Estée Lauder exec Kendal Ascher’s cause of death revealed — and it’s linked to cosmetic fillers

NY Post ^ | Published June 16, 2026 | By Anna Young and Amanda Woods

[dennisw]

A senior Estée Lauder executive who died in his husband’s arms moments after feeling lightheaded inside their $2.8 million New York City apartment suffered a pulmonary embolism triggered by cosmetic fillers.

Kendal Ascher, 56, “suffered acute respiratory failure due to a pulmonary embolism connected to a foreign material after getting cosmetic filler injections,” the city’s medical examiner said Tuesday.

Ascher’s Feb. 25 death was ruled accidental in the report, which was given to his loved ones over the weekend.

Estée Lauder executive Kendal Ascher died suddenly in husband’s arms in their $2.8M NYC apartment Ascher’s grieving husband, William Howe, told the Daily Mail that he wasn’t aware of his husband, who was vice president of the beauty company, using cosmetic fillers before his death.

Howe, 63, said that he got Botox, which is not a filler, with his husband just five months before he died.

“It’s just profoundly sad,” the widow said, “I witnessed it, it was immediate. The cause was secondary.”

Howe previously told the outlet that his spouse of four months went limp in the early hours as they desperately tried to reach the bedroom of their Chelsea home.

[telescope115]

I guess it would be Christian to show sympathy, but it’s hard to have any.

Even if this were a straight couple. They obviously were so far removed from the normal environment of common folk like us. We are nothing but ants to these people.

[ClearCase_guy]

“It’s just profoundly sad,” the widow said

Gender confusion increases.

[stanne]

They’re atteibuting this to fillers already? They haven’t been able to attribute one covid Stroke to y
The vax? Hmm

[telescope115]

Now, “went limp” could mean a few different things…”

[Albion Wilde]

This appears to be his "official" corporate photo:

[FlyingEagle]

Words that do not go together - “his husband’s arms”.

[faithhopecharity]

it took me 3 reads (I am slow today) but this appears to have been a homosexual couple. There is a lot of vanity in such people (vanity of course isn’t limited to homos but it does seem to run pretty high there).

I am not in favor of “vanity surgeries” botox or silicon or dickectomies or transitioning surgeries or whatever krap procedures they have nowadays. Too much money is being made from (in 95% of the cases, anyway) non-essential medical procedures. These doctors may have a gold mine but i sure wish that (the good ones amongst them) could be weaned over to genuinely helpful work ... whether it may be almost any kind of “legitimate medical” surgeries— or just sweeping the floor in the hospital.

[Jeff Vader]

$2.8M is probably a crappy apartment in NYC

[goo goo g'joob]

in his husband’s arms

I would have had points taken off for grammar

[dforest]

“the widow said” uh blech gag

[Ann Archy]

Amen.

[Harmless Teddy Bear]

“It's just profoundly sad,” the widow said, “I witnessed it, it was immediate. The cause was secondary.”

Widow?

The correct term is widower for a male.

Like a tiger robbed of her whelks.

[AFB-XYZ]

Stopped reading at “his husband’s arms”.

[dforest]

I like your tagline.

[OrangeHoof]

A senior Estée Lauder executive who died in his husband’s arms

Blink Blink

Thought you could sneak that by us, huh?

[sockmonkey]

https://radiologybusiness.com/topics/medical-imaging/magnetic-resonance-imaging-mri/imaging-woman-facial-fillers-prompts-questions-about-whether-they-actually-dissolve-over-time

This is a 33 year old woman

[ridesthemiles]

SAYS IT ALL :)

[Secret Agent Man]

Common sense answers avoided

[Jamestown1630]

LOL!

To be fair, the writer probably didn’t know the difference between ‘widow’ and ‘widower’.

Anybody can be a ‘journalist’ now, and they don’t need no stinkin’ editors.

[bdfromlv]

went limp trying to get to the bedroom!