TRAGIC TWIN
Alcohol made my brother a monster and I threw him out a week before his suicide – I couldn’t save him, says Will Young
BORN just minutes apart, singer Will Young and his twin brother Rupert shared an unbreakable bond.
They looked and sounded alike — but Will became a household name after winning Pop Idol in 2002, while Rupert once joked he only had the nerve to sing “after a few beers”.
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And their lives took completely different paths.
Will is an award-winning chart star but his brother Rupert tragically took his own life nearly two years ago after a long battle with depression and alcohol addiction.
Now Will, 43, is speaking out for the first time since the death of his twin in a Channel 4 documentary which airs tomorrow night.
He tells how a previous suicide attempt left Rupert watching him perform from the Pop Idol audience in 2002 with his wrists dripping with blood, and how drink turned him into a “monster”.
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Will also reveals he hit Rupert the last time he saw him, adding: “I don’t have a problem with that because he deserved that.”
On Will Young: Losing My Twin Rupert, he explains: “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. Other people will be experiencing this and I don’t want them to feel alone.”
Non-identical twins Will and Rupert grew up in Wokingham, Berks, with older sister Emma and parents Annabel and Robin.
Annabel describes how Rupert was a “bouncy and naughty” child who once shot his brother in the leg with an air rifle, while Will was “quieter”.
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Despite being opposite in nature, Will says they were “best friends”.
‘HE CAME TO STUDIOS AND HIS STITCHES BURST OPEN’
They attended a traditional prep school where they boarded from the age of nine — and Will claims they were abused by adults there.
He says: “I remember we were beaten with slippers. Rupert was picked up by his throat and slammed against a library bookcase. But we didn’t want to complain.”
Their parents knew nothing of the alleged abuse.
Rupert later spoke of his torment at school in a series of interviews about his mental health struggles.
He said in 2008: “At boarding school I was always being compared with my brother. My teachers could have been a bit more positive.
“An older teacher used to regularly beat me up.”
In another interview, he said: “When Will and I were at boarding school my identity was ‘the bad one’. And that continued until I was 25.
“I would wind up the teachers and I was told in return that I was not a good person.
“As a child I believed that, and I internalised it.”
Rupert also told how he started self-harming at 13. Then, at the age of 18, he started drinking and first tried to kill himself.
Will recalls how Rupert received therapy and even went to rehab — but he made further suicide attempts.
Recalling one harrowing incident, Will says: “We were 22. I had started the Pop Idol auditions, moving into live TV and Rupert had really badly cut his wrists.
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. Other people will be experiencing this and I don’t want them to feel alone.
“He came to the studios and his stitches burst open when I was about to go on and sing.
“It was awful but I thought, ‘I just have to get on with it’.”
Mum Annabel says to Will in the documentary: “His arm was dripping with blood but he wouldn’t go into the ambulance until he’d seen you perform.”
Proud Rupert was often in the audience at the TV talent show, cheering on his brother.
Speaking in 2008, Rupert said: “Pop Idol was a great diversion.
“I could watch William get through each round of the show on Saturday nights and have a party.
“I was so proud, and I was constantly in a party mood.
“But while everyone else sobered up and went back to work, I carried on all week.
“And I’d turn up at his gigs drunk and behave like a child, which was really hard for him.”
Will reveals his brother “loved the attention” the first series of the hit ITV programme 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 chuckle: “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.”
After Will beat Gareth Gates in the final — watched by more than 13million people — his debut single, Evergreen, went straight to No1.
It was only later that the star, who went on to win two Brit awards, discovered the extent of his brother’s partying.
He says: “That’s when the drinking started taking hold more — but the anxiety and depression Rupert felt was there before the alcohol.” After Pop Idol, Rupert plunged deeper into the grips of addiction.
He said in 2008: “There was William on Richard and Judy, giving the most amazing performance of one of his songs.
“I had spent the night before drinking with tramps in a car park and cutting myself. It seemed bizarre to me that two people who are genetically the same could behave in such different ways.
“I realised that something had gone very wrong. But I didn’t know what, or why, and nor did anyone else.”
Will recalls how his kind-hearted brother would transform when he had a drink.
He says: “I could tell really quickly when he was drunk.
“You’d see that look in his eye. He would turn and it was scary.”
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.
He recalls “wrestling a knife away” from his brother during a scuffle and calling the police.
The family also stumped up thousands of pounds to send Rupert to leading rehab clinics including The Priory.
Will says: “When things got difficult in the past I’d be like, ‘Yeah, there’s £50,000 — have a lovely five-star trip to rehab’ and that went on for a lot of years.”
SUFFERING FROM SEVERE ANXIETY AND DEPRESSION
In 2005, Rupert attended a facility in Arizona, where he discovered his experience at school had sparked his mental health struggles.
There, he was diagnosed with a form of chronic depression called dysthymia, which causes low mood.
Getting to the root of his problems spurred him to help others — so in 2008 he set up a mental health charity, Mood Foundation, which went on to raise thousands of pounds.
In the past, Will has candidly admitted he has spent £500,000 on therapy for himself over issues with his own addictions to booze, shopping and porn.
He has also said his own experiences at prep school gave him PTSD following a diagnosis in 2012, while starring in Cabaret — for which he received a Best Actor nomination at the Olivier awards.
Will was forced to quit Strictly Come Dancing in 2016 over the fear he would do himself “real damage” due to suffering severe anxiety and depression.
And when Rupert had been sober for three years, Will got his initials tattooed on his arm “to show him I was very proud of him”. He says: “I do think it meant a lot to him.” The family believed Rupert had finally put his demons behind him — but Will reveals that after breaking up with a girlfriend, his brother went back to drinking.
He says: “Rupert piled shame on top of shame because he’d let me down again.”
In 2016, Rupert went to live with Will, who effectively became his carer. Will recalls: “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.”
The family tried to get Rupert help but struggled to access long-term support on the NHS.
Around a week before Rupert’s death, Will reported his brother as a trespasser and had him removed from his house. He says: “At the end, he would be drinking 24 hours a day. 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.”
In July 2020, Rupert was admitted to hospital after threatening to jump off Westminster Bridge.
Three days later he managed to discharge himself before taking his own life at the same location.
Two police officers knocked on his door to break the news to Will.
The singer, who is set to go on a UK tour later this year, admits: “I had a big moment where I realised I couldn’t save him and that brought a whole lot of grief.
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“Now I just feel very grateful that I got 42 years with him.”
- Will Young: Losing My Twin Rupert is on Channel 4 tomorrow at 10.05pm.
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