Following the death of Naddel, a Big Brother and I'm A Celebrity star, her cause of death has been revealed.
Nadja Abd el Farrag, better known to millions of Germans as Naddel, passed away in a Hamburg clinic on May 9, though her death was only made public days later.
Naddel, 60, was a staple of German pop culture, remembered not just for her chart-topping affiliations but also her rollercoaster journey through fame, health battles, and public scrutiny.
From starring in Germany’s I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here! and Celebrity Big Brother to gracing the covers of Playboy and hosting Peep on RTL2, she was never far from the spotlight.
Fans, friends, and former collaborators have flooded social media with tributes. One wrote: "Rest in peace, Nadja #naddel #RIP In my youth, you dominated the daily news about high society. Then came a rapid rollercoaster ride with ups and downs. Passing away at 60 is a truly tragic thing! She had to go through a lot in her much too short life - R.I.P. 'Naddel'."
Another posted: "#NadjaAbdelFarrag You were fun, but it (life) wasn't all easy. #RIP #Nadja."
Her cause of death has been confirmed as organ failure, per the Mirror.
Born in Hamburg to a Sudanese father, Ibrahim, and German mother, Uta, Naddel’s upbringing was marked by strict discipline.
She often recalled in interviews how her father’s stern nature led to their estrangement for the last 15 years of his life.
Before her rise to fame, she completed training as a chemist’s assistant and worked in retail.
Her big break came in 1989 when she met Bohlen and joined his Blue System project as a background singer. Even while immersed in the music industry, she continued working part-time at a hospice.
Naddel captured the public's imagination again in 1999 with two headline-grabbing Playboy photoshoots.
She further cemented her status as a media figure in the early 2000s, hosting RTL2’s erotic late-night show Peep and participating in the inaugural season of Germany’s I’m A Celebrity in 2004.
Yet behind the cameras, her life was far from glamorous. In her 2018 autobiography Achterbahn, Naddel opened up about her health struggles, most notably cirrhosis of the liver, brought on by both substance use and ADHD medication.
"I only half-heartedly accepted the doctor's advice and reduced my consumption to one or two glasses of wine a week," she admitted, candidly revealing the difficulties she faced in giving up alcohol entirely.