The well-known journalist Kostas Hardavellas passed away at the age of 79.

The news of his death was announced on social media by his wife Maria Panagopoulou: “You left as you lived: Winner!
Rest now, close to the people that life deprived you of when you were a baby and you always wanted, Mama Calypso and Papa Konstantinos.
In the future my Giant “…and in the next life, from the beginning”

Who was Kostas Hardavellas?

Kostas Hardavellas was born in Piraeus on September 5, 1945 and studied journalism in Athens.

At an early age, he lost his mother and father. As he said in an interview:

“I have erased the word mother from my life because my mother passed away when I was five years old. You delete the things that hurt you. It’s what I often say, it’s a photographic film that you burn so it doesn’t hurt. So, the word mom for me has been deleted since I was five years old. I never said it, I never used it, and it’s not a word I use».

“Losing my father when I was 2 months old and my mother when I was 5 years old has left a mark on me. To this day I have an insecurity, of acceptance, does the other person like me?».

The first years

It first appeared in journalism on period of the Juntawhen he was hired as a journalist at the Ethnos newspaper. His first television appearance was in 1977, with the presentation of the show “Invitation to the Studio” on ERT. Since then he has gained great popularity due to the originality of his shows. He participated in the entertainment show Saturday morning, Sunday evening in 1978, while together with the journalists Yiannis Dimaras and Giorgos Lianis he presented the successful and much-discussed show of that time, Reporters, on YENED in 1982 and later on ERT2.

With these two journalists, he also participated in the anniversary broadcast of ERT2 for the closing of 20 years since the creation of Greek television. In 1993 after the opening of private television, he left the state and went to Mega, where he presented two television shows: the 60 minutes without editing and the Reporting in the fog which was transferred in 1994 to the then SKAI and in 1995 to Star, where it remained until 1999. In the same year, it started to present for a short time, the entertainment show Premiere. In 2000 he went to ANT1 and presented the informative show 9th Commandment, while the following year he returned to state television, specifically to ERT1, where he presented the informative show www.anthrōpoi.gr.

The years at Alter

In 2002 he moved to Alter, where he presented, until its closure, three informative shows: The Invisible World (2002-2011), Without Editing II (2003-2004), and The Gates of the Unexplained (2004-2010). In 2011, with the closure of Alter, it was briefly left without a television roof.

“The first spontaneous answer that comes to me to the question “how do you feel about what’s happening at Alter”, is that I feel μ@λ@κ@ς. My contract with Alter has expired since August 2011, of course without covering the financial obligations to me from the side of the station management. I worked normally like all of us without being paid, and even the few times that wages were paid, I accepted to opt out and wait since – of course! – the people who had a problem of survival had to be paid first. When I was asked to continue the broadcasts and in September I did so, unpaid and no longer part of the Alter staff, because I had the hope that if we kept the station on the “air” maybe something would change. Unfortunately, none of the promises made back then were kept. I feel like I’ve been fooled, I’ve been cheated, I feel like a fool, but now for me the loss is final. It is a tragedy that leaves behind human victims and shattered lives“, Kostas Hardavellas has said in an interview after the closure of Alter.

In 2013, he joined the staff of GR TV, where he continued to present the Invisible World. A little later it goes to Extra 3, with the same show.

Shortly after, he joined the staff of the television station Epsilon TV, where he remained until 2016, presenting for a short time the Central bulletin of the station and two shows: for a few months the informative Evolutions and the entertaining Totti oi kaoli horane. At the same time, since 2011, he has been writing articles for the newspaper Real News and the informative website Newsbomb, while on weekends, he presents an informative show on the radio station Real FM 97.8.

The battle with cancer

In 2009, Kostas Hardavellas revealed that he was suffering from cancer, about which he also wrote the book “The winner’s zeibeki». He was married to another journalist, Maria Panagopoulou, with whom he had a son.