Nick Radoi broke the news Sunday that his girlfriend, influencer Madalina Apostol, had died.
Radoi, a millionaire businessman, described the death of Apostol, 40, as “a great pain” and “a tragedy that is hard to put into words.” The mother of three, who divided her time between Los Angeles and Mexico, died by suicide after privately battling severe physical and mental health struggles, he said.
Apostol had fought an autoimmune condition that caused debilitating pain, Radoi explained. She had also faced depression so serious that she sought psychiatric treatment in her native Romania in the months before her death. The combined toll of these illnesses, he said, ultimately overwhelmed her.
“This is a cruel disease and only those who have ever had or are dealing with it can truly understand what it means,” Radoi said of her suffering. “The disease came to take over her thoughts and her soul.”
The tragedy cast a heartbreaking light on a birthday message Apostol had shared with her 38,000 followers just weeks earlier. On her 40th birthday early last month, she posted what appeared to be a declaration of resilience, quoting the opening of Prince Hamlet’s famous monologue from Shakespeare’s play.
“I finally have the answer to the question that has followed me for so long: ‘To be or not to be?'” she wrote at the time.
“I choose to be, because the alternative was never my destiny,” Apostol added in the post, which carried an optimism that would not hold.
In her final days, Apostol had grown more private online. Yet the day before her death, she shared one last post: photographs from a decade ago showing her two sons heading to school. She was mother to a 10-year-old daughter and two adult sons, ages 22 and 19, who had appeared alongside her in the glamorous lifestyle content she built her following around.
Radoi remembered Apostol as a woman of deep faith and generous spirit. “Madalina was an extraordinary person, a loving mother, a good-hearted person and with a deep faith in God,” he said. “She was loved, encouraged, supported and supported until the very last moment.”
Apostol’s death followed a pattern of hidden struggle behind a polished public image that her online presence had cultivated. The contrast between her defiant birthday vow and its outcome underscored the isolation that can accompany both chronic pain and depression, conditions her partner said only fellow sufferers can truly grasp.