Will Young has bravely opened about the loss of his brother and the anguish he felt having thrown him out of his home just a week beforehand. The singer's twin, Rupert, died by suicide in July 2020 at the age of 41.
He had suffered with depression and addiction to alcohol and painkillers prior to his death. Will has now candidly spoken in a new Channel 4 documentary, called Will Young: Losing My Twin Rupert, which airs on Tuesday night (May 10) at 10pm.
Will, now 43, told how his brother turned into a "monster" when he drank and revealed the heartbreaking moment he realised he "couldn't save" his sibling.
"It’s important to tell my story, to tell Rupert’s story, to tell my family’s story and to tell the story of 20 years living with my twin, who was an alcoholic," Will, who shot to fame on Pop Idol in 2002, said. "Other people will be experiencing this and I don’t want them to feel alone."
Will reveals that his non-identical twin brother “loved the attention” that Pop Idol brought. He says: "It was like he was the pop star. While I was busy winning the show, Rupert was jumping nightclub queue after nightclub queue, saying, ‘I’m Will Young’s brother’. We were 22. I had started the Pop Idol auditions, moving into live TV and Rupert had really badly cut his wrists. He came to the studios and his stitches burst open when I was about to go on and sing."
Will adds with a laugh: "He might as well have got it tattooed on his forehead. The stories that came back to me. The amount of people that know Rupert around London is insane, particularly if it’s a pretty brunette. 'Oh, I met your brother'. Yeah, I bet you have. I found it hysterical."
But the pop star says in the years before Rupert's death, he was his brother's carer, the Mirror reports. "My day would start. Either he was sick or he would have peed on the sofa, so I’d have to clear that up, then go get more beers and codeine because he was addicted to painkillers," Will recalls.
But just a week before Rupert's death, the Evergreen singer had reported his brother as a trespasser in order to remove him from his home. "At the end, he would be drinking 24 hours a day," Will said.
"You've got this monster who’s not moving. So the only thing was to throw him out but also to be aware he might end up killing himself. I was OK with everything I’d done to try to help him."
It was the time following his brother's death when he admitted to feeling a "whole lot of grief" after realising he couldn't save him. Will went on to emotionally say "I did everything I could to not let him die."
Will Young: Losing my Twin Rupert will see the singer set out to understand the impact of alcoholism on families - while coming to terms with his own grief. And while Will and his parents recall happier times with Rupert, the film looks at the stigma surrounding addiction, the difficulty in getting long-term treatment on the NHS and the tireless process of rehabilitation.
