Shaun Ryder’s brother Paul was going deaf 48 hours before his death

Happy Mondays’ Shaun Ryder has revealed his brother was going deaf 24 hours before he died as mystery grows over what the singer has branded his sibling’s ‘iffy’ passing.

In an exclusive joint statement issued to Mail Online as they wait for autopsy results, the Ryder family said the symptom came three weeks after Paul got a Covid booster – which Shaun, 59, is convinced ‘triggered’ his younger sibling’s passing. 

World Health Organisation officials admitted in March they were investigating ‘rare instances’ of hearing loss and ‘other auditory disturbances’ – including tinnitus – associated with Covid-19 vaccinations

The Ryders said: ‘The coroner has reported that Paul passed away as a result of Ischaemic heart disease and diabetes. At this point in time we have no further information until the full coroner’s report is released.

‘As previously reported, he was complaining of severe headaches in the two days leading up to his death.

‘And the day before his death was having trouble hearing. Paul had no prior knowledge of having heart disease and was given a clean bill of health, aside from the diabetes for which he was taking medication, just months before his passing. 

‘It was reported to the coroner that he received a COVID booster shot three weeks prior to his death and he was not warned of any special risks for his medical condition in connection with it.’

They continued: ‘We will let everyone know as soon as we have further details. The family would like to thank everyone from the bottom of our hearts for the outpouring of love and support from family, friends and fans.

‘We remain devastated by his untimely death and know that he would be so moved by the outpouring of love from so many people. Love each other – that’s what he would’ve wanted.’

It comes 10 days after Shaun started to call for answers over his brother and bandmate Paul’s death after he suddenly died aged 58 on July 15.

The musician was found dead last month, hours before the Happy Mondays were due to play at Kubix Festival in Sunderland.

In an exclusive chat with MailOnline from his home in Manchester, Shaun said that with a lack of answers he had begun to fixate on the Covid vaccine after learning Paul had a booster weeks before his passing. 

He said: ‘It’s a bit iffy to me – he’s a 50-something-year-old bloke, he’d had a clean bill of health, and he has his booster, flies over here and dies.’

‘I don’t think our kid really paid attention to any of that (scare stories about Covid jabs) he just went and had his booster – I think that triggered something.’

Paul’s full autopsy is expected to be revealed at the start of next week.

Shaun added about plans for Paul’s ashes after his funeral earlier this month: ‘I don’t think he left a will, or anything like that. He just lived – I think our kid just thought he couldn’t die, like me, so he didn’t leave a will.

‘Me mam said he wanted to be cremated.

‘He’s getting half scattered in Los Angeles. Some of it is being scattered in the sea near where he was out in LA, and the other bit is here.

‘There will be a little headstone but what it says on it is entirely up to me mam. We’ve not even spoken about the inscription on the headstone or what’s being put on the urn.’

Shaun – an avid UFO hunter – has also said he believes Paul will live on as ‘energy’.

He added: ‘I’m sure if our kid was buzzing about, he’d f*****g let me know. Energy – it’s always here. It can’t be f*****g destroyed, it’s always there. I’ve not heard from our kid, but I will let people know if I do.

‘I’m sure quantum physics is going to explain a lot more to us in the years to come about energy and everything else.’

The statement comes a week after it was revealed that Paul’s funeral was also a secret farewell for Bez’s dad.

The dancer’s Life on Mars-style police officer father died hours after Paul passed away in a double heartbreak for the band. 

While Bez, also 58, was comforting Shaun, 59, at his house, he got news his dad was seriously ill so left his grieving bandmate to rush to his family home in Blackpool.

His dad – who battled to keep Bez, aka Mark Berry,  on the straight-and-narrow when he was a tearaway teenager and whose dad instilled a love of beekeeping in his son – passed away hours after Paul in the early hours of Saturday.

His funeral took place a week before Paul’s but he was talked about a lot at Paul’s funeral. 

A family source told MailOnline: ‘The band have taken two really big hits in the past few weeks. First Paul goes, then Bez had to cope with his dad’s death.

‘But Bez is really, really private when it comes to his parents and family and he didn’t want to make a big public announcement or make a big show of it.

‘He dealt with his grief quietly while comforting Shaun at the same time.’

Paul was cremated after a funeral service at St Charles Church in Swinton, Manchester, on August 4.

Celebrity mourners included Stone Roses lead singer Ian Brown, 59, and Peter Hook, 66, bassist and co-founder of New Order and Joy Division.

Ian McCulloch, 63, from Echo & The Bunnymen for mourners was his band’s tear-jerking ballad Nothing Lasts Forever – which contains the lines: ‘I need to live in dreams today, I’m tired of the song that sorrow sings… The love that always gets me on my knees.’

The family insider added: ‘The funeral was a big deal, quite rightly, and loads of people there knew about Bez’s dad, so it was really a double-farewell in some ways.

‘Glasses were not only raised to Paul but also to Bez’s dad at the wake.

‘But Bez didn’t want to overshadow the goodbye to Paul by talking about his dad, and he won’t be giving any interviews about it and doesn’t want to talk about it in public – he sees it as totally private.’

The source said Bez is so private when it comes to his parents he doesn’t like giving out his dad’s name.

It is understood the dancer’s father was in his 80s and had been ill for some time before he passed peacefully at home ‘basically from old age’.

The source said: ‘He lived a good life and always did his best by Bez, so it’s just a really sad time for the whole of the Mondays.’

Meanwhile, Bez was chucked out of his house as a teen before he went to prison as he fell into crime and had ‘delinquent ways’.

He told The Guardian in 2015 during a rare chat about his past: ‘My early childhood was really happy because I hadn’t fallen into my delinquent ways, so aged one to seven was pretty good. We are from quite a close family; we all visited each other, my grandparents on both sides. It was quite conventional.

‘One of my major problems growing up was my father’s occupation: he was a policeman. So I had a strong authoritarian background, and that was difficult. I became quite unruly.’

Bez added his sister, who is 18 months younger than him, went to Oxford University and works in the City ‘as a high-flying lawyer’ and his mother was an auxiliary nurse. 

His dad was a  ‘hard-working’ Life on Mars-style chief inspector in the anti-terrorist squad in  and ‘hard-living.’

After years of wild living and drug taking with Shaun and Co, Bez is now settled and is fanatical about fitness.

He lives in Herefordshire with girlfriend, Firouzeh Razavi, and has three children, Arlo, 30, Jack, 28, and Leo, 13, plus a grandson, Luca, nine.

He added about his upbringing: ‘I went to live with my grandparents when my parents threw me out. Then I went to prison at the age of 17, to detention centre, and I remained there until I was 20. That – and having kids – made me change how I wanted to live as I didn’t want my kids growing up thinking that was the way to live your life.’

Bez added about his paternal grandfather inspiring him to keep bees: ‘My dad’s dad made me into a honey monster. He fought against Rommel in Africa, then spent the rest of the war in Italy. 

‘The only thing he came home with was these tins of honey, and, ever since, it has been an integral part of our family’s life. Every time I have honey, I always think of my grandad.’