“The Lion’s Den” star Tijen Onaran: Your year ends with a great loss

The outgoing “Lion’s Den” juror Tijen Onaran (39) has announced the death of her father Ertan Onaran (1939-2024). In a letter on her Instagram account on December 30th, she said goodbye with touching words – and described the hard last days.

Ertan Onaran, who was an architect, died on Sunday, December 29th, at the age of 85, as a result of a flu infection. His daughter and other relatives were by his side until the end. “You are and will remain my hero. Until your last breath,” wrote Tijen Onaran. “The one who always believed in me. The one whose humor and sense of all the beautiful and easy things in life carried me through difficult moments. You argued with me endlessly and in the end we sat there laughing because one of “We both couldn’t stay serious anymore.”

But shortly before the festival of love there was a shock: “Two days before Christmas you ended up in the intensive care unit with the flu. We had a week,” said Onaran, looking back on the challenging days. “A week full of laughter, tears, memories of your childhood, of moments that shaped your life. Your mind was severely affected by the physical infection – the dementia got a boost that catapulted you into another world where no one could go could advance more. First you fought and then nothing worked.”

It made her “incredibly sad” to see her father suffering – “knowing full well that independence, self-determination and freedom were extremely important to you.” On December 29th “salvation” came. “You didn’t want to and couldn’t take it anymore and fell asleep.” The family stood by him. “The moment when a loved one’s breath catches and then stops, and their hand leaves their own: I will never forget it. The brutality of grief is difficult to bear. It is as if someone is taking your breath away “When someone you love so much leaves.” However, she is “incredibly grateful” that they were able to spend her father’s final hours together. “My heart is crying and broken. Love remains.”

Her family is her everything. “Everything I do, I do because I know how much my parents gave to enable my brother and I to follow our path.” She thanks those around her “who stood by my brother, my mother and me in these difficult times.”

Now her father is no longer there – and so Onaran has to cope with another change this year. At the beginning of September she announced her separation from her husband Marco Duller-Onaran after eight years of marriage. In a joint statement, the still-married couple explained that they had to admit “that two people, a couple, have evolved and have outgrown their own marriage.” You are sad, especially because you could look back on a good time together and many wonderful moments.

At the end of September it was announced that the entrepreneur was withdrawing from the show “The Lions’ Den”. It was said that she wanted to concentrate on other projects – such as her new video podcast “MUT – The Germany Talk with Tijen Onaran”. But it will still be a while before the final farewell to the “DHDL” universe: the Karlsruhe native will be seen in the season in spring 2025.