We Gave Everything to Liberzh: Family Mourns Dom-2 Star's Death

It has been almost two years since the death of one of the brightest participants of the TV project «Dom-2» — Liberzh Kpadonu, but contradictory rumors about the causes of her demise still circulate: allegedly she died after a medical operation, lay dead for more than a month, was unhappy and awaited death. UFA1.RU spoke with Liberzh«s mother, who told why she passed away and how the family still cannot recover from the loss of their only daughter.

Recall that Liberzh is the daughter of Benin native Gilbert Kpadonu and Russian woman Nadezhda, born in St. Petersburg, lived in Ufa for several years, engaged in dancing and singing, and at age 23 became a participant in the popular reality show «Dom-2». After leaving the project, she was involved in business, but fell seriously ill, and in spring 2024 her death was announced.

«I always said that I am the washerwoman-cook for my daughter, and for her soul, she has her dad. Jokingly, of course. In reality, we communicated a lot, talked almost every day,» recalls Nadezhda Kpadonu in a conversation with UFA1.RU. «We invested our whole lives in Liberzh. We saved, accumulated, prepared. And now all that remains. Gilbert is holding on only by his character. He goes to work, interacts with people, but he is tired, very tired.»

According to her, her husband had a special bond with their daughter. Liberzh herself, during her lifetime, also often spoke very warmly of her father. However, he was the last to learn that his daughter had participated in a TV project with a controversial reputation, criticized for its format and the shocking behavior of participants. According to Nadezhda, her daughter did not immediately tell her that she had gotten «on TV.»

«I myself did not watch this show, but people could have told me they saw my daughter on TV, so Liberzh warned me. But we didn»t tell dad for a long time. In September–October, Liberzh went on the project, and only on December 30, when the project showed a New Year«s concert, I sat Gilbert in front of the TV and explained everything to him. Liberzh performed the song »Hallelujah.« And Gilbert is a very, very religious person. He liked the song. Liberzh attended music school and could hit four octaves like it was nothing,» Nadezhda recounts.

Liberzh explained her decision to participate in «Dom-2» as an opportunity to start a music career. In one episode, she saw Gleb Zhemchugov, who was rapping at the time, and went to the casting to find out how to meet him and arrange a duet.

«The producers, seeing an unusual girl who could speak and held herself well in front of the cameras, quickly realized: they had to take her. They told her: »We won«t introduce you to Gleb, but if you participate in the project, you can meet him yourself.» They took her without any castings or auditions. Well, later, of course, it turned out that Gleb was quite the rapper,« says Liberzh»s mother.

The girl with an exotic appearance and a lively character won over the show«s viewers. Liberzh developed her own fan base, which watched the program exclusively for her. When she left the project, many migrated to her blog, where she talked about her life.

«All of Liberzh»s social media subscribers were so fiercely protective of her that if someone with negative comments appeared, she herself didn«t even have time to respond — her fans would pounce on the critics so quickly. She had a very good contingent [in her blog]. They stood up for her. After all, her blog was somewhat different from the social media of most media personalities. She would just go online and chat with her subscribers like with girlfriends. In the morning, she»d get up, start a recording, and say: «Well, girls, shall we have some coffee? What are we cooking today? Toss me a recipe,»« explains Nadezhda Kpadonu.

But among the participants of «Dom-2,» many disliked her. However, the show«s format implies conflicts and subsequent disputes, which give viewers fodder for discussion.

«I recently rewatched segments of »Dom-2« when [project participant Abigalova] Irina Aleksandrovna gathered others around her to expel Liberzh. But my daughter is truly a very strong person. Without any swearing, but very skillfully and harshly, with metal in her voice, she pointed out the others» sore spots. At that moment, most of the viewers switched to Liberzh«s side because, whatever anyone says, the audience is not blind and senses who is who. Irina Aleksandrovna understood that such a person could not be broken, but she and her friends gathered votes to expel Liberzh, and still the administrators kept her. Because she was bright,» Nadezhda is convinced.

But in «Dom-2,» Liberzh did not manage to, as the show«s motto went, »find her true love.« However, she even married one of the project participants — Yevgeny Rudnev.

«People like him feel like fish in water in »Dom-2.« I would like to say that their marriage was a sham, but good girls are always drawn to the wrong guys,» said Liberzh«s mother. »The most annoying thing is that she [after leaving the project] finally met a good man. A very worthy man, with a red diploma and a serious business, with a good sense of humor. Similar to my Gilbert. Liberzh probably intuitively already understood that she needed a man of that type.«

According to Nadezhda, on TV, quarrels with some colleagues reached such extremes that producers hesitated to air them. For instance, due to a conflict between Liberzh and Ilya Yabbarov, the help of the Benin embassy was almost needed. Nadezhda cites racial insults as the reason.

«Liberzh forwarded me recordings of what Ilya Yabbarov said to her off-camera,» recalls the mother of the TV show participant. «I then said: »Either you sue him, or I will do it myself.« She met with a lawyer, and he unequivocally said the case was a sure win. Later, she sent me screenshots from the correspondence with Yabbarov, where it»s clear how he got scared and asked not to file a complaint.«

Nadezhda explained that the Kpadonu family had previously faced rudeness due to the skin color of the family head. For example, back in Ufa, as a schoolgirl, Liberzh had to fight with other girls.

«In fact, at that time, skin color did not play a key role; it only served as a catalyst,» noted Liberzh«s mother. »The girls were simply too embarrassed to say that the reason was plain jealousy. One of them was in love with another school student who started talking to Liberzh. Of course, the appearance of a pretty biracial girl in the class immediately drew attention. Others started picking on Liberzh, insulting her over skin color. Apparently, they didn«t expect that a thin and fragile girl could fight back, but she just scattered them all.»

Nadezhda herself, before meeting Gilbert, only knew about his native Benin from textbooks. Meeting him, she saw an African in person for the first time. At that time, Nadezhda lived in Oktyabrsky (in Bashkortostan, Russia), where the mining institute sent foreign students for training.

«Gilbert was 25 years old, I was 22. My family had temporarily moved to barracks on the outskirts of the city in Zaitovo during renovations, and Gilbert with a friend and a girlfriend ended up there because they got lost while looking for the »Fountain« cinema in the center. I went out to the bus stop and heard shouting: »Miss! Miss!« They spoke half in Russian, half in English. My English is good. I looked at them and thought: »God, how scary,«» admitted Nadezhda.

Nevertheless, she agreed to escort the foreigners to the cinema, and while the whole group was making their way, Nadezhda and Gilbert started talking.

«After about 40 minutes, I realized that I really liked him. He was very thoughtful, you could see he pondered every phrase to make everything sound correct. And he speaks Russian, since it»s not his native language, not like most people, in a simple way, but beautifully, literately. He has a very interesting, competent speech. He hooked me precisely with his behavior, mind, intellect. In appearance, he and his friend from Madagascar seemed completely identical to me, both tall and slender. Later, Gilbert told me that for them, European girls all look the same, only with different heights,« says Kpadonu.

At the same time, Nadezhda«s mother had already been told that her daughter was seen on the street with some Africans. She became very worried about her daughter.

«She said: »Nadya, but he came and will leave, and you will stay. How will you get married later? Everyone will doubt your decency. It«s a stigma.» Who could have believed then that Gilbert and I would spend more than 40 years together,« recalls the now wife of the Benin native.

On the very first day, he proposed to his new acquaintance. After living with him for several years, she realized how uncharacteristic this step was for her husband: all so thoughtful, calm, and suddenly asking a randomly met girl to marry him.

«He himself says: »I don«t understand, as if it wasn»t me.« Later, when we came to visit Liberzh on »Dom-2« and Gilbert was asked if he regretted marrying a Russian woman, he said that if he had to do it again, he would do it without hesitation,» Nadezhda recounts.

She admits that she herself has never regretted that fateful meeting on the outskirts of Oktyabrsky. She speaks of her husband as a good person with a very masculine character, all aimed at the good of the family. Of course, there were quarrels. But, according to Nadezhda, the rudest thing she ever heard from her husband was: «Ah! You»re such a fool!«

«You have to try really hard to drive him to that. That»s his upbringing: the man is responsible for everything. Even if the woman is scandalous, the man is to blame for not conveying things properly,« explains the Russian woman.

Gilbert«s parents did not object to their son»s beloved. His father promptly sent all the necessary documents for marriage registration and even came to Russia to speed up the process through the embassy and municipality. However, everything stalled so much that the couple was registered nine days before their daughter«s birth.

«When I took the first photo of Liberzh, I sent it to both my mother and Gilbert»s mother. Mine later wrote: «Oh, Nadya, I went around to my friends, showed it off and boasted that I have a black granddaughter.» Gilbert«s mother — the opposite: »I ran around to relatives, showed the photos, everyone liked her, and I boasted that I have a white granddaughter,«» Nadezhda recounts.

Soon, the whole family went to the Beninese capital Cotonou. Nadezhda admits that the road from the airport to the city made a somewhat frightening impression on her.

«On the way, we passed small villages where children ran around half-dressed, barefoot. Later, I understood that this is largely due to the weather,» explains the Russian woman. «Cotonou is a normal capital city of reinforced concrete, cars drive around, Japanese and many French ones, Benin was formerly a colony of France, so they use Renault. Their market »Messibo« is just huge, colorful. There, everyone came up to me, touched me, took photos.»

Another time, Liberzh went to Africa at the age of 4–5 only with her dad. There, they spent about one and a half to two months, and upon return, they shocked Nadezhda.

«I»m undressing my daughter, talking to her, and she answers me in Fon (one of the languages of Benin. — Ed.). I ask: «Liberzh, do you even understand me?» And she — again in Fon. I even cried. Gilbert returned and started talking to her: «That»s it, we«re home, switch to Russian because mom doesn»t understand.« Two or three days passed, and her Russian language recovered. But what horror I experienced then,» Nadezhda recounts.

The Kpadonu family still lives in Russia. According to Liberzh«s mother, despite occasionally encountered prejudices, she felt comfortable both in Ufa and in St. Petersburg and Moscow. She ended the conflict with Ilya Yabbarov herself.

«Liberzh calls me and says: »Mom, I forgive everyone.« Now I think that at that moment, she most likely received the results of medical tests,» Nadezhda laments.

She emphasizes that many «diagnoses» of her daughter, which were posthumously attributed to her by various experts on numerous TV shows and news segments, are false. According to the medical report, no alcohol or drugs were detected in the deceased«s blood. In fact, shortly before her death, Liberzh was diagnosed with diabetes.

«She had a habit: she would run very hot water to warm everything up, wait for it to cool to an acceptable temperature, and only then get in. Apparently, that»s what happened this time too. She filled the bathtub, turned off the water, started waiting, was looking at something on her phone, and lost consciousness,« says Nadezhda.

The sudden death could have been triggered, in her opinion, by Liberzh«s »terrible« habit of lowering her sugar levels through prolonged fasting. Note that doctors strictly prohibit such practices because they do not treat but, on the contrary, provoke an attack.

«I told her a thousand times that you can»t do that,« recounts Kpadonu. »Sometimes we talked via video at night, and she checked her sugar in front of me, and there were some crazy numbers. I told her: «Liberzh, give yourself an injection.» In front of me, she gave herself an injection. But the report indicates that there is nothing in the stomach or rectum. Apparently, she didn«t eat anything before death.»

Nadezhda said that her daughter did not tell her parents everything about her health problems. According to the mother, Liberzh always tried to be independent, decided everything on her own, tried not to worry mom and dad. Even before the tragedy, she periodically disappeared from the radar, having warned beforehand that she was fine and would return soon.

«When she first ended up in the hospital [in October 2024], she didn»t tell us anything. Again, she was out of contact for a week, only wrote before that that she was fine. I thought, maybe she went for filming or somewhere else. After a week, she calls and says she was in the hospital. «But everything»s fine now, don«t worry.» When she was to have an operation, I already wanted to pack to go to her. Visiting was prohibited in the hospital, but I could at least come with care packages. Just so she felt support nearby. She said: «No.» She always tried to bear the hardest things herself. Such a silly character, and I have the same,« admits Nadezhda.

In February 2024, an operation was needed for Gilbert as well. Before accompanying her husband to the hospital, Nadezhda called her daughter.

«I also asked: »How is your sugar?« She says: »Oh, I«ll figure it out.» And then said: «Mom, just in case: I gathered all the gold and hid it there, and put the documents there.» I got angry: «What nonsense?» I said that as soon as dad has the operation, I will come. She asked to give the phone to him. They talked about something in French. I didn«t listen, and then asked my husband: »Well?« Gilbert said they talked about various abstract topics. And then he says: »Something about her voice was sad.« The last thing I could think was that she would die,» says Liberzh«s mother.

Liberzh«s body was cremated, and the ashes were buried in Ufa. One of the participants was Liberzh»s last beloved, about whom her mother spoke so warmly earlier. According to Nadezhda, he came to see off the deceased and lay a bouquet of flowers by her body.

«At the funeral service, they opened the coffin. She lay as if alive — tender skin, hair,» says Nadezhda Kpadonu.

After their daughter«s death, Gilbert decided that he and his wife should convert to Orthodoxy. He grew up in a Catholic family, which, according to Nadezhda, strictly adheres to religious rules. But Liberzh was allowed to be baptized at St. Isaac»s Cathedral in St. Petersburg when she was still a teenager.

«I am not religious, but Gilbert sincerely believes, goes to church every Sunday. He decided that we must convert to Orthodoxy so that after death we can meet Liberzh in the afterlife,» explains Nadezhda.

Recall that in 2008, another participant of «Dom-2» from Ufa died tragically. Oksana Aplekaeva was found on a highway near Moscow — raped and strangled. The story of how she shone on the show but also didn«t fit in there, and later became a victim of a murderer, read in the UFA1.RU article.