Leonardo DiCaprio is doing his best to hide from the paparazzi after his name became entangled in the suicide case involving Katie Cleary’s husband, Andrew Stern. While at a shooting range in the San Fernando Valley, Stern, 40, shot himself in the head. His friends claim Cleary’s flirting with the actor had a lot to do with why he ended his life.

On Thursday night, while in New York, DiCaprio wore shades and a cap while in the backseat of his car, and tried to hide from cameramen, but to no avail. He has not publicly commented on the tragic scenario.

(View photos here.)

Last month, while at the Gotham Club during the Cannes Film Festival in France, Cleary, an “America’s Next Top Model” alum and “Deal or No Deal” model, was photographed getting close to the Hollywood hunk, and at one point he whispered something in her ear. The scene looked quite intimate, but Clearly’s rep tells TMZ the photos were a non-issue, and that she and Stern split eight months ago and Stern filed for divorce in April.

Friends of Stern, however, say the pictures really affected him, and while he loved Cleary, 32, he was embarrassed by her constant traveling and getting close to celebrities.

Additionally, TMZ reports that Stern had been battling depression lately, after experiencing drastic mood swings from taking human growth hormones. He headed to a Beverly Hills health and wellness center two years ago because he was “feeling lethargic and had a waning libido.” After a year, he could no longer deal with the hormones and stopped cold turkey, which led to depression.

In addition to the hormones, his business was failing, which affected his marriage. In 2002, he founded Seed Corn Advertising and went on to producing movies, launching restaurants, real estate ventures and "brokering exotic cars," according to an obituary posted on Performance Marketing Insider by a business friend, Pace Lattin. Stern and Clearly were married in July 2010.

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