In a tragic turn of events, 25-year-old Kasia Lenhardt, the ex-girlfriend of Bayern Munich star Jerome Boateng, was found dead on Tuesday night in her apartment, a week after the pair announced their breakup. Boateng, who was in Qatar with his Bayern squad for the Club World Cup, has since left for home and will miss their summit clash against Tigres on Thursday.
Berlin police suspect Lenhardt died by suicide after she was found dead in Charlottenburg. “Yesterday at around 8:30pm there was a police operation in Charlottenburg on suspicion of suicide. There are no indications of third-party negligence,” Berlin police said in a statement to Bild.
Lenhardt, a Polish-born model, rose to fame after appearing in Germany’s “Next Top Model” in 2012. She and Boateng dated for almost a year before separating.
Bayern coach Hansi Flick confirmed Boateng sought his permission to leave the team camp for home. “Jerome was in my room and asked me to go home. From the club side, we also fulfilled his wish. After the corona test, which he also needs to enter Germany, he will travel home and will not be available to us until further notice,” Flick said.
The pair had a messy, public breakup with Lenhardt involved in an accident in Boateng’s car. She had accused the footballer of lying and cheating.
Lenhardt, in a cryptic Instagram post which ended her being last on the photo-sharing platform, had confirmed the breakup. “Now is where you draw the line. Enough,” she had captioned an image shared on February 3.
Boateng, too, had announced the breakup on Instagram but later deleted the post.
“Kasia became my girlfriend by destroying the relationship with my ex-girlfriend Rebecca and my family and blackmailed me. So I decided to stay with Kasia and try to make it work,” Boateng had told Bild in an interview.