Spencer Matthews searched for brother's body and 'heard his voice for first time in 24 years'
03.03.2023 - 15:31
/ dailyrecord.co.uk
Spencer Matthews' mission to recover his older brother's body has led him to watch footage of Michael for the first time since his disappearance on Mount Everest in 1999.
In the new Disney+ documentary Finding Michael, Spencer attempts to find the body of his brother who vanished three hours after becoming the youngest Brit to reach the summit of Everest at the age of 22.
The 34-year-old's efforts are helped by survivalist icon Bear Grylls and "14 peak" record-holding mountaineer Nirmal "Nims" Purja who leads the search and rescue mission.
The former Made In Chelsea star said Michael was "everything" to him and the pair were often described as "twins separated by time despite the age gap".
Canadian climber Dave Rodney, who had been on the expedition with Michael, also features in the film.
Spencer, who is married to Irish model Vogue Williams, said: “Dave in particular brought to the table footage from the 1999 expedition of Mike and Dave climbing and Mike’s attitude to the mountain and I actually had never, prior to flying to Canada to meet Dave, had never seen Mike on camera ever.
“We weren’t the kind of family that made home videos and when I said to mum and dad, when we agreed to make this documentary, I said I need all footage of Mike and they said ‘We don’t have any’.
“Fortunately, Dave had this incredible film that I hadn’t seen so I saw it in Canada for the first time and it’s the first time I’d heard Michael speak since he was alive, since I was 10.”
Dave said that Michael was the “best mate I could ever have hoped for on the mountain”, and he is “honoured and humbled” to be a part of the documentary.
He said: “Our dream was to be together on summit day. Sadly, although we climbed every single day of the expedition,