His brother Michael made history as the youngest ever Brit to reach the summit aged 22 in 1999, but tragically died on the perilous mountain.
And on Friday, Spencer Matthews, 34, praised his wife Vogue Williams, 37 – with whom he shares son Thedore, four, daughter Gigi, two, and son Otto, 11 months – for not ‘stepping in the way’ of his bid to recover his late brother’s body.
Appearing on ITV’s This Morning, the former Made In Chelsea star admitted he ‘had to leave Otto pretty soon after he was born,’ as he discussed the impact filming his new Disney+ documentary, Finding Michael, had on his young family.
Spencer – whose wife gave birth in April 2022 – told Dermot O’Leary and Alison Hammond: ‘I had to leave Otto pretty soon after he was born, and I wouldn’t be able to do if she wasn’t so supportive.
‘She is so family oriented that she would have done the same thing. She knew that taking this on was important to us as a family – she didn’t even come close to stepping in the way.’
Grateful: On Friday, Spencer Matthews, 34, praised his wife Vogue Williams, 37, for not ‘stepping in the way’ of his bid to recover his late brother’s body
Family: Spencer admitted he ‘had to leave Otto pretty soon after he was born,’ as he discussed the impact filming his new Disney+ documentary, Finding Michael, had on his young family
Family: Spencer and Vogue share Thedore, four, Gigi, two, and Otto, 11 months
Spencer also explained that the original filming date had been pushed back by a year due to Covid, so it had been agreed that it would go ahead in 2022, long before they knew Vogue was pregnant.
The Made In Chelsea alum spoke fondly of his late brother, recalling: ‘I think we shared a very loving relationship, i understand he was the sibling really pushing my parents to have another child. Now I’m 12 years older than him, but I’ll always see him as my older brother.
‘He had had great success with a number of other mountains and Everest was just next on his list. He was a good kid he just wanted to push himself.’
Describing how he was told of his brother’s passing, Spencer admitted: ‘I think if there is anything to be grateful for it was being that age, I wasn’t hit by it like it did my family. I couldn’t quite wrap my head around how he could have died.
‘I was called into their bedroom. They said Michael’s been lost on the mountain. I just thought let me know when you find him. I think my parents did such a good job of sheltering me from it. We moved through it with pain but i look back at that time, but I lived my life well as a kid.’
And of how the idea for the documentary came about, the reality star explained: ‘In 2017 the family received an email of a photo of a body.
‘I did a bit of digging, I found out that body recovery was possible to recover a body. There’s a few cases of successful body recoveries.’
Lead by Nirmal ‘Nims’ Purja, Spencer said of the expedition: ‘We were aware of the risks attached to that. This was something that was possible, he [Nims] could do very minimal risk to his team that’s what pushed us to the edge of agreeing to doing it.
Challenge: Spencer’s documentary Finding Michael is available now on Disney+
Emotional: On Thursday, Spencer fought back tears as he discussed his attempts to recover his late brother’s body on Mount Everest on The One Show
RIP: Michael made history as the youngest ever Brit to reach the summit aged 22 in 1999, but tragically died on the perilous mountain
‘I want him [Michael] to have a legacy, to die at 22, I want him to have a place in everybody’s hearts.
Of the trek, Spencer admitted: ‘It was cathartic in a way, to make the same journey that Michael did those years ago, and that part of the world and the culture..
‘I wanted to be as close to the mountain as I could be, 5 and a bit weeks in total, to immerse myself in the process and many ways move through the grief and pain for the first time. I had suppressed these feelings for most of my adult life.’
In the Disney+ documentary, Spencer Matthews is filmed hearing his late brother Michael Matthews’ voice for the first time since 1999.
The TV star – who was 10 years old when his big brother went missing – got to see some unearthed footage, given to him by his sibling’s climbing partner, Dave Rodney.
In the film, Spencer 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.’
Tragic: Michael is said to have got in trouble after beginning to make his way down the south descent through the ‘death zone’ on May 13, 1999
Moving: The TV star, who was aged just 10 when it happened, retold Alex Jones and Roman Kemp about Michael’s last journey and how he retraced his steps to try to bring him home
Dave labelled Spencer’s big brother as the ‘best mate I could ever have hoped for on the mountain’, as he reflected on the day Michael disappeared.
He continued: ‘Our dream was to be together on summit day. Sadly, although we climbed every single day of the expedition, together on summit day, we were not.
‘I was to be with two other people and he was to be with his guide. I only found out the next day that he had not come down and 40 below had become 50 below and breezes became hurricane winds.
‘But I’m so pleased that Spencer and Bear and the crew have filmed something that is, I think, going to be not only legendary, it’ll touch absolutely everyone who’s experienced grief and loss and help them through that process.’
On Thursday, Spencer fought back tears as he discussed his attempts to recover his late brother’s body on Mount Everest on The One Show.
The reality star became choked up as he spoke of how Michael made history as the youngest ever Brit to reach the summit aged 22 in 1999, but tragically died on the perilous mountain.
He retold Alex Jones and Roman Kemp about Michael’s last journey and how he retraced his steps to try to bring him home.
Spencer said: ‘When Michael went missing, by the time some people realised he was missing it was too late. Nobody survives the night, really. A couple of cases maybe.
Emotional: Spencer was on the show to talk about his new Disney+ documentary, Finding Michael, released on Friday
Brothers: Spencer (left) spoke candidly about his elder brother (right) with whom he shares a striking resemblance
Michael is said to have got in trouble after beginning to make his way down the south descent through the ‘death zone’ on May 13, 1999.
He was the brother of Pippa Middleton’s husband, the racing driver turned hedge fund manager James Matthews, 47.
The experienced mountaineer, who had previously conquered Aconcagua, the Pyrenees and the Swiss Alps, was the 162nd person to die on Everest.
Spencer went on to detail how he made the ‘difficult decision’ to undertake the mission himself.
‘In 2017, the family was sent a photo of a body on the mountain and they claimed that it could be Michael. In fact it did look like it could be, with similar summit suits. It’s the first time really that I thought even a body recovery was possible.
‘It continued to tick away in my head: ‘What if it is him?’. I’ve certainly grown up with feelings that he’s up there and died and was left there. Wouldn’t it be nice if there was a body to mourn for my family?
‘We scrapped together any information we had. Some of the footage of Michael on the mountain I’d never seen before,’ he said, becoming increasingly more emotional as the interview progressed.
‘It was the first time I’d seen him on camera, because as a kid we didn’t do home movies or anything.
Sad loss: Michael became the youngest Briton to reach the summit of Everest at the age of 22, but disappeared on the mountain just three hours later
Honesty: Spencer said: ‘He’s frozen in time. I’m his big brother now. I was unable to stop thinking about it. I wanted to bring him home for my mum’
‘Retracing his steps and understanding his final days a bit better was quite cathartic for me…’
The former Made In Chelsea star filmed Finding Michael with the help of survivalist Bear Grylls and record-breaking mountaineer Nirmal ‘Nims’ Purja.
Ahead of its release, he told The Sunday Times: ”I’m not the most emotional person but the nearer we got to the mountain, the more potent my feelings became. It’s the closest I’ve felt to Mike since his death.’
‘He’s frozen in time. I’m his big brother now. I was unable to stop thinking about it. I wanted to bring him home for my mum.’
Spencer added: ‘I found the idea unbearable of him being out there on the mountain, alone, with people walking past him en route to the summit.
The trailer for Finding Michael begins with Spencer looking at a picture of his brother wearing a red ski jacket, saying: ‘I hate the picture. All I see is a young man in the process of losing his life.’
He continues: ‘Michael was my big brother. 20 odd years later we are sent this photograph of a body, it looks like it could be Michael.
‘My heart says we should go and find him. And if we can, bring him home. We need the best people possible. We have one of the greatest, Nims Purja. We have to look all over the mountain.’
Tears: Spencer added: ‘I found the idea unbearable of him being out there on the mountain, alone, with people walking past him en route to the summit
Brothers: TV personality Spencer was 10 years old when Michael (left next to sibling James) tragically died aged 22 – after becoming the youngest Brit to reach the peak in 1999
Spencer can be seen kissing his wife Vogue Williams, holding their new-born baby, who says: ‘God I hope you find him.’
She is later seen getting emotional while on a video call to Spencer who is out on the expedition.
World ’14 peak’ record holder Nirmal leads the 10-man search crew armed with drones and the trailer shows the crew as they face unexpected and extreme challenges as well as intense time pressures when the weather closes in.
TV presenter and executive producer Bear says: ‘Stay safe. If you get hold of Mike, I hear his voice screaming that one loud.’
He later added: ‘On average, seven people every year of those attempting Everest will lose their lives. No mountain is worth dying for a second time over.’
Spencer trekked to South Base Camp base camp via Namche Bazaar, a town in north-eastern Nepal, often the staging point for expeditions to and other Himalayan peaks.
He made the journey just five days after the birth of his son Otto after a ‘weather window’ made scaling the mountain feasible.
Spencer would have otherwise been left facing another year of waiting to begin the search, revealing that he had the backing of his wife Vogue.
Project: During the film, Spencer undertook a ‘gut-wrenching’ mission to climb Mount Everest to find the body of his brother Michael
The South Base Camp is at an altitude of 5,364 metres.
Describing the trek, he said: ‘You don’t have to be superman to do it. You come across this town [Namche Bazaar] in the sky. It’s amazing. It’s above the clouds. It reminded me of Asgard.
‘Part of the film is that we retrace the exact steps that Mike and his friends took. We stay in the same places and do the same path as he did. It’ll be a really powerful and amazing film’.
Finding Michael, directed by Tom Beard, is set to premiere on Disney+ on March 3
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