French Twin TV Stars Grichka and Igor Bogdanoff Die of COVID-19 Within Days of Each Other

French TV stars and twin brothers Grichka and Igor Bogdanoff have both died of COVID-19.

Igor died Monday, just six days after Grichka died Dec. 28, CBS reports. The brothers were 72 years old.

Edouard de Lamaze, the twins' lawyer, told CNN that he learned of his clients' deaths from their relatives. He confirmed to the outlet, "They are dead from Covid. They were both at the same hospital, Grichka died six days earlier than Igor."

When reached for comment by PEOPLE, de Lamaze did not immediately reply.

BBC reports that the brothers, who were hospitalized in mid-December 2021, had not received the COVID-19.

"People have said they were anti-vaxxers but they absolutely weren't," Pierre-Jean Chalençon, a friend of the Bogdanoff family, told French TV station BFMTV, per the BBC.

When asked about his vaccination views on a French radio show in December, Igor cited French scientist Dr. Didier Raoult, who popularized hydroxychloroquine as a COVID-19 treatment, according to CBS. Igor agreed with Dr. Raoult's opinion that it was best to wait for future vaccines to be developed rather than receiving what is currently available.

Health officials say vaccines are the best safeguard against serious illness or death from the virus, but COVID vaccine requirements have become increasingly politicized as a matter of personal choice.

Grichka and Igor rose to fame in the late '70s with their TV show Temps X, which premiered in 1979, according to CBS. The series covered science fiction, and was a hit with viewers because of its simplified approach to scientific topics.

Temps X ran until 1987, according to the BBC. After their show ended, Grichka and Igor went on to write doctoral theses in mathematics and physics, although their work was largely dismissed by academics.

Prior to their hospitalizations, Grichka and Igor had been planning a return to the small screen, BBC reports. The brothers had been developing a pilot to reboot Temps X, which they planned to once again host on a spaceship.

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