"France has lost a great artist, but for us, it is above all a mother we have just lost," the film star's daughters wrote in tribute
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French film actress Nadia Farès has died, her family said, one week after she was found unconscious in a swimming pool in Paris. She was 57.
Farès' daughters confirmed her death to French news agency AFP on Friday, April 17.
"It is with immense sadness that we announce the passing of Nadia Farès this Friday," daughters Cylia and Shana Chasman said in a written statement to AFP, multiple outlets reported. "France has lost a great artist, but for us, it is above all a mother we have just lost."
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French newspaper Le Monde reported that Farès was pulled unconscious from a swimming pool at a private gym in Paris on Sunday, April 11. She suffered a cardiac arrest and went into a coma, and later died at the city's Pitié-Salpêtrière Hospital on Friday.
Officials have opened an investigation into her death, but no wrongdoing has been found at this point, authorities told Le Monde.
The actress shared in 2007 that she had undergone brain surgery due to an aneurysm, Le Monde reported.
Farès called her health condition "a ticking time bomb that needed to be treated urgently" at the time, the outlet reported. The star also revealed that she had undergone three heart surgeries.
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Farès, born in Marrakesh, Morocco, in 1968, rose to fame in the 2000s with roles in Mathieu Kassovitz’s The Crimson River, based on the Jean-Christophe Grangé novel of the same name.
She went on to star in other Hollywood films, including 2007's Storm Warning, as well as dozens of French movies.
According to Le Monde, Farès was scheduled to begin filming an upcoming action-comedy, which would have marked her debut as a director and screenwriter, in September 2026.
In an Instagram post shared on Saturday, April 18, Farès' daughter Cylia reflected on her death, writing that it was "a heartbreak I will never get over."
"It pains me to say goodbye, but mama, I will make you so proud,” she wrote in an emotional tribute. "I am so happy that we got even closer than we were before in your last few months. You understood me better than anyone and I don’t know how I will recover. People always say I’m mini you and that’s the best compliment."
"You were so loved and you were my role model, every achievement I had I was always so excited to tell you first because I knew how proud of me you would be," Cylia continued in part. "You were not only an amazing mom but my best friend. …I love you, please watch over me. You have shown me how fast life can change literally overnight. I will take that with me every day and make every day count for you."
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