France's Igor Bogdanoff dies from Covid-19, six days after twin brother

French TV personality and scientist Igor Bogdanoff died of Covid-19 infection 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.

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

Igor Bogdanoff, father of six children from several unions, had been hospitalised for 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.

• Grichka Bogdanoff dies aged 72 from Covid-19

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.

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

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.

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.