kevyn would die."

New York Magazine talks to Aucoin's closest friends and family about his final days, his attempts at recovery just months before his death, and reports on how death has ignited a battle among his parents and his partner.