Eccentric French TV twins die of Covid within a week of each other

Two unvaccinated French TV star twin brothers, who made their name on a science programme in the 1980s before becoming famous for their cosmetic surgery, have died within a week of each other from Covid-19, friends and family confirmed.

The death of Igor Bogdanoff, 72, was confirmed on Monday evening by his lawyer Edouard de Lamaze, as well as his agent.

He died just six days after his brother Grichka Bogdanoff passed away in a Parisian hospital, also of Covid, the lawyer confirmed.

Instantly recognisable in France and a favourite in the country's glossy celebrity magazines, they also claimed to have taken part in the creation of Bitcoin.

"We were implicated, very early, in the birth of the cryptocurrency," Grichka told French TV show Non-Stop People in June, with their claim largely based on their proximity and friendship with Japanese mathematicians behind Bitcoin.

Igor announced that they would soon launch their own currency, "Exocoin".

Neither of the brothers had been vaccinated against Covid-19, their friend, Luc Ferry, a former education minister, said last week.

Ferry told Le Parisien newspaper that he had urged both of them to get vaccinated "countless times" but they refused on the basis that they were "very sporty, without a gram of fat".

"Grichka, like Igor, wasn't an anti-vaxxer. He was anti-vax for himself," Ferry said, confirming that both of them had contracted Covid.

The Russian-origin twins shot to fame as the presenters of the hit 1980s science show "Temps X" on the country's TF1 channel and carved out careers as amateur and often controversial science writers afterwards.

In their later years, their looks, socialite lifestyle and legal problems stemming from their attempt to relaunch "Temps X" kept them in the public eye.

They denied having plastic surgery to explain their transformed looks, but admitted to having undergone "experimentations" which gave them their extreme high cheek bones, as well as large lips and pronounced chins.

"We are proud of having faces like extra-terrestrials," they said in 2010.

Igor was a father of six from several marriages.

© 2022 AFP