August Busch IV Confession Offers More Heartbreak Than Answers

Are we the only ones not sure of what to make of August Busch IV's confession today to the Post-Dispatch?

Speaking publicly for the first time since his 27-year-old girlfriend, Adrienne Martin, was found dead in his home last month, Busch suggests that she may have died from Trazodone, a drug used to to treat insomnia and depression. Busch says that Martin's ex-husband told him that she was taking the medication and that "for some reason" she may have took too many the night she died.

Martin's ex-husband, a physician by the name of Kevin Martin, counters that it was Busch who told him that Adrienne was taking Trazodone and that she should not take such a drug because of a heart condition she had.

In any case, the official cause of Adrienne Martin's death won't be known until the result of a medical examination later this month. In the meantime, Kevin Martin and Busch remain oddly friendly, with Kevin allowing the eight-year-old son he had with Adrienne to spend time with Busch.

Even more interesting, perhaps, is how today's news confirms just how miserable August Busch IV's life has become.

Perhaps Busch IV is just providing some public relations spin with his confession, though he sure sounds sincere. The 46-year-old former beer baron talks about how he fell into a deep depression after InBev hostilely acquired Anheuser-Busch in 2008 during his stint as CEO of the brewery that bears his family's name. In fact, Busch admits that he even entered rehab in early 2010 to deal with his depression.

Adrienne Martin, he says, was a godsend who jostled him from his despair.

"She was the only girl I've ever been with that I didn't want to have someone on the side," he says. "You know, I'm this notorious bachelor who always wanted someone on the side, but I didn't with Adrienne."

The saddest part of the story, however, comes at the end when Busch IV talks about how Martin's death has somewhat mended the icy relationship with his father August Busch III, who served as chairman of A-B and helped usher the sale to InBev.

"Dad and I are talking, which is good," says Busch IV. "I love you, that's what I told him. I love you from the bottom of my heart."

Busch IV says his dad responded, "I love you, too."

Jeez, guys. I think I just shed a tear in my beer.