'You were my teacher': Mick Fanning's emotional tribute after ...

Mick Fanning has paid tribute to his older brother Edward who tragically passed away in Madagascar.

It is Fanning’s third brother to die after his elder brother Pete died in his sleep in 2015 when he was 43.

His other brother, Sean, was killed in a car crash in Coolangatta in 1998 at the age of 20.

Taking to Instagram, Fanning thanked Edward for introducing him to surfing and said his brother found it hard to “find his happy place”.

Mick Fanning’s older brother Edward has tragically passed away in Madagascar. (Picture: Instagram)Source: news.com.au

“Love you my brother. You taught me so much over the years about everything that life could deal up,” Fanning wrote.

“The good and the bad you were my teacher.”

Fanning said that without Edward he was not sure what “the world would have made of me”, adding that his brother had the “biggest heart” and was “too loyal for his own good”.

“I know at times you found it hard to find your happy place,” Fanning wrote.

“It warms my heart to know you found it these last few years. To hear the excitement in your voice each time we talked filled me with hope.”

Fanning said his brother was a “larrikin” who would “throw a Shaka in every photo” and would “scream yeeeeew at the top of his lungs”.

Edward Fanning, pictured with Mick.Source: SuppliedFanning thanked his brother for introducing him to surfing in an emotional tribute.Source: news.com.au

He also thanked Edward’s friends and family in Madagascar who “showed him happiness is real”.

He signed off “much love”.

It’s understood Edward was living and working in Madagascar at a surf tour camp.

News of his tragic passing was revealed on Tuesday when his friend Stevie Maher, shared the sad update on Facebook.

“Firstly I want to send my condolences to the Fanning family … mum Liz, dad John, sister Rachel and brother Mick,” he wrote on Facebook.

“My heart is broken to hear the passing of my best mate. I enjoyed and had so many amazing times with you Eddie.

“You were in my wedding party, had so many epic times together in Indo and we were just best mates.

“I’m goin’ to miss you Eddie and now you rest in peace.”

Fanning previously said the year his brother Peter died was one of the worst of his life.

During that year he also famously fought off a shark during a competition in South Africa, an incident that would leave him badly shaken.

“I went through a divorce, had the shark incident and then at the end of it all I lost my brother. I was just totally empty at the end of it. I was done,” Fanning told 60 Minutes.

Mick said he struggled to leave the house and had “never felt that empty before”.

“That was the one that just floored me. I was like ‘what else? What else can be taken in a year?’ At the end of 2015, I just hit rock bottom,” he said.