what happened to gabriella papadakis

Gabriella Papadakis is okay and active publicly; the current “what happened” story is about her losing a high‑profile TV commentary job for the 2026 Winter Olympics after publishing a very candid memoir, not about an accident or disappearance.

What Happened to Gabriella Papadakis?

From Olympic Champion to Retired Star

• Gabriella Papadakis is a retired French ice dancer and Olympic champion, best known for her partnership with Guillaume Cizeron.

• Together they became one of the most decorated ice dance teams ever, with Olympic gold in 2022 and multiple World and European titles.

• She officially retired from competition in 2024 and began moving into media and commentary work.

The Memoir That Changed Everything

Recently, the big news around her is the release of her memoir Pour ne pas disparaître (English title often rendered as So as Not to Disappear). In this book, she opens up about:

• Feeling that her long‑term professional relationship with Cizeron had become unbalanced, describing him as “controlling” and “critical” at times.

• Serious mental‑health struggles during her career, including depression around the 2019–20 season and the pressure to keep skating despite wanting to stop.

• Very personal experiences, including an abortion in 2019 and how it affected her emotionally and as an athlete.

These revelations were meant to show the hidden, more painful side of elite figure skating, not just the medals and glamour.

Why She Was Dropped from the 2026 Olympics Coverage

Gabriella had been hired by NBC to work as a commentator for figure skating at the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milan–Cortina. Shortly before the Games:

• Her book was released, and the passages about Cizeron and their partnership sparked strong reactions.

• Cizeron publicly disputed parts of the memoir, calling it a kind of smear campaign and saying it contained false statements about him.

• Because Cizeron is returning to Olympic ice dancing with a new partner, NBC said her book created a “conflict of interest” and removed her from its 2026 commentary team.

NBC’s public line was that it needed coverage viewers could trust to be free from any perceived bias, given she had just published very critical remarks about a skater they would be covering on air.

Gabriella has said she took the decision very hard:

• She described crying a lot and feeling a strong sense of injustice, as she was just beginning a new career path in commentary.

• She also said the book’s publication date was set before Cizeron announced his competitive return, so it wasn’t timed to target his Olympic comeback.

Deeper Issues She’s Talking About

Alongside the job loss story, Papadakis has been using interviews and her book to highlight darker aspects of figure skating and of her own life:

• She has spoken about mental health, pressure, and how unhealthy dynamics can be normalized in elite sport.

• In a long-form interview, she discussed sexual assault and the lack of tools or examples for building healthy relationships within the skating world.

• She frames her story as part of a larger “system” that can enable harm or silence difficult experiences, especially for women in the sport.

These conversations mean that “what happened to Gabriella Papadakis” is not just gossip about a TV job, but also a broader reckoning with how figure skating treats athletes behind the scenes.

“I’m not dealing with it very well, I’ve cried a lot… I’m experiencing a feeling of injustice.” — Papadakis on losing the NBC role.

How People Are Reacting (Fans & Media)

Reactions are mixed and still evolving:

• Many fans and commentators see her as brave for speaking openly about mental health, abuse, and power imbalances in skating, and feel she’s being punished for telling her story.

• Others are cautious, noting that Cizeron strongly contests parts of the book and arguing that it’s hard to judge a deeply personal relationship from the outside.

• Media coverage tends to frame it as a clash between an athlete’s right to speak honestly and a broadcaster’s desire to avoid perceived bias during live Olympic coverage.

In short: she has not “disappeared,” but is in the middle of a very public, very personal controversy that’s reshaping how people talk about her legacy—and about figure skating’s culture more broadly.

TL;DR: Gabriella Papadakis retired from competitive ice dance, released a memoir revealing mental‑health struggles and criticizing aspects of her partnership with Guillaume Cizeron, and then lost her NBC 2026 Olympic commentary job after Cizeron publicly challenged the book, with NBC citing a conflict of interest.

Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.