Reality television brothers die in ‘suicide pact’ after cancer diagnosis
Warnings over depression in gipsy community after family say twins ‘could not live without each other’
TWIN brothers who starred in a television reality show were found dead in a suspected suicide pact after one was diagnosed with cancer, their family said last night.
The bodies of 32-year-old Billy and Joe Smith were found in woodland near their grandmother’s home in Sevenoaks, Kent, on Saturday morning.
The brothers came from a family of Romany gipsies and featured in the television series My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding in 2013.
Days before their suspected suicide, the pair were filmed dancing and singing together at a wedding.
Close family members, however, are understood to have privately raised concerns about their states of mind in recent weeks.
Joe had been diagnosed with cancer, which came as a huge blow to his brother Billy, their cousin Phoebe Charleen Smith said.
Ms Smith told The Daily Telegraph last night: “Joey had cancer, and Billy told him ‘I’d never be able to live without you.’
“Joey told the family he got the allclear after chemo two months ago, but we don’t know if that’s true now.
“They went missing, and Joey’s phone was turned off, so we knew something was wrong.
“Then we found a note, saying that they wanted it like this, and we would find them in the woods where they played together as children years ago. My uncle ran up there and found them.”
Ms Smith added that the twins were “loved by everyone”. “They could not live without each other,” she said.
Billy’s partner Kristina Delaney, from Cheltenham, Glos, described him as “perfect, pure and lovely”.
In a tribute on social media, she wrote: “May you both get the best beds in heaven. Bill, please please please be happy now. I’m just persuading myself you’re happier.”
In one episode of My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding in 2013, the twins discussed the pitfalls of marriage before cameras followed them on holiday to the island of Tenerife. In recent years, they set up a landscape gardening business.
A source close to the family said that both men had been suffering from depression “for some time”.
“The boys seemed happy to everyone that saw them,” the source told The Telegraph.
“The closer family were concerned that they were battling depression, but they were very good at hiding it.
“They were happy-go-lucky, but it shows you cannot always see what hides behind a smile. The family knew they were not right, but they never expected them to do this.”
Billy Welch, national spokesman for Britain’s Romany community, said the deaths of the Smith twins should lead to lessons being learnt.
“This tragedy should be a wake-up call about high suicide rates among the travelling community,” he said.
“Life can be very difficult for Romany people and travellers, and they often suffer in silence.”
A 2017 survey by the Equality and Human Rights Commission found gipsies, travellers and Roma suffered poorer mental health than the rest of the population in Britain and were “more likely to suffer from anxiety and depression”.
Other studies point to a reluctance among some parts of the travelling community to admit to suffering from so-called “nerves”.
An inquest into the deaths is due to be held in the new year.