The first reality TV star in France revealed thanks to her participation in “Loft Story”, Loana was found dead on Wednesday at the age of 48 at her home in Nice, after a life marked by numerous setbacks between drugs, depression and suicide attempts.
The body of the ex-star was found at the end of the day and an investigation was opened “in search of the causes of death”, indicated the Nice prosecutor, Damien Martinelli, who specified that the death dates back “several days”.
“The presence of a wound at the back of the head and bruising in the lumbar region” suggest a “fall backwards,” he said this Thursday.
France and Switzerland discovered Loana Petrucciani in April 2001 when she was preparing to live with other anonymous people for ten weeks, 24 hours a day, under the gaze of M6 cameras.
The success of “Loft” was immediate and phenomenal and, even today, the show is considered cult and even inspired a series for Amazon’s streaming platform, Prime Video, in 2024.
“Iconic figure of the first season of “Loft Story”, she will forever remain a personality who profoundly marked an entire generation of viewers,” reacted M6 in a press release sent to AFP, praising “her spontaneity, her sensitivity and her authenticity”.
Born in August 1977 in Cannes, Loana had effectively become a figure on the program very quickly when her antics with another candidate, Jean-Edouard Lipa, were filmed in a swimming pool.
The indignation is then at its height and the show is accused of all evils, but in a few moments it becomes a star of the small screen.
“Let us never forget that behind her image was a sensitive and extremely intelligent woman,” Alexia Laroche-Joubert, producer of “Loft Story,” said on Instagram.
First successes
When Loana wins the show, she walks down the Champs-Élysées like football players. What followed was a tour of television sets, the cover of Elle magazine, with a glamorous shot by photographer to the stars Jean-Baptiste Mondino and the publication of his autobiography a few months later.
In “She called Miette”, a best-selling book, she lifts the veil on her difficult childhood and returns to her personal drama when, at 19, she entrusted her little daughter Mindy to social services.
At the same time, she tried different career paths: model for Jean Paul Gaultier, stylist for a clothing line bearing her name, TV presenter on cable channels…
But the fairy tale quickly turns into a nightmare. Loana gradually leaves the world of show business and begins a long personal decline, which sees her regularly make the front page of the news section.
Descent into hell
In 2009, she was discovered unresponsive at her home after being attacked by two men, she claims. A few years later, she attempted suicide which left her in a coma. Those around her then revealed that she had already tried several times to end her life.
In May 2011, she made a timid return by participating in season 2 of “Angels of Reality TV” but her health concerns prevented her from being the godmother of season 4 of the program a year later.
From 2020, his life is nothing more than a succession of hospitalizations, psychiatric episodes and violence suffered. In particular, she shares photos of her body covered in bruises on social networks, accusing her ex-companion of having hit her.
She was also interned in a psychiatric clinic after an attack of dementia on the streets of Paris. Other hospital stays will follow for overdoses or trauma linked to discomfort.
In 2024, on the set of “Touche pas à mon poste”, a visibly traumatized Loana, heavily medicated and struggling to express herself, recounts an extremely violent rape that she recently suffered and which left her in a state of shock.
“The truth is that we are all a little responsible. Because we all watched. Because we all commented. Because we have all, at one point, looked the other way when things got too hard. She embodied raw innocence in an unforgiving world. And we were unable to live up to what she gave us,” responded Benjamin Castaldi, presenter of “Loft Story” on Instagram.
