Reality TV Winner Found Dead: Loana Petrucciani Was 48

Iconic French reality TV personality Loana Petrucciani has been found dead in her home in Nice. She was 48.

Petrucciani, the winner of the first season of Loft Story, was found dead at home on March 25, according to multiple reports, but is believed to have died “several days” before being discovered.

Police are investigating Petrucciani’s cause of death, noting that there was a wound found on the back of Petrucciani’s skull that could have been caused by a fall backwards. At this stage of the investigation, authorities noted in a press release that “there is no evidence to suggest the involvement of a third party in connection with the death.”

Petrucciani entered the spotlight in 2001 on Loft Story, the French take on Big Brother, winning the first season of the reality competition series.

Following her death, Alexia Laroche-Joubert, the CEO of Loft Story’s production company Banijay France, paid tribute to Petrucciani on Instagram. “It is with immense emotion that I learned of Loana’s passing,” she wrote in a post translated from its original French. “Our paths crossed 25 years ago, and I am honoured to have shared so many memories with her. I witnessed her successes and her struggles.”

Laroche-Joubert continued that her thoughts were with Petrucciani’s mother, Violette, her daughter, brother and “the other housemates who were part of this adventure,” concluding, “Let us never forget that behind her public image was a sensitive and extremely intelligent woman.”

Loft Story presenter Benjamin Castaldi also honored Petrucciani following her death. “There are some faces we never forget. And hers, Loana’s, is part of our collective history,” he wrote, in part, in a translated statement, praising Petrucciani for having “changed television forever… and maybe also our view on humans.”

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“Loana was not a character. She was a woman. A real one. With its cracks, its sweetness, its fragility in the open sky,” he continued, “And that’s precisely why we loved her.”

“But that’s also why we dropped her. We applauded her light… [and didn’t] her shadow,” he continued, adding, “Her authenticity has been consumed… without measuring the price she would pay. We’ve watched her live, love, fall… without ever really wondering who would pick her up after.”

“The truth is, we’re all a little responsible, because we all watched,” he went on, adding, “She embodied raw innocence in a world that didn’t forgive anything. And we couldn’t match what she gave us. …Behind the phenomenon… there was a woman.”