{"id":894332,"date":"2026-09-16T17:42:14","date_gmt":"2026-09-16T17:42:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/894332\/"},"modified":"2026-09-16T17:42:14","modified_gmt":"2026-09-16T17:42:14","slug":"ben-saunders-death-the-voice-holland-winner-found-dead-aged-43","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/894332\/","title":{"rendered":"Ben Saunders death: The Voice Holland winner found dead, aged 43"},"content":{"rendered":"

London-born singer Ben Saunders, who found fame as the first winner of The Voice Holland, has died, aged 43.<\/p>\n

The father-of-three\u2019s body was found in a lake in Rijkerswoerdse Plassen, a recreational lake in Elst, south-east of Amsterdam.<\/p>\n

\"Ben<\/p>\n

London-born singer Ben Saunders, who found fame as the first winner of The Voice Holland, has died, aged 43.\u00a0YouTube<\/p>\n

Dutch police had said they were looking for a missing person, described as \u201ca 43-year-old man, white skin, white shirt, blue jeans, black shoes, and various tattoos on his head and neck, on his arms and hands\u201d.<\/p>\n

Hours later on Tuesday (Wednesday AEST), the body was discovered in the water and confirmed to be that of the singer.<\/p>\n

Police do not suspect any foul play.<\/p>\n

Police searched Saunders\u2019 home in nearby Arnhem, local media reported, where Saunders and his fianc\u00e9e Janita Engels moved to recently from Hoorn in North Holland.<\/p>\n

\"Ben<\/p>\n

The father-of-three\u2019s body was found in a lake in Rijkerswoerdse Plassen, a recreational lake in Elst, south-east of Amsterdam.\u00a0YouTube<\/p>\n

The grim find comes almost 16 years to the date of Saunders\u2019 appearance on the reality TV series, which kicked off on September 17, 2010. He had all the coaches turn around for his rendition of Use Somebody by Kings of Leon.<\/p>\n

The tattooed crooner, who was born to English parents but grew up in Hoorn, won the hearts of the nation and was crowned the inaugural winner of the singing contest in January 2011, in an episode watched by more than 3.7 million people.<\/p>\n

But in the years since, Saunders was in the headlines for the wrong reasons.<\/p>\n

\"Ben<\/p>\n

In the years since his reality TV show win, Saunders was in the headlines for the wrong reasons.\u00a0YouTube<\/p>\n

This included being sentenced to community service for assault in 2016, becoming a member of an outlawed motorcycle club and, a year ago, his car was set alight.<\/p>\n

He and his fianc\u00e9e, who have a son together as well as children from previous relationships, opened a tattoo parlour together in 2018.<\/p>\n

Earlier this year, Saunders said he\u2019d suffered significant financial setbacks as his music career declined but wanted to continue singing and performing. He\u2019d also dealt with health problems caused by hernias.<\/p>\n

Saunders\u2019 older brother Dean Saunders confirmed his sibling\u2019s death and paid tribute to the singer.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy dear little brother died today. I have never felt pain like I feel now,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat a terrible day for all of us. We have to learn to live with this and I hope it is treated with respect.<\/p>\n

\u201cBen had a beautiful family and relatives who love him dearly. I will always do so too. Ben is in my heart and he will stay there forever.\u201d<\/p>\n

One of The Voice coaches, Marco Borsato, said his \u201cheart is crying\u201d at the news.<\/p>\n

\u201cDear, special man … I cannot find words for the emptiness you leave behind,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n

\u201cDear Janita, friends and family, much strength in processing this enormous loss.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"London-born singer Ben Saunders, who found fame as the first winner of The Voice Holland, has died, aged…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":894333,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[64,63,134],"class_list":["post-894332","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-entertainment"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/894332","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=894332"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/894332\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/894333"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=894332"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=894332"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=894332"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}