In 2017, Spencer Matthews was sent a photograph that changed the course of the next few years. It appeared to be a dead body in a black and red snowsuit buried in the snow, in a similar location on Everest to where his big brother Michael went missing in 1999. Michael, who was 22, and had a similar snowsuit to that in the picture, was presumed dead at the time, but his body was never found.
Seeing the picture, Spencer, the former [Made In Chelsea star]{href='https://graziadaily.co.uk/life/tv-and-film/made-chelsea-guide/' target='_blank' rel='noreferrer noopener'}turned broadcaster, says it ‘pushed me into a different gear. '[The picture] came with a conversation around potentially recovering his body,’ he says. ‘I had never even thought that that was a possibility. Growing up after his death, and all of my adult life until recently, I didn't realise that recovering bodies from Everest was possible.’
Advancements in technology mean recoveries are more feasible these days, so Spencer spoke to his family and started making plans to undertake a once in a lifetime mission. ‘Once I realised that it was possible, I couldn't get it out of my mind. I knew deep down straight away that we were going to do this.’
What came next was the start of Spencer’s moving journey to find his brother and bring his body home. He flew out to the Himalayas and waited at Everest base camp while a team of expert guides led by the Nepalese-born British mountaineer Nims Purja went off on the treacherous search.
The thought that more lives could be put at risk in order to find Michael weighed on Spencer’s mind of course, but Nims reassured him he could keep his team safe. The expedition is the subject of the one-off documentary, Finding Michael on Disney Plus, which tells the story of Michael’s disappearance and his family’s journey to recover his body 20 years on.
Now a family man with three children, the youngest of which was a newborn when he set off, it wasn’t a trip Spencer took lightly. He was away for weeks in the end. But his wife, the model and media personality Vogue Williams, was ‘completely supportive,’ he says. ‘She thought the idea of bringing him home was a wonderful one. She is deeply family orientated and would do absolutely the same thing for her siblings. We both recognised that the timing of the expedition was unfortunate. I wouldn’t have been able to go had Vogue not been as supportive as she was. She was amazing. She thought that what we were doing was really special.’
How does he think Michael's story has affected his life?
‘It's deep down made me quite competitive,’ says the 34-year-old, who was once known for his drunken antics on the Channel 4 show but is now a teetotaler and founder of non-alcoholic drinks brand CleanCo. ‘I love adventure and thrill seeking, similarly to how he did. But I think that's probably more of a natural thing. I guess, in the past, I felt I might lack a bit of sympathy and empathy for others at times, if I'm being really honest. And I feel like having gone through brotherly loss at such a young age that I grew up with a hardened view of certain things.’
After Michael’s disappearance, there was talk that inadequate leadership and faulty oxygen bottles on his expedition could have been to blame for his death, but a private criminal prosecution brought by his father in 2006 failed to find the expedition leader or guides guilty of manslaughter by gross negligence.
‘There never was any closure. We never had a body to mourn. And we have never had the ability to visit his grave or be able to go and lay flowers by his tombstone,’ says Spencer.
He set off on the mission having no idea what to expect, but it ended up helping him come to terms with the loss of his brother.
‘I grew up thinking that Mike had been taken from us, as opposed to him having an accident. I think that makes the process difficult. I’ll never forgive the actions of those people but I've kind of come to terms with that more. And I'm easier around it having moved through this process. I now look at photos of Michael and I smile, whereas before I felt anger, I was carrying around a lot of a lot of anger towards certain people, throughout my teens and twenties. And I've managed to let go of that now. And that feels great.’
The outcome of the story is revealed in the documentary, which is moving, beautifully-made and shows a well-mannered, mature Spencer. He’s the same when we speak on the phone ahead of the film’s release – which is out today.
This serious-sounding family man is a far cry from the cheeky-chappy we were first introduced to on Made in Chelsea all those years ago. ‘The me in Made in Chelsea and the me now are very different people,’ he says.
He adds that the trip to find Michael made him learn about the importance of family and helped him let go of some of the sense of injustice that had plagued him when it came to his death.
‘If you can move through hate, I would advise that,’ he says. ‘I carried a lot of hate around with me for a little while. I do feel like I've moved through that. I do feel lighter as a result. And that's not to say that this was a permanent thing. I think the people that know me best would be surprised to hear me say that I carried around all this hatred for years, but trust me, it was there. I would kind of suppress it and it was always there.’
‘I’m not a very emotional person, I'm afraid,' he adds. 'But I was emotional on the mountain. And I did feel that was very welcome.'
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Finding Michael launches exclusively on Disney+ on Friday March 3**