Sopranos star James Gandolfini’s ex-fiancee ‘found dead in swimming pool’ after a freak accident

Sopranos star James Gandolfini’s ex-fiance Lora Somoza ‘was found dead in her mother’s swimming pool’ after a ‘tragic accident’.

The sex therapist died last year at the age of 51, the same age at which her famous actor fiancé suffered a fatal heart attack in 2013. 

Lora slipped and hit her head at her mother’s Los Angeles home on July 5, 2020, and was found dead in the swimming pool, according to The Sun. 

‘She was at her parents’ house and she slipped, hit her head and drowned in the pool,’ her friend Zoe Moon told the publication.

‘Her mother found her, it was horrible. A terrible accident.’ 

Gandolfini met Lora in 2000 when she was an assistant to the director on a film he made with Brad Pitt and Julia Roberts called The Mexican.

They became engaged in 2003 but broke it off two years later, when Somoza moved away to care for her grandmother, who was battling from Alzheimers.

The sex therapist (pictured), who was engaged to Gandolfini in 2003 , died at the age of 51, the same age at which her famous actor fiancé suffered a fatal heart attack in 2013

Following their split, Lora became a sex therapist, columnist and podcast presenter on her own show, Between the Sheets with Lora Somoza. 

She often posted affectionately about her former fiance on her Instagram page, on his birthday and the anniversary of his death.

Gandolfini, who was  married former model Deborah Lin in Hawaii in 2008 and their daughter Liliana arrived in October 2012.

In an interview following his death, Lora told Inside Edition that she had spoked to married actor on the phone just a fortnight before he suffered a fatal heart attack. 

Gandolfini married former model Deborah Lin (pictured together) in Hawaii in 2008 and their daughter Liliana arrived in October 2012

‘I got to congratulate him on his new baby girl and he sounded really good,’ Somoza said during her emotional interview.

‘I’m glad to have the most recent memory of mine with him on something that sounded really positive.’

Gandolfini died following a heart attack during a Rome vacation on June 19, 2013 with his son Michael, then 14, and wife Deborah and nine-month-old daughter ahead of the 59th Taormina Film Festival in Sicily. 

The actor became a household name after his breakout role in 1999 in the hit HBO television show The Sopranos where played the powerful mob boss Tony Soprano whose stressful gangster and family life left him needing to visit a psychiatrist.