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Reports of the deaths of some 100 unfortunate celebrities have been greatly exaggerated by a French public radio station, which mistakenly published the obituaries of, among others, a very alive queen, Brigitte Bardot and Pele.
Radio France Internationale (RFI), the French equivalent of the BBC World Service, on Monday blamed “a technical problem” and apologized for the error, which caused death notices to appear on its website and partner platforms, including Google, Yahoo! and MSN before being hastily removed.
“We offer our apologies to the people concerned and to those who follow us and trust us,” the station said in a tweet. “We are doing everything possible to correct this big mistake.”
RFI
(@RFI)🔴 A technical problem has resulted in the publication of numerous obituaries on our site.
We are mobilized to rectify this important mistake and to apologize to the people affected, as well as to you who follow us and trust us.
Other eighths and non-French nonagenarians declared prematurely dead were Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khomenei; former US President Jimmy Carter; Cuban leader Raúl Castro; Yoko Ono; former Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson; and actors Clint Eastwood and Sophia Loren.
Among French citizens, the victims included Bernadette Chirac, wife of the late President Jacques; former Socialist Prime Minister Lionel Jospin, actors Jean-Louis Trintignant, Alain Delon and Jean-Paul Belmondo, director Roman Polanski and fashion designer Pierre Cardin.
Bertrand Hadet
(@bertrandhadet)@RFI therefore, you have decided to end 2020 at once. #necro #sweet pic.twitter.com/1KwysWuGEv
Of the Queen, the station wrote: “The UK woke up an orphan this morning. Buckingham Palace officially announced the death of Queen Elizabeth II. The Queen, who died of …, turned 94 on April 21, 2020.
“All Albion mourns the disappearance of its sovereign who, at the head of his country since 1952, has formed the immovable foundation around which the post-colonial history of England has developed, full of sound and fury.”
In the case of the Queen’s unfortunate death from the coronavirus, the station recommended that the obituary be preceded by the words: “The coronavirus pandemic that has wreaked havoc around the world is no respecter of crowned heads. In England … the monarch’s life has been claimed. The UK woke up an orphan this morning. Infected by the virus, Queen Elizabeth II, 93, did not survive the associated pulmonary complications.
In the case of at least one celebrity, 77-year-old French business mogul-turned-politician Bernard Tapie, the mistake wasn’t the first or second time he’s been declared dead: Le Monde published his obituary in 2019, while the television channel of the sports newspaper L’Équipe killed him on the screen last August.
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