French TV star twin Igor Bogdanoff dies of Covid six days after brother

French TV personality and scientist Igor Bogdanoff died of Covid-19 on Monday at the age of 72, less than a week after his brother Grichka. The twins made their name on Temps X, a cult science TV programme in the 1980s.

TV host Igor Bogdanoff (L) and his brother Grichka Bogdanoff. © AFP/Lucas Barioulet/File photo

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

A father of six children from several relationships, Igor had been hospitalised with a Covid-19 infection since mid-December, as was his twin brother Grichka.

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

Unvaccinated

Neither of the brothers had been vaccinated, 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.

In a recent interview with journalist Darius Rochebin, the twins showed how close they were and joked about the impossibility of dying apart.

Igor et Grichka Bogdanoff refusant, dans un rire, l’idée même de la mort de l’autre. Ils parlaient de l’expérience de la gémellité avec humour - «si on se fout du monde, c’est tendrement» - et l’illustraient de manière saisissante, en récitant des centaines de poèmes à deux voix. pic.twitter.com/zwjSmfQ9X8

— Darius Rochebin (@DariusRochebin) December 28, 2021

Cryptocurrency fans

Instantly recognisable and hugely popular in France, the Bogdanoff brothers 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, basing their claim largely on their closeness and friendship with Japanese mathematicians behind Bitcoin.

• Grichka Bogdanoff dies aged 72 from Covid-19

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

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

Temps X: First TV show in 1979

Grichka and Igor Bogdanoff © AFP/Eric Piermont