Gérard Icardi, better known to television viewers as “Gégé” from the 2011 season of TF1’s survival series “Koh-Lanta,” has died at the age of 79. His son François announced the death on 28 August via a brief online message, without specifying the cause. Icardi gained national attention as the 65-year-old proprietor of the animal park L’Arche Féline in the Eure when he joined the eleventh edition of “Koh-Lanta,” filmed in Indonesia’s Raja Ampat archipelago. Despite an early elimination, his resourcefulness and good-humoured struggle in water challenges made him one of the season’s memorable figures. He later competed in TF1’s diving show “Splash” in 2013. Tributes quickly followed. Long-time “Koh-Lanta” host Denis Brogniart posted “RIP Gégé” on social media, while fellow contestant Patricia Morel praised him as “un sacré numéro.” Icardi’s later life was clouded by legal issues: in 2015 a court in Évreux handed him a two-year suspended sentence for sexual assaults on a former teenage intern at his animal park, allegations he consistently denied. The family has not released funeral details.