The ‘Alaskan Bush People’ star turned 42

Matt Brown, star of the Discovery docudrama series “Alaskan Bush People,” has died. He was 43.

Matt Brown’s death was announced by his brother, Bear, in a TikTok video posted Saturday evening. Bear said his sibling’s body was found in a nearby river and the cause of death appeared to be suicide.

“This is an update on Matt,” he said. “They found a body in the river a few hours ago and it was clearly identified as Matt Noah [Brown] was with him and helped to pull him out of the water, and Noah identified him.”

Bear added, “I never expected him to have hurt himself, to be honest. He struggled with it for a long time, like I said. I was so afraid he was going to overdose or something like that, that I didn’t think he would hurt himself. It looks like the injury was self-inflicted. Obviously the coroner still has to look at him and all that, but I just thought you all should know it was him.”

Matt Brown and his family were featured in the first eight seasons of “Alaskan Bush People,” which followed him, his parents and his six siblings as they lived off the grid in Alaska. Brown appeared in 79 episodes from 2014 to 2019.

In his post on Saturday, Bear urged viewers to “be respectful to my family and my mother. And please pay attention to the comments you leave guys. Sometimes words can hurt more than fists.” He also noted that “many people have posted negative comments” about Matt Brown’s past activities on social media.