Picture Illustration by Luis G. Rendon/The Each day Beast/Instagram
The physique of American former royal Kasia Gallanio was discovered curled up along with her lapdog, Honey, within the mattress of her luxurious apartment on the Spanish coast on Might 29. Information studies within the following days instructed she was suspected of struggling a drug overdose, however shut pals have informed The Each day Beast they assume that is an unlikely state of affairs for a health fanatic who by no means touched narcotics.
The controversial declare didn't floor within the press in Spain the place the investigation was being carried out, however in newspapers in France, the house of her 73-year-old ex-husband, Sheikh Abdelaziz bin Khalifa Al Thani, the uncle of the emir of Qatar and the Gulf state’s former minister of oil and finance.
The royals had been engaged in a bitter battle for custody of their daughters, 17-year-old twins and a 15-year-old who had reportedly accused her father of sexual misconduct and was interviewed by officers from France’s Brigade for the Safety of Minors (BPM).
Le Parisien newspaper reported that the youthful daughter had accused her father of “incestuous aggression within the paternal residence from the ages of 9 to fifteen.” In keeping with excerpts from a police criticism shared by Gallanio’s French lawyer, Sabrina Boesch, the teenager mentioned that her father made her sleep in his mattress from a younger age. “From after I was small, I slept in my father’s mattress,” she reportedly mentioned, including that her mother and father had separate sleeping rooms. “However after my mom left, it grew to become an obligation.” French police engaged on behalf of the Childhood Social Help (ASE) are investigating the matter, in keeping with a number of French information shops and Boesch.
Gallanio, who was born in Los Angeles, met the royal in Paris after he was exiled there after an tried coup in Qatar. She transformed to Islam shortly after they married, however the marriage didn’t final and so they divorced in 2012. The twins lived along with her in Spain and the youthful daughter lived in Paris through the more and more brutal custody battle. In current months, Gallanio posted in regards to the ordeal on her Instagram web page. “Kids ought to NEVER be used as victims or pawns when the mother and father can’t get alongside. The daddy of my kids Prince Abdulaziz Khalifa Al Thani has not paid one cent for little one assist for over a 12 months now to assist me assist and lift our youngsters,” she wrote March 19 alongside a photograph of a newspaper clipping. “For my part that is outrageous, unfair, embarrassing and an actual disgrace. Regardless of on what monetary stage or standing you might be. It’s actually immoral as a result of once more the youngsters are the casualty. Nevertheless it’s extra humiliating when you're a billionaire prince of QATAR.” Sheikh Abdelaziz has by no means publicly acknowledged the accusation, both to substantiate or deny it.
The Each day Beast has spoken to a variety of Gallanio’s shut pals—on and off the report—in regards to the princess’s life-style, and whether or not or not she abused medication or alcohol, or was on prescription meds. Nobody in her quick circle believes she died from substance abuse. They are saying she didn’t use medication and was an off-the-cuff “glass of crimson wine within the night” drinker with a low tolerance for alcohol and an obsession about her food plan and determine. “I'm one hundred pc certain she didn't die of an overdose,” her buddy and confidant Louis Spagnuolo, an American entrepreneur, informed The Each day Beast. “And she or he didn't commit suicide. She would have by no means left her daughters, and he or she didn't use medication.”
Spagnuolo says Galliano, a reasonable working towards Muslim, was a well being and health freak, spending day-after-day devoted to her wellness by way of prayer, meditation, train, vitamin dietary supplements, and varied magnificence remedies—a lot of which she documented on her Instagram web page—and was not one who would use any type of narcotic. She additionally frequently had cryoablation remedy, in keeping with her social media, which can be utilized to deal with any variety of illnesses, each aesthetic and medical, together with most cancers.
Gallanio’s life in Marbella, the place she lived between her apartment and a beachfront villa, was demonstrably enviable—or at the least that's the impression she curated on her social media for her greater than half 1,000,000 followers. She was an influencer who was the star of the glitterati scene, a frequent attendee at lavish events, a continuing seen lunch date with girlfriends, and an everyday on the resort metropolis’s spas and sweetness farms. She was additionally beneficiant, her pals insist, typically making a gift of her costly clothes and designer purses after she had used them simply as soon as. As with many trendy stars, being photographed twice in the identical ensemble is a foul look, her pals say. However beneath the glitter she was simply human, says Spagnuolo. “She didn’t act like a princess,” Spagnuolo mentioned. “She solely had love for everybody round her.”
A report within the Each day Mail quoting her “secret boyfriend”—the nightclub supervisor and singer Bruce Baps—claimed that Gallanio had just lately been robbed and crushed up, and that she feared for her life. Pals near her mentioned that they had not heard of the alleged break-in. The Marbella police division informed The Each day Beast that there isn't any report of a break-in on the luxurious condominium complicated, which is one in all Puerto Banús’ prime properties with excessive safety and ample surveillance cameras. Makes an attempt to make clear the knowledge with Baps had been unsuccessful since he mentioned he had spoken completely with the Mail and wouldn't give different interviews.
Gallanio’s pals additionally say that she was shaken by the loss of life of her shut buddy Ahmed Ashmawi, a Saudi playboy who additionally lived in Marbella and died just lately after an extended battle with most cancers. She had even tattooed his identify on her physique, in keeping with her social media posts, and marked his loss of life with a black field on her Instagram web page.
Galliano's lawyer Boesch informed The Each day Beast that her shopper was devastated by a current choice by the French courtroom to award custody of the daughters to the prince. “I believe that, above all, she has died of grief,” she mentioned. However her pals didn't agree. “Another person determined it was time for her to die,” a buddy of Gallanio’s informed The Each day Beast. “She didn't make that call.”
The preliminary outcomes of Gallanio’s post-mortem had been inconclusive, in keeping with the Marbella coroner. Toxicology studies might take an extra two weeks and even then, it could be laborious to decipher her time of loss of life or different circumstances. However her pals hope that the investigation into her loss of life doesn't finish along with her closing post-mortem. “They want to have a look at who had the means and the motive to need her lifeless,” the buddy mentioned. “That’s the place the reply to this thriller lies.”
Sheikh Abdelaziz’s French lawyer’s workplace informed The Each day Beast that he wouldn't be commenting on his ex-wife’s “tragic” loss of life till the ultimate post-mortem report is in.