Public tributes flow but no word from former husband

Scott Miller (centre).

As public tributes and tears flowed yesterday for Charlotte Dawson, one name remained absent - her ex-husband, Scott Miller.

The Kiwi star, who had been battling depression, was last seen alive on Friday, the same day Miller celebrated his 39th birthday. Dawson was found dead in her luxury Sydney Harbour apartment the next morning.

A week earlier, just before Miller - a former Olympic swimmer - appeared in a "tell-all" TV interview, Dawson said she still loved him but wasn't sure if she would be "strong enough" to tune in.

Image 1 of 15: Charlotte Dawson showcases a design by Romance Was Born as part of the Diet Coca-Cola Little Black Dress show at Rosemount Sydney Fashion Festival 2009. Photo / Getty Images

"I continue to fight my depression - it's a bitch of a thing - and I fear watching something like this as it's the most painful time in my life," she told Fairfax writer Jo Casamento.

"I will be with a friend, but I am not looking forward to it ... It might not be good for me."

Miller recently spent five months in drug rehabilitation after a series of criminal convictions.

Yesterday, his lawyer, Greg Goold, said Miller would be unlikely to speak publicly about his ex-wife's death.

"If it's in relation to Charlotte Dawson I doubt very much whether we would want to comment at all," he said.

"I know that from a conversation I had yesterday with someone in his family that they were all pretty sad about it. And it was a tragedy, but I don't think he would be saying anything."

The brief but stormy marriage ended in 2000 after reports Miller was taking drugs and had been filmed having sex with another woman.

Dawson became pregnant in 1999, but they decided she should have an abortion because the due date clashed with the Sydney Olympics.

"Everything Scott had done was leading up to this moment and nothing could stand in his way," she told Woman's Day magazine in 2012.

As Dawson's fight against her inner demons played out in full public view, so too did Miller's descent into crime and drug addiction.

Last month, he received a 12-month suspended sentence for possessing methamphetamine.

Friend Jai Evans met Dawson last week and said she had been affected by the interview but seemed optimistic about the future. They were developing a homewares range together.

The relationship with Miller left deep scars. Dawson told Casamento that the marriage started her depression, and continued to be its biggest trigger.

"To me it was well over 10 years ago, but truthfully this marriage broke me to the core," she said.

"It destroyed me to the point I had to go overseas for five years and rebuild my life from scratch ... My entire being was broken and that was the beginning of the end for me."