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ISIS fighters break free from Syrian jail amid chaotic government handover
Islamic State group militants escaped from a prison in eastern Syria amid a chaotic transfer of control between the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) and the Syrian government on Monday, according to U.S. officials and regional sources.
The incident happened at Al-Shaddadi prison in Syria’s Hasakah province after a ceasefire had been brokered, which, according to reports, had not been moving fast enough.
The truce came after days of fighting, with Damascus accusing the SDF of dragging its feet on security handovers, sources told Fox News Digital.
Syrian leader Ahmed al-Sharaa had publicly signaled impatience with Kurdish autonomy, effectively telling the SDF leadership that it was time to dissolve.
U.S. ANNOUNCES MORE MILITARY ACTIONS AGAINST ISIS: 'WE WILL NOT RELENT'
Under an integration agreement reached Sunday, the SDF also agreed to withdraw from two Arab-majority provinces it had controlled for years.
The deal then included responsibility for prisons holding ISIS detainees who would be transferred from the SDF to the Syrian government.
The U.S. had worked with the SDF to move the worst of the worst ISIS foreign fighters to other, more secure Syrian prisons before the ceasefire.
TURKEY SAYS SYRIA USING FORCE IS AN OPTION AGAINST US-BACKED FIGHTERS WHO HELPED DEFEAT ISIS
Sources said there were fewer than 1,000 detainees at Al-Shaddadi prison previously, but only about 200 were there when the messy transition occurred Monday.
As SDF guards abandoned Al-Shaddadi prison and Syrian forces moved to take control, local residents broke roughly 200 ISIS detainees out of the facility, sources said.
"Most of these were low-level local fighters, not the hardened foreign fighters," a well-placed source explained.
The U.S. military also said it had worked closely with the SDF in recent months to relocate the most dangerous foreign ISIS detainees to more secure prisons ahead of the ceasefire.
U.S. forces were also said to be closely monitoring developments as the transition unfolded.
ISRAELI OFFICIAL ISSUES STARK WARNING AFTER CHILLING SYRIAN MILITARY WAR CHANTS SURFACE
A senior U.S. official also told Fox News that most of the escaped prisoners were quickly rounded up and returned to the prison, which is now under Syrian government control.
On Monday, the Syrian army imposed a total curfew in the city of Shaddadi and launched sweeping security operations to locate any remaining escapees, according to reports.
Meanwhile, U.S. officials confirmed they were "boosting our presence by air, land and sea," with the military monitoring the situation very closely.
A squadron of F-15 fighter jets was repositioned and C-17 aircraft carrying heavy equipment arrived in the area. The USS Abraham Lincoln is expected to enter the U.S. Central Command area by Jan. 25.
In Iraq, Kurdish protesters were also brought under control after amassing at the U.S. Consulate in Erbil, with reports of demonstrators standing on walls.
Gunmen abduct dozens of worshippers from multiple Nigerian churches using sophisticated weapons
Numerous worshippers from at least two churches in Nigeria were kidnapped during Sunday services by armed gangs, Reuters reported.
While Kaduna state police on Monday reportedly cited conservative figures, saying dozens were being held captive as the investigation remains in its early stages, a senior church leader noted that more than 160 worshippers were abducted by gunmen over the weekend.
Sunday’s incident, which BBC said targeted both Christians and Muslims, marks the latest mass kidnapping in Nigeria’s long-running streak of religiously fueled attacks. Muslim Fulani militants frequently carry out violence in northern and central parts of Nigeria to bankrupt Christian communities while receiving ransom payments.
Kaduna state police said gunmen armed with "sophisticated weapons" attacked two churches in the village of Kurmin Wali in Afogo ward at about 11:25 a.m. on Sunday, Reuters reported.
52 CATHOLIC SCHOOL STUDENTS IN NIGERIA KIDNAPPED BY GUNMEN IN LATEST ATTACK: REPORT
Reverend John Hayab, the chairman of the Christian Association of Nigeria located in the northern part of the country, told Reuters:
"Information came to me from the elders of the churches that 172 worshipers were abducted while nine escaped," Hayab said.
Early estimates from security agencies tend to be conservative, while community and religious leaders often report higher numbers. In Nigeria, casualty and abduction figures often vary widely in the days following mass kidnappings.
NIGERIA NAMED EPICENTER OF GLOBAL KILLINGS OF CHRISTIANS OVER FAITH IN 2025, REPORT SAYS
Police said troops and other security agencies had been deployed to the area, with efforts underway to track the abductors and secure the release of the captives, Reuters reported.
Nigeria has experienced a dramatic surge in mass attacks by armed gangs, particularly Islamist militants, who often operate from forest enclaves and target villages, schools and places of worship.
GUNMEN ATTACK CHURCH IN NIGERIA, KILLING TWO AND KIDNAPPING OTHERS
In 2025, Nigeria was named the epicenter of global killings of Christians, according to the Open Doors World Watch List. The report noted that while Muslims are also frequently attacked, Christians have been "disproportionately targeted," with one in five African Christians facing high levels of persecution.
In November, 52 Catholic students, along with several staff members, were kidnapped by gunmen at St. Mary’s School in Nigeria, The Associated Press reported.
In April, the Evangelical Church Winning All, a major church based in West Africa, said it paid the equivalent of $205,000 in ransom to secure the release of roughly 50 members kidnapped in Kaduna, Nigerian lawyer Jabez Musa told Fox News Digital.
Fox News Digital's Paul Tilsley, Rachel Wolf, Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Amanda Knox fires back at Matt Damon over cancel culture jail time comments
Amanda Knox revived her feud with Matt Damon after the actor and his "The Rip" co-star Ben Affleck weighed in on cancel culture.
During a recent interview on "The Joe Rogan Experience," Damon, 55, and Affleck, 53, shared their thoughts on how cancel culture can be taken to extremes. At one point in their discussion, Damon suggested that for some public figures, the perpetual ostracization and scrutiny of being canceled is worse than a jail sentence.
"I bet some of those people would have preferred to go to jail for 18 months or whatever and then come out and say, ‘No, but I paid my debt. Like, we're done. Like, can we be done?’" Damon said. "Like, the thing about getting kind of excoriated publicly like that, it just never ends. And it’s the first thing that… you know, it just will follow you to the grave."
AMANDA KNOX BLASTS MATT DAMON FLICK ‘STILLWATER,’ CLAIMS IT’S CASHING IN ON HER WRONGFUL CONVICTION
After the podcast episode was released Jan. 16, Knox, 38, who previously slammed Damon for starring in a 2021 movie inspired by her real-life wrongful conviction and imprisonment, called the Oscar winner out again on social media.
"Another thing Matt Damon could have run by me before putting out into the world," she wrote on X, formerly Twitter, alongside a Variety article about Damon's cancel culture comments.
Knox spent four years in prison after she and her ex-boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito were twice convicted and later acquitted in the 2007 murder of her roommate, Meredith Kercher, in Perugia, Italy. The two were released from prison in October 2011.
After Knox shared her post, she replied to several X users who commented in the thread.
JULIA ROBERTS AND SEAN PENN WEIGH IN ON CANCEL CULTURE, SAYS SHAME IS 'UNDERRATED' THESE DAYS
"Yeah, well, literally going to jail...not so good," wrote journalist Katherine Brodsky. "But frankly, given that some of these ‘cancelled’ people have taken their own lives, yeah, maybe they would have preferred to go to jail for 18 months and be done with it — instead, there's no end to it. No coming back. No being ‘square.’"
"People commit suicide in prison, too," Knox responded.
"Amanda is unfamiliar with the word some!" another social media user commented.
WOODY ALLEN SLAMS CANCEL CULTURE AS 'DUMB' AFTER DECADES OF ONGOING SCANDAL
"You're missing the point," Knox replied. "You don't get to go to prison in secret. It comes with its own stigma and lasting trauma. You don't just get to ‘be done with it,’ personally or socially."
Fox News Digital has reached out to Damon's representative for comment.
After being released from prison, Knox returned to the United States and became an outspoken advocate for criminal justice reform with a focus on the wrongfully convicted and media ethics.
She has penned two memoirs about her experiences, including 2013's "Waiting to Be Heard" and 2025's "Free: My Search for Meaning" and also hosts the "Hard Knox" podcast.
After Damon's movie "Stillwater" was released in July 2021, Knox denounced the film in a viral thread on X. "Stillwater," which was directed by Tom McCarthy, stars Damon as a father whose daughter was convicted of killing her roommate and imprisoned in France. The movie follows Damon's character as he travels from Oklahoma to France where he sets out on a quest to prove his daughter's innocence.
McCarthy previously confirmed that the movie was inspired by Knox's real-life case. Knox slammed the filmmakers for further linking her name to Kercher's murder after she was exonerated and also took issue with the twist in the movie's storyline, which deviated from actual events and cast doubt on the innocence of the character based on her.
During an August 2021 interview with Variety, Knox explained why she felt it was necessary to go after Damon and McCarthy over their handling of her story in "Stillwater."
AMANDA KNOX BLASTS MATT DAMON FLICK ‘STILLWATER,’ CLAIMS IT’S CASHING IN ON HER WRONGFUL CONVICTION
"Wrongful convictions don’t just happen to the individual. They happen to a whole network of human beings who love this person and know that they’re innocent and fight for their innocence," she explained.
Knox went on to note that the movie’s decision to make the character she inspired somewhat culpable in the murder meant that the lines between reality and fiction weren’t blurred in a responsible way, making it hard for her not to feel like Damon and McCarthy were opening wounds she’s worked hard to put behind her.
"I don’t think that the filmmakers can honestly say that they went far enough away from my case so that it wouldn’t be recognizably my case," she told the outlet. "And I think that that’s clear in all of the coverage where everyone’s like, ‘Oh, this is recognizably the Amanda Knox case.’ And from that audiences can then draw conclusions about me, whether or not those conclusions are accurate or not."
She added: "The question that Tom McCarthy really has to ask himself is, is it responsible to keep recycling that same story when we know what the consequences of that can be?"
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She shared her view that the movie renewed the public perception that she had something to do with the crime. In her viral Twitter thread, Knox noted that the case is still referred to as the "Amanda Knox case" rather than the "murder of Meredith Kercher by Rudy Guede."
Guede was convicted of Kercher’s murder in a separate trial in 2008.
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"There’s been this ongoing idea that, ‘Well, as long as we call it fiction, then no one would honestly apply the ideas or feelings or conclusions that I bring with my imagination to the story to the real person,’" she explained. "And that’s simply not true."
"Especially when you’re looking at people like myself who continue to be brought up with a question mark, you deciding to tell that story in your own way is going to be adding to the ledger of how people understand and define me as a human being," she continued.
"And then Matt Damon and the director can walk away with a great story in their pocket, but meanwhile, I’m still living with the consequences of people thinking that I am somehow involved in this crime that I am not involved in."
Last year, Knox was involved in a retelling of her story when she served as an executive producer on the Hulu limited series "The Twisted Tale of Amanda Knox," an eight-episode true-crime biographical drama that premiered on Hulu in August 2025.
Fox News Digital's Tyler McCarthy contributed to this report.
Judge and wife shot in broad daylight in Indiana, sparking massive multi-agency investigation
A judge and his wife were injured in a shooting Sunday afternoon in Lafayette, Indiana, prompting a multi-agency investigation involving local, state and federal law enforcement.
The Lafayette Police Department said Judge Steven Meyer was shot in the arm and his wife, Kimberly Meyer, was shot in the hip at their home on Mill Pond Lane at about 2:15 p.m.
Police said shell casings were recovered at the scene and both victims received medical treatment and are listed in stable condition.
The shooting remains an active investigation involving multiple agencies, including the Lafayette Police Department, Indiana State Police, the Tippecanoe County Sheriff’s Office, the West Lafayette Police Department, the Tippecanoe County Prosecutor’s Office and the FBI.
Kimberly Meyer released a statement through police thanking investigators and first responders following the shooting.
"I have great confidence in the Lafayette Police Department’s investigation and want to thank all the agencies involved for their work," she said. "We are also incredibly grateful for the outpouring of support from the community; everyone has been so kind and compassionate.
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"We would also like to thank the medical personnel who provided care and assistance to us following the incident," she added.
FOX 32 in Chicago reported that Steven Meyer is a Tippecanoe Superior Court judge, citing a letter from Indiana Chief Justice Loretta H. Rush to judges statewide.
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Lafayette Mayor Tony Roswarski also addressed the shooting, calling it a "senseless unacceptable act of violence" and pledging continued law enforcement efforts.
"Our thoughts and prayers go out to the entire Meyer family," Roswarski said. "I want to ensure the community that every available resource is being used to apprehend the individual(s) responsible for this senseless unacceptable act of violence.
"I have tremendous confidence in the Lafayette Police Department and I want to thank all of the local, state, and federal agencies who are assisting in this investigation," the mayor continued.
Police said no arrests have been announced and urged anyone with information to contact the Lafayette Police Department at 765-807-1200.
Dem Senator Warner admits Biden 'screwed up' the border, but claims ICE now targeting noncriminals
Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., acknowledged on Monday that the Biden administration "screwed up" when it comes to securing the southern border while also criticizing the Trump administration for arresting mostly migrants who have no criminal record.
During an appearance on Fox News' "Special Report," Warner was asked if he agreed with new Virginia Rep. Abigail Spanberger’s move to end state law enforcement collaboration with ICE to capture illegal immigrants with criminal records.
Warner responded by citing records showing that 75% of the people arrested by ICE in Virginia have no criminal record, even as the federal government continues to claim it is targeting the "worst of the worst" in its efforts to carry out President Donald Trump's mass deportation agenda.
"They may have come across illegally into our country, but 75% of the people to have been arrested have no further criminal record," he said.
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Pressed on whether Virginia should work with ICE on the people who do have criminal records, Warner admitted the Biden administration "screwed up the border" but that targeting those with criminal records is not what is happening now under Trump.
"Let's potentially work on those who have criminal records," he said. "But that is different than what's happening right now, and the Biden administration screwed up the border, I'll be the first to acknowledge that, but the idea of masked ICE agents picking up moms dropping off their kids, folks going to work and, as we've seen at least in the circumstance in Minnesota, sometimes where kids are being left in the car after their parents that may or may not have been actually criminals are being picked up."
"I just think there ought to be a collaborative effort, and so far, at least based upon what I've seen in Minnesota, there is virtually no collaboration between local law enforcement and ICE, and I believe that is due to the ICE tactics," the senator continued.
This comes amid protests over an incident earlier this month in Minneapolis, where Renee Nicole Good, a U.S. citizen, was fatally shot by ICE agent Jonathan Ross, who fired into the driver's windshield and open window from the side of the vehicle and subsequently exclaimed "f---ing b----" as the car crashed into another parked vehicle.
Democrats and local residents have condemned the shooting as a murder and called for Ross' prosecution, while the Trump administration and Republican lawmakers have defended the incident by arguing that it was a justified shooting.
A week after that shooting, an ICE agent shot an alleged illegal immigrant in the leg during an arrest attempt. The Department of Homeland Security claimed the agent fired at the suspect because he was "fearing for his life and safety" after the individual resisted arrest and "violently assaulted the officer."
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"I think everybody's got a First Amendment right to protest, but I don't think those protests should include or involve disrupting religious services. That seems inappropriate. I do know that in Minneapolis, at least from what I've read, they've got about 3,500 ICE agents there, overwhelming the local cops at about 800," Warner said.
"I believe that local law enforcement is pretty damn good at going after actual criminals," the Virginia Democrat added. "But when we have ICE agents, I've seen in my state, sitting outside a courthouse, when somebody comes to do their hearing as they try to get legal status in our country, and they get picked up because they did the right thing in reporting in, I'm not sure that's the system we ought to be having at this point."
Indiana's Curt Cignetti complains about lack of calls against Miami during halftime of national title game
Indiana Hoosiers head coach Curt Cignetti expressed some frustration with the officials in the college football national championship on Monday night.
Cignetti spoke to ESPN’s Holly Rowe and was frustrated with the lack of calls against the Miami Hurricanes for hits on Fernando Mendoza. The Heisman Trophy winner was left bloodied after one of the hits that were put on him.
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"There’s three personal fouls on the quarterback not called in one drive," Cignetti said. "They need to be called because they’re obvious personal fouls. I’m all for letting them play, but when you cross the line, you gotta call it. They were black and white calls."
Through the hits, Mendoza has hung in there and had Indiana up 10 points at halftime.
TRUMP ARRIVES AT INDIANA-MIAMI COLLEGE FOOTBALL NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP
He was 12-of-17 with 116 passing yards.
Indiana’s scoring began in the first quarter with a field goal. Then, with about 6:13 left in the second quarter, Mendoza led the Hoosiers down the field and handed the ball off to Riley Nowakowski to punch the ball in. The Hoosiers held a 10-0 lead at that point.
The Hurricanes started to find a rhythm late in the first half. But Carter Davis’ field goal attempt went off the upright. The Hurricanes only had three first downs despite having the ball for nearly 12 minutes in the half.
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Matt Damon claims Netflix wants movies to repeat plots in scenes because 'people are on their phones'
Actor Matt Damon claimed that Netflix requests that its films reiterate the plot "three or four times" in scenes to accommodate viewers on their phones.
Damon and his longtime friend and fellow actor Ben Affleck joined the "Joe Rogan Experience" on Friday to promote their new film "The Rip," which premiered on Netflix that same day.
While discussing the film, Damon remarked on how viewers have a "very different level of attention" to Netflix movies they can watch at home compared to other films released in theaters. He added that Netflix has begun changing the filmmaking process to appease these distracted viewers.
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"The standard way to make an action movie that we learned was, you usually have three set pieces," Damon said. "One in the first act, one in the second, one in the third. You spend most of your money on that one in the third act. That’s your finale. And now they’re like, ‘Can we get a big one in the first five minutes? We want people to stay. And it wouldn’t be terrible if you reiterated the plot three or four times in the dialogue because people are on their phones while they’re watching.’"
"It's really going to start to infringe on how we're telling the story," he added.
Affleck remarked that the Netflix crime drama series "Adolescence" didn't make these kinds of changes and went on to become a success on the streaming service, though Damon called it the "exception" rather than the rule.
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"My feeling is just that it demonstrates that you don't need to do any of that s--- to get people, you know what I mean?" Affleck said.
Affleck was also less concerned about the threat of streaming services to the filmmaking process and emphasized that streaming was not an "existential threat" to the movie theater experience.
"It's like supply and demand. People want to look at their phone. They can look at TikTok...they're going to do that. I think what you can do is make s--- the best you can. Make it really good, and you know people can still go to the movies," Affleck said.
Fox News Digital reached out to Netflix for comment.
During the podcast, both Damon and Affleck also called out cancel culture, claiming that it has been taken to an extreme level.
"I bet some of those people would have preferred to go to jail for 18 months or whatever and then come out and say, ‘No, but I paid my debt. Like, we're done. Like, can we be done?’" Damon said about those who have been canceled. "Like, the thing about getting kind of excoriated publicly like that, it just never ends."
Affleck said, "And to take any forgiveness out of it is a really f--ed up thing, because then it makes it impossible to actually go, ‘All right, yeah, I did that... That was wrong. I get it,’ You know, because it doesn't matter. Once you've said you've done it, you become like an outcast."
Indiana's Fernando Mendoza left bloodied after huge hit from Miami defender
Indiana Hoosiers star quarterback Fernando Mendoza was on the receiving end of a huge hit in the first quarter of the national championship game against the Miami Hurricanes on Monday.
Mendoza handed the ball off to his running back and went up to Miami defenders, pretending to block. However, Mendoza bit off a bit more than he could chew.
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Hurricanes defensive back Jakobe Thomas met Mendoza and knocked the Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback backward. Mendoza fell and the ESPN broadcast showed him bleeding from the lip.
College football fans were wondering whether Thomas avoided a targeting penalty on the play. It appeared Thomas hit Mendoza with the crown of his helmet. The officiating crew on the field didn’t catch it and the drive continued.
TRUMP ARRIVES AT INDIANA-MIAMI COLLEGE FOOTBALL NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP
Mendoza is accustomed to taking some big hits. He took a huge hit earlier in the season against Iowa and was leveled on the first play of the game against Ohio State. He stayed in the game both times and the Hoosiers won.
Indiana’s scoring began later in the first quarter with a field goal. Then, with about 6:13 left in the second quarter, Mendoza led the Hoosiers down the field and handed the ball off to Riley Nowakowski to punch the ball in. The Hoosiers held a 10-0 lead at that point.
If the score holds, Indiana will be celebrating its first college football national championship.
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Minnesota AG Keith Ellison denies Don Lemon, anti-ICE protesters violated FACE Act as DOJ mulls charges
Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison is rejecting assertions that the anti-ICE protesters who stormed a church in his state over the weekend broke the federal law the Justice Department has cited as having potentially violated.
Top DOJ officials say they are looking into whether the agitators who disrupted services at St. Paul's Cities Church on Sunday violated the FACE Act and the Ku Klux Klan Act.
The FACE Act makes it a federal crime, with potentially steep fines and jail time, to use or threaten to use force to "injure, intimidate, or interfere" with a person seeking reproductive health services, or with a person lawfully trying to exercise the First Amendment right of religious freedom at a place of religious worship. It also prohibits intentional property damage to a facility providing reproductive health services or a place of religious worship. The Ku Klux Klan Act makes it a federal crime for individuals to deny citizens their civil rights.
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Appearing on ex-CNN host Don Lemon's YouTube show, Ellison insisted the FACE Act only pertains to reproductive rights.
"And the FACE Act, by the way, is designed to protect the rights of people seeking reproductive rights... so that people for a religious reason cannot just use religion to break into women's reproductive health centers," Ellison told Lemon.
"How they are stretching either of these laws to apply to people who protested in a church over the behavior of a religious leader is beyond me," Ellison added.
DON LEMON PUT ‘ON NOTICE’ BY DOJ FOR ROLE IN COVERING PROTEST THAT STORMED CHURCH
Lemon himself has been swept up in the controversy as he provided embedded reporting from Cities Church documenting the chaos that erupted.
While the liberal host maintained that his actions are protected by the First Amendment as a journalist, Harmeet Dhillon, the Justice Department’s assistant attorney general for civil rights, suggested Lemon's participation was illegal.
"A house of worship is not a public forum for your protest!" Dhillon told Lemon on X. "It is a space protected from exactly such acts by federal criminal and civil laws! Nor does the First Amendment protect your pseudo journalism of disrupting a prayer service."
"You are on notice," she added.
"It’s notable that I’ve been cast as the face of a protest I was covering as a journalist — especially since I wasn’t the only reporter there. That framing is telling," Lemon told Fox News Digital in a statement. "What’s even more telling is the barrage of violent threats, along with homophobic and racist slurs, directed at me online by MAGA supporters and amplified by parts of the right-wing press."
"If this much time and energy is going to be spent manufacturing outrage, it would be far better used investigating the tragic death of Renee Nicole Good— the very issue that brought people into the streets in the first place," Lemon continued. "I stand by my reporting.
Valentino Garavani, legendary Italian fashion designer, dead at 93
MILAN (AP) — Valentino Garavani, the jet-set Italian designer whose high-glamour gowns — often in his trademark shade of "Valentino red" — were fashion show staples for nearly half a century, has died at home in Rome, his foundation announced Monday. He was 93.
"Valentino Garavani was not only a constant guide and inspiration for all of us, but a true source of light, creativity and vision,″ the foundation founded by Valentino and his partner Giancarlo Giammetti said in a statement posted on social media.
Universally known by his first name, Valentino was adored by generations of royals, first ladies and movie stars, from Jackie Kennedy Onassis to Julia Roberts and Queen Rania of Jordan, who swore the designer always made them look and feel their best.
"I know what women want," he once remarked. "They want to be beautiful."
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Though Italian-born and despite maintaining his atelier in Rome, he mostly unveiled his collections in Paris, and spoke French with his Italian partner Giammetti, an entrepreneur.
Alessandro Michele, the current creative director of the Valentino fashion house, wrote in Instagram that he continues to feel Valentino’s "gaze" as he works on the next collection, which will be presented March 12 in Rome, departing from the usual venue of Paris. Michele remembered Valentino as "a man who expanded the limits of the possible" and possessing "a rare delicacy, with a silent rigor and a limitless love for beauty.’'
Another of Valentino’s successors, Pierpaolo Piccoli, placed a broken heart emoji under the announcement of his death. Former supermodel Cindy Crawford wrote that she was "heartbroken," and called Valentino "a true master of his craft.’'
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Condolences also came in from the family of the late designer Giorgio Armani, who died in September at the age of 91, and Donatella Versace, who posted two photos of Valentino, saying "he will forever be remembered for his art.’'
Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni remembered Valentino as "an indisputable maestro of eternal style and elegance of Italian high fashion."
Never one for edginess or statement dressing, Valentino made precious few fashion faux-pas throughout his nearly half-century-long career, which stretched from his early days in Rome in the 1960s through to his retirement in 2008.
His fail-safe designs made Valentino the king of the red carpet, the go-to man for A-listers’ awards ceremony needs. His sumptuous gowns have graced countless Academy Awards, notably in 2001, when Roberts wore a vintage black and white column to accept her best actress statue. Cate Blanchett also wore Valentino — a one-shouldered number in butter-yellow silk — when she won the Oscar for best supporting actress in 2004.
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Valentino was also behind the long-sleeved lace dress Jacqueline Kennedy wore for her wedding to Greek shipping magnate Aristotle Onassis in 1968. Kennedy and Valentino were close friends for decades, and for a spell the one-time U.S. first lady wore almost exclusively Valentino.
He was also close to Diana, Princess of Wales, who often donned his sumptuous gowns.
Beyond his signature orange-tinged shade of red, other Valentino trademarks included bows, ruffles, lace and embroidery; in short, feminine, flirty embellishments that added to the dresses’ beauty and hence to that of the wearers.
Perpetually tanned and always impeccably dressed, Valentino shared the lifestyle of his jet-set patrons. In addition to his 152-foot (46-meter) yacht and an art collection including works by Picasso and Miro, the couturier owned a 17th-century chateau near Paris with a garden said to boast more than a million roses.
Valentino and his longtime partner Giammetti flitted among their homes — which also included places in New York, London, Rome, Capri and Gstaad, Switzerland — traveling with their pack of pugs. The pair regularly received A-list friends and patrons, including Madonna and Gwyneth Paltrow.
"When I see somebody and unfortunately she’s relaxed and running around in jogging trousers and without any makeup ... I feel very sorry," the designer told RTL television in a 2007 interview. "For me, woman is like a beautiful, beautiful flower bouquet. She has always to be sensational, always to please, always to be perfect, always to please the husband, the lover, everybody. Because we are born to show ourselves always at our best."
Valentino was born into a well-off family in the northern Italian town of Voghera on May 11, 1932. He said it was his childhood love of cinema that set him down the fashion path.
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"I was crazy for silver screen, I was crazy for beauty, to see all those movie stars being sensation, well dressed, being always perfect," he explained in the 2007 television interview.
After studying fashion in Milan and Paris, he spent much of the 1950s working for established Paris-based designer Jean Desses and later Guy Laroche before striking out on his own. He founded the house of Valentino on Rome’s Via Condotti in 1959.
From the beginning, Giammetti was by his side, handling the business aspect while Valentino used his natural charm to build a client base among the world’s rich and fabulous.
After some early financial setbacks — Valentino’s tastes were always lavish, and the company spent with abandon — the brand took off.
Early fans included Italian screen sirens Gina Lollobrigida and Sophia Loren, as well as Hollywood stars Elizabeth Taylor and Audrey Hepburn. Legendary American Vogue editor-in-chief Diana Vreeland also took the young designer under her wing.
BRIGITTE BARDOT’S FINAL DAYS BEFORE HER DEATH AT 91 AS TRIBUTES POUR IN FOR FRENCH ICON
Over the years, Valentino’s empire expanded as the designer added ready-to-wear, menswear and accessories lines to his stable. Valentino and Giammetti sold the label to an Italian holding company for an estimated $300 million in 1998. Valentino would remain in a design role for another decade.
In 2007, the couturier feted his 45th anniversary in fashion with a 3-day-long blowout in Rome, capped with a grand ball in the Villa Borghese gallery.
Valentino retired in 2008 and was briefly replaced by fellow Italian Alessandra Facchinetti, who had stepped into Tom Ford’s shoes at Gucci before being sacked after two seasons.
Facchinetti’s tenure at Valentino proved equally short. As early as her first show for the label, rumors swirled that she was already on her way out, and just about one year after she was hired, Facchinetti was indeed replaced by two longtime accessories designers at the brand, Maria Grazia Chiuri and Pierpaolo Piccioli.
Chiuri left to helm Dior in 2016, and Piccioli continued to lead the house through a golden period that drew on the launch of the Rockstud pump with Chiuri and his own signature color, a shade of fuchsia called Pink PP. He left the house in 2024, later joining Balenciaga, and has been replaced by Michele, who revived Gucci’s stars with romantic, genderless styles.
Valentino is owned by Qatar’s Mayhoola, which controls a 70% stake, and the French luxury conglomerate Kering, which owns 30% with an option to take full control in 2028 or 2029. Richard Bellini was named CEO last September.
A public viewing will be held at the Valentino Garavani and Giancarlo Giammetti Foundation on Wednesday and Thursday, and a funeral will be held Friday in the Basilica di Santa Maria degli Angeli e dei Martiri in central Rome.
Barchfield is a former Associated Press writer. Barry reported from Milan.