The “My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding” twins who died in a double suicide “couldn’t live without each other” and made a death pact after one was diagnosed with cancer, according to a report.
Billy and Joe Smith, who were featured on the British TLC reality show, were discovered dead by their uncle in Kent in England on Saturday morning, the Telegraph reported.
The 32-year-old brothers reportedly were hanging from a tree near their grandmother’s home in a remote area of Sevenoaks.
Family members said Joe had recently been diagnosed with cancer and his battle weighed heavily on his twin brother.
“Joey had cancer, and Billy told him, ‘I’d never be able to live without you,'” cousin Phoebe Charleen Smith told the Telegraph.
She said Joe recently informed the family that he was living cancer-free, though they’re now skeptical about that claim in the wake of his death.
“Joey told the family he got the all-clear after chemo two months ago, but we don’t know if that’s true now,” Phoebe Charleen Smith said.
The family feared the worst when the brothers went missing and they found a note indicating that something was amiss.
“They went missing, and Joey’s phone was turned off. Then we found a note,” she told the Telegraph. “It said that they wanted it like this, and we would find them in the woods where they played with the family years ago.”
She said the brothers were “loved by everyone” and had a strong bond with each other.
“They couldn’t live without each other, and the stars belong to the sky,” she said.
Relatives had worried before that the brothers were hiding their struggles with depression.
“The boys seemed happy to everyone that saw them,” a source close to the family told the outlet. “The closer family were concerned that they were battling depression, but they were very good at hiding it.”
The deaths are under investigation, though the case isn’t being treated as suspicious, the Independent reported.