Paula Yates
On November 22, 1997, Hutchence was found hanged in a hotel room in Sydney. Yates became distraught, refusing to accept the coroner's verdict of suicide. She eventually sought psychiatric treatment. Yates never entirely recovered from losing him, and even attempted suicide. In June 1998, Bob Geldof won full custody of the couple's three daughters. [8] Meanwhile, she battled Hutchence's mother Patricia Glassop and her daughter Tina for custody of Tiger Lily.[citation needed]
Yates' dispute with the Hutchence family over Michael's estate saw her struggling to bring up her daughter.[9] While battling grief and problems with addiction, she was also in an extremely difficult financial situation. Yates resorted to selling her jewellery in order to pay bills, including the three amethyst rings Geldof gave her after the birth of each of their daughters. She downsized to living in a small mews house in the years prior to her death, but also purchased a second home in Hastings.
[
Paula's death and Hughie Green's paternity
While fighting for custody of Tiger, it was reported in the media that Jess Yates had not been Paula's natural father. A paternity test proved that the late quiz show host Hughie Green, who had died only six months before Hutchence, had in fact been her natural father. Three years after this announcement, Yates was found dead at her home in London, at the age of 41, of an accidental heroin overdose, leaving her youngest child an orphan. The coroner ruled that it was not a suicide, but a result of "foolish and incautious" behaviour.[10][11]
[
Aftermath of her death
Soon after Paula's death her ex-husband Bob Geldof assumed a foster custody of Tiger Lily with the willing consent of Hutchence's parents, so that she could be raised with her three older half sisters Fifi, Peaches and Pixie. In 2007 Geldof further applied to a British court for and was granted formal adoption of Tiger Lily and a change of her surname to Geldof, despite vocal opposition from Hutchence's mother and sister.[12]
Several people have written books claiming to know the truth about Paula Yates, including her estranged mother Helene Thornton, half-brother Christopher Green and one-time manager and friend Gerry Agar. On 2 April 2008 a TV drama about Hughie Green's life, Hughie Green: Most Sincerely, was broadcast on BBC Four. It focused, in its later stages, on Green's apparent fixation with Yates, whom he knew to be his daughter, once she had become a television star.
In his memoir Red Carpets and Other Banana Skins (2006), actor Rupert Everett included the revelation that he conducted a six-year affair with Yates.
[
Books
Paula Yates was the author of several books, including:
- Rock Stars in Their Underpants (1980)
- A Tail of Two Kitties (1983)
- Blondes (1983)
- Sex With Paula Yates (1986)
- The Fun Starts Here (1990)
- The Fun Don't Stop: Loads of Rip-roaring Activities for You and Your Toddler (1991)
- And the Fun Goes On: A Practical Guide to Playing and Learning with Your Pre-school Child (1991)
- Village People (1993)
[
References
- ^ Helene Thornton - Big Girls Don't Cry
- ^ Fifi Trixibelle Geldof IMDb listing
- ^ Peaches Geldof IMDb listing
- ^ Pixie Geldof IMDb listing
- ^ These Boots Are Made for Walkin'
- ^ Bob Geldof at Astrodatabank
- ^ Answers.com
- ^ http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A5249063
- ^ Gerry Agar - Paula, Michael and Bob, Pub. 2004
- ^ Paula Yates: TV star killed by heroine binge | UK news | The Guardian
- ^ BBC News | UK | Heroin overdose killed Yates
- ^ Mother objects to Geldof Adoption of Tiger Lily
- Green, Christopher; and Clerk, Carol (2003). Hughie and Paula: The Tangled Lives of Hughie Green and Paula Yates. London: Robson. ISBN 1-86105-609-5.
- Rojek, Chris (2001). Celebrity. London: Reaktion Books. ISBN 1-86189-104-0.
[
External links
- Paula Yates at h2g2
- Paula Yates at the Internet Movie Database
For more information review our copyright contact and privacy policy.