Matt Brown, one of the stars of Discovery‘s Alaska Bush VillageHe died at the age of 43.
His brother Bear announced the news in a TikTok video posted Saturday night, saying that a body had been found in a nearby river and had been positively identified as Matt.
His brother Noah Brown was present and helped pull him out of the water.
Bear said the death appeared to be “self-inflicted,” although he noted the coroner still needed to make a formal determination.
“Honestly, I never would have suspected that he would have gotten hurt,” Bear said in the video.
“He struggled for a long time, as I mentioned. I was so worried that he would end up overdosing or something, that I didn’t think he would hurt himself. It seems like the injury was self-inflicted.”
Bear also took a moment to ask viewers for compassion following the news.
“Please be respectful to my family and my mom. And please watch the comments you guys leave. Sometimes words can hurt worse than fists,” she said, noting that negative comments had been left on Matt’s previous social media posts.
Matt Brown appeared in 79 episodes of Alaska Bush Village throughout the show’s first eight seasons, from 2014 to 2019.
The series followed Matt, his parents, and his six siblings as they lived off the grid in Alaska, and became a huge hit for Discovery.
He had been open about personal struggles in recent years.
