Billionaire Dies After Swallowing a Bee During Polo Match

A billionaire died after swallowing a bee, and the bee stung him internally.

In what sounds like a lower-tier Final Destination death, Indian auto parts billionaire Sunjay Kapur died after reportedly swallowing a bee during a polo match at the Queen’s Cup in Windsor. What vivid imagery.

Witnesses say the 53-year-old shouted, “I swallowed something.” He then toppled over and died. You’d imagine that anaphylactic shock was somehow involved, followed by a heart attack, though none of that has been confirmed yet.

Kapur was generationally rich. After the 2015 death of his father, Surinder Kapur, Sunjay took the reins of Sona Comstar, a massive global auto parts empire responsible for supplying the booming electric vehicle market. With twelve factories worldwide and over a third of its $412 billion business tied to EV components, the company confirmed his death on social media.

Kapur was a staple of India’s celebrity gossip pages, thanks to his deeply toxic marriage to Bollywood actress Karisma Kapoor. Their 13-year marriage ended in a mess of horrific allegations. Kapoor accused Kapur of attempting to auction her off to friends during their honeymoon, physical abuse, and instructing his mother to physically assault her during her pregnancy.

Kapur leaves behind three children — two with Kapoor and one with his second wife, Priya Sachdev, heir to a different auto parts fortune.

Though we await the official autopsy, Kapur’s sudden death adds to a growing, unintentionally absurd micro-genre of insect-induced athlete demises that has been well-cataloged by Futurism’s Noor Al-Sibai. Just last year, cyclists in both Brazil and the Bay Area reportedly died after inhaling bees mid-ride. What an odd and somewhat delightfully eccentric way to go. If I may, I think there is a valuable “The More You Know”-style lesson to be taken from all this: swallow your pride, not bees.