Beloved twin stars explain heartbreaking final decision to end lives with assisted dying
Twin sisters Alice and Ellen Kessler who shot to fame as a dancing double act have died at the age of 89.
The renowned Kessler twins, who worked with showbiz stars such as Frank Sinatra and Fred Astaire in their heyday, passed away on Monday (17 November).
According to reports, the German siblings chose to leave the world the same way they entered it - side by side.
The performers had planned to end their lives together via assisted dying, which is legal in their home country, the newspaper Bild reported.
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The publication claims that Alice and Ellen - who were famed for their myriad of talents, including singing, dancing and acting - 'no longer wanted to live'.
The pair had previously told Bild of their desire to share the same urn when their time eventually came, while they wanted their ashes to accompany those of their beloved mother Elsa and dog Yello.
"We stipulated this in our wills," Ellen said last year, before candidly discussing the prospect of her and Alice's death.
"Our life has been characterised by discipline," she said. "Now we are approaching the end. We won't live much longer. So we must approach the end with discipline.
"'After us, the deluge', is not in our nature."
The European superstars said that they had used their money 'wisely' throughout their careers, while explaining they would leave a large chunk of cash to several charities among other beneficiaries upon their deaths.
"We still have a little something left over," Ellen added. "We earned very good money, never threw it away and invested it well."
The sisters performed alongside one another across the globe - on stages such as Düsseldorf's Palladium and The Lido in Paris - after initially starting dance classes at the age of six and later attending a ballet school.
In 1959, Alice and Ellen represented West Germany in the Eurovision Song Contest, before they later moved to Italy and racked up a host of TV gigs, including appearances on the The Perry Como Show.
The sisters even posed for the Italian edition of Playboy when they were 40, cementing their position as showbiz legends. They moved back to Germany in 1986.
Police in Alice and Ellen's home country confirmed their deaths, according to Bild.
The twins reportedly opted for assisted dying, which is legal in Germany.
According to Dignity in Dying, Germany's Constitutional Court found that there is a constitutional right to a self-determined death in 2019 and it's 'enshrined within its constitution'.
It explains: "This includes the freedom to seek and make use of assistance provided by a third party. The Bundestag is drafting legislation to regulate based on the ruling."
Topics: Celebrity, World News
Olivia Burke