Twin brothers were found dead next to each other in a country lane days after Christmas after a relative found a suicide note, an inquest has heard.

The bodies of Billy and Joe Smith, who appeared on the Channel 4 TV show My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding in 2014, were found near Sevenoaks on the morning of December 28.

The tree surgeons, who had celebrated their 32nd birthdays around two weeks earlier, were remembered as brothers who "came into this world together and went into the next together" in a Facebook memorial page.

At the opening of the inquest into their deaths on Tuesday, senior coroner Roger Hatch, sitting at north west Kent coroner's court in Maidstone, was told: "I understand the circumstances to be that a call to police was made by a family member having discovered a suicide note."

No family members were present during the short hearing and no date was set for the full inquest.

Joe was a father of two married to Charmaine Smith, while Billy was single, the hearing was told.

Paddy Doherty, one of the reality show's biggest names and winner of Celebrity Big Brother, said the deaths of the "two good-looking boys" were a "terrible tragedy" in a video tribute.

Other tributes on the memorial page, which has more than 4,500 followers, said it was "just heartbreaking two beautiful young souls gone too soon" and wished the pair would "both rest in gods home in heaven in eternal peace".

Kent Police said they were called at 11.34am on December 28 after the bodies were found in woodland in Dibden Lane, Sevenoaks.