The Franco-Iranian artist died this Thursday, June 4, “died of sadness” almost a year after the disappearance of her husband Mattias Ripa, a true pillar in her life and career.
There are bereavements from which we never return. Marjane Satrapi died this Thursday, June 4 at the age of 56, “died of sadness a little over a year after the death of Mattias Ripa, her husband and the love of her life,” her loved ones said in a press release. She joined her husband, who died on April 29, 2025 at the age of 53: an ordeal from which the Franco-Iranian artist had never recovered.
Born in Stockholm in 1972, Mattias Ripa went to Paris to continue his studies. During this university exchange, he met the woman who would become the woman of his life: Marjane Satrapi, then a student at the Decorative Arts in Strasbourg. The couple married a year later in Stockholm and enjoyed a beautiful union for thirty-one years. An economist by training, he became involved very early in his wife’s artistic journey – notably participating in her first animated short film, made while she was still a student.
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A discreet pillar
Financier, producer, actor, co-writer, Mattias Ripa takes part in all stages of Marjane Satrapi’s work. Her disappearance in 2025 leaves an immense void in the life of the author, known for Persépolis, autobiographical story about his youth in Iran and his exile in Europe. In her death announcement, she describes him as “the man and love of her life, broke at the age of fifty-three, after thirty-one years of a wonderful life together”.
Last February, Marjane Satrapi paid tribute to him through the creation of the Mattias and Marjane Ripa-Satrapi Cinema Foundation, whose mission is to support foreign students who come to train in Paris. “This foundation is the logical continuation of everything my husband and I have defended all our lives. The purpose of this foundation is in our image: two strangers in Paris, who met, fell in love, got married and built this life in this incredible, vibrant and inspiring city that leaves no one indifferent,” she wrote on Instagram on February 23. A project born from their shared history, and which now carries the memory of both of them.
