James Cuda, the reality television personality a generation of viewers knew simply as Princess, was found dead inside a sober living home in Wilkes-Barre, Pa., on Sunday afternoon, August 30, 2026, according to TMZ, which first reported the death on September 1. He was 53.
Luzerne County Coroner Dion Fernandes told the outlet that Cuda’s body was discovered at the recovery residence and that no foul play is suspected. A cause of death has not been determined and remains pending toxicology results.
A 2013 Episode That Went Viral
Cuda became an unlikely television fixture through a single hour of the ABC reality series “Wife Swap.” The episode, titled “Kuncaitis/Zdazinsky,” opened the show’s seventh season on March 21, 2013, and paired an off-grid Christian farm family who lived without electricity against a Las Vegas household where Cuda, who is gay, worked as the manny — the sort of culture-clash casting the series had built its name on.
The swap ran in the direction the format demands: Marissa Zdazinsky went to the Kuncaitis farm, and Angela Kuncaitis, a mother of six, came to Las Vegas. It was there, in the Zdazinsky home, that the confrontation happened. A contemporaneous recap reported that Kuncaitis was horrified by Marissa’s gay friend and manny, as were her children. Later accounts have said she called being gay disgusting and ordered him out of the house. Footage of the episode spread online, and more than a decade on it still circulates and is picked apart on social media, where Princess is frequently remembered as the person who stayed composed while he was berated.
That attention gave Cuda a lasting second life online, which explains how quickly word of his death traveled through reality TV fan communities.
Castmate Shares an Emotional Tribute
Zdazinsky, a close friend of Cuda’s and his employer in the episode, announced his death in an Instagram post that included a series of candid photographs of the two of them taken over the years.
“The saddest moment of my life happened today,” she wrote, adding that she had just learned of his death.
“Princess battled a growing alcohol addiction for the past 20 years, and we were friends,” she wrote, saying that she and her husband “did everything humanly possible and necessary in the last few years to force him into getting sober.”
“He was one year sober last Sunday,” Zdazinsky wrote — a reference that would place the anniversary a week before his death.
She also said Cuda “hid a secret of his declining and deteriorating condition with his organs.” Zdazinsky said she was in contact with his family in Los Angeles and that it mattered to her that people know he was sober at the end of his life and had “found God in his end days.” She ended the post by saying she did not know what to say or think.
Fans Remember “Princess”
Condolences filled the comment section beneath Zdazinsky’s tribute, many from viewers who had followed Cuda since the episode first aired. One commenter said they had learned of his struggles through Zdazinsky’s YouTube channel and other posts, and said they were saddened to hear that his demons had won.
Another said the swap episode was still one of their favorites and that Cuda had seemed like a loving and caring person, adding that the world felt less fabulous without him. Several thanked Zdazinsky for sticking by him over so many years and for letting people know publicly that he had been sober. Others offered brief messages, wishing him rest and sending prayers to Zdazinsky and her family.
Cuda’s death comes in a corner of reality television where a viral moment can outlive by years the show that produced it. “Wife Swap” built its reputation on culture-clash casting, and an off-grid farm mother dropped into a Las Vegas household delivered precisely that. For many viewers, the episode was their first and only encounter with Cuda — and, judging by the tributes, one they never forgot.
For now, the official record remains incomplete. Fernandes has said no foul play is suspected, but the coroner’s office has not released a cause of death. As of September 3, the case was still awaiting toxicology results, which the office has said are needed before a cause of death is determined. He had marked a year of sobriety a week earlier, and died inside the home where he was rebuilding his life.
