Peaches Geldof and the Geldof family #3

[IdeletedbutI'mbackagain]

I don't know much about Paula's childhood was it THAT bad? In the doc she appeared to have adored the guy who brought her up Jess Yates. He had a mental illness but she seemed to o get on well with him. I know folk who have had horrific childhoods but choose not to inflict the same on their own kids. I agree one kid was more than enough for her. She probably had Tiger to try and keep MH or have some kind of permanent contact with him through the baby. Why on earth did she give her kids such stupid names?

Oh I am 100% with you, shit childhood or not is no excuse. I had a shit one and have spent my adult life ensuring I heal from it so I give my children the best childhood possible. I didn't mean to sound like I was making excuses for her!!

 

[FrostyChops]

I'm 45 and l remember Paula fairly well. The Hughie Green scandal, Michael, Bob, The Word, The Big Breakfast..

 

[plinky2]

I remember that interview she gave after Michael's death, where she said Tiger's birth was the greatest moment of both their lives. What an awful thing to say when she had three other children.

This is because of her level of obsession with Michael. He was her ultimate prize - even if she made him unhappy with her hysterics and possessiveness, she didn’t even care she still wanted to keep him. She was not concerned about who got hurt in the process of holding on to MH. I used to wonder if it was even about Michael or the status of having Michael that was the attraction.

Whilst I agree his head injury did change him, caused depression, being entangled with Paula who was an obsessive neurotic person was something MH struggled to handle. He would disappear sometimes when it got too much on benders which would freak her out.

MH was naturally a shy, passive, conflict avoidant type of person and Paula was loud, flamboyant, bullish, controlling and insecure. They never would have stayed together but he would have struggled to escape her. MH was a people pleaser who escaped in drugs and I think Paula just wanted him to stay so she joined in with him. I recall Gerry describing when they used to stay in south of France with their famous friends and both of them being too wasted to take care of TL and it being a miserable experience

one Thing I will say in her defence is that MH was known for being flighty and overlapping all of his women so it must have been really hard to be with someone and not know when they were going to leave you for someone else, but that there was a strong chance they might.

 

[HotesTilaire]

Nothing to spill, never saw Bob. Paula came and did her bed thing then left, never spoke to her. I suppose that’s why I’m interested, because I was “adjacent” but didn’t know them. And how it was awful seeing Peaches self-destruct.

 

[cee-bee]

I don’t think Paula was a good mum, she probably wanted to be one hence the books and fake family life. Some tea, my Godfather knew her slightly and couldn’t stand her. I have put this on another thread some time ago but couldn’t find it different name. This was in the 80s my godfather was good friends with John Galliano who was seeing Jasper Conran and they were in his company I think it was his studio and they heard a lot of noise and a child screeching mucking around then they heard a woman screaming and shouting swearing and a really hard slap the sort that echos around a room. He said he and John were doing all those OMG faces and sniggering about it being young - then Paula Yates came into view with one of her girls. But he said it occurred to him much later in life that the little girl hadn’t cried despite that slap must have really hurt. Imagine hitting a child like that all the time painting a picture of domestic bliss.
he also said he’d heard that Paula didn’t like Peaches and never took to her and was always very hard on her she sacked a nanny that Peaches loved and slept with.

yeh I can believe that you know. Totally consistent with how narcs treat their offspring.

IIRC Paula spoke more warmly about Pixie than her elder girls. I think she parentified/scapegoated Fifi, scapegoated Peaches and Pixie was the Golden Child. Tiger would likely also have been allocated Golden Child Status.

sacking a nanny your child loves is totally on brand, because a narc would see that preference as a direct attack on them and their ego. Likewise when Paula was spreading those fake weird sexual accidental death theories about Michael - she’d rather grubby his legacy than accept he’d “left” her.

a narcissist doesn’t see it through the lens of “this person must have been really suffering and that makes me feel bad for them” (aka empathy)

they see it as “I can’t believe they left me. Why would they leave me? They can’t have chosen to leave me, I’m amazing. It must’ve been something else”. And so a suicide becomes a blow to their ego instead of a tragic loss.

Those poor girls.

 

[Phil Anne Throw Pee]

Where did you source this information.
---
You are simply stating something repeatedly with no context. I appreciate there maybe some who take their lives and are sound of mind enough to choose to leave the work as they entered it, and those who are using drugs but many many suicides take place in public areas (sea/bridges/woods) and it is not the norm to be naked. So it would be used as part of the investigation into the death as it is not ‘common in all suicides’ at all and plays a relevant role in decision making.

A friend who is a coroner. Rare for women but very common for men.

 

[MissHavisham]

Oh I do like Patsy. I'm sure she once said that she ended up marrying everyone she went out with. And I notice she's just got engaged again And Sadie Frost had a proper acting career for a while, and was more famous than Jude Law when they first got together.

 

[PeteM]

I'm not getting the fuss about HIGNFY. It's a satirical programme, you know what it's like before you go on. She's taking it all in good humour and suddenly she's getting defensive "you're being unkind". Aren't they just quipping?

I'd suggest watching the clip. It goes into the realm of bullying.

 

[Boogs]

Yes the other 3 girls who have been through such trauma and managed to break the cycle are the heroes of this sad story. I hope that they have all found the happiness and self worth that their mother couldn’t.

 

[cee-bee]

Glad you made this point, as long as you are consenting that's all that matters. Maturity of some 16 year old girls is a lot higher than others their age. Of course there are older people out to take advantage. Like most things now, there is so much more to have to worry about, being drugged, filmed etc, it's made people alot more wary.

yikes. We’ll just have to agree to disagree.

my view is it’s weird for grow men to date teens, especially nowadays. Culturally, there have been differences in the past. I don’t think it was Bob grooming Paula but there was a definite power imbalance there. I don’t think people’s personal experiences of shacking up with older men as a teen, has much to do with this thread tbh and just derails.

In reality, you aren’t going to convince most people who think it’s weird, that it’s fine just because it was fine in your case and according to you.

at worst it comes across as insecurity and defending life choices.

 

[FrannyGallops]

I agree. I found it hard to like her and felt she only got the jobs she did because of who her parents were. Another nepo kid!

Absolutely. And she didn’t even have the talent or ambition to back it up. She squandered so many opportunities that a lot of people would have given their right arm for. I think that’s what’s pissed me off most about her. She had her own show and I think edited a magazine or was a reporter at one point, and her whole attitude was totally half arsed. She didn’t have to give anything a proper go because the next one would come along at some point and she wasn’t relying on it to pay the bills. I found her quite infuriating tbh.

 

[Rogue-rats]

Those poor, poor men eh? I mean she was half their age but of course she was a ‘flighty peroxide’ shrew who Bob and Michael just couldn’t get away from.
Spare me.

I honestly wouldn't want to inflict somebody like Paula on anybody. So yep, those "poor poor" men did suffer by association. One lost his daughter in identical circumstances to her mothers death and the other is dead too. MHs legacy completely tainted by association with her. Nobody thinks of poor Michael Hutchence do they? They think, kinky marriage wrecker who wanted to take another mans children to the other side of the world. Paula bad mouthed BG to all and sundry, throw enough dirt and it will stick seemed to be her MO. She would drop snippets of info to the press re herself and MHs sexual exploits and as another poster said was "marking her territory".

Her entire life was so self centred, her children were purely accessories and TL should have been taken into care when drugs were found in the smarties tube. The only thing I feel sorry for is how she was outed as Hughie Greens daughter.

 

[MrsBsDayOff]

Peaches had no talent that made her worthy of being a celebrity, as far as I could see. She wasn't even particularly witty or humorous.

 

[Ennui]

Oysters up yer vadge! Well I never.

It's the new Knees up Mother Brown.

 

[PeteM]

Shame, I was dying to hear about Bono's role in the Illuminati

As to you won't hear one Irish person speak about it, well every single Irish person must know about Bono and Andrea Corr by now, including my 86 year old gran.

 

[Goldilocks3108]

Yes.
I don't hate Paula but she was old fashioned even in the early 80's. Everyone at school watched The Tube but to us teenagers Paula was like someone's embarrassing Mum! Just so outdated. She wasn't the second most famous women in the UK as the program claimed - at the time she was just seen as a silly tart who'd slept her way into TV, not to mention the dodgy tat. Maybe these days she would be judged less harshly but I'm afraid her friends are misremembering how she was perceived back then. And that was before the true extent of her other men was revealed.
Hislop does behave badly but I think he expected some witty retorts from Paula, but once she realised she couldn't flirt her way out of it there was nothing left. Basically that's all she could do.
I don't feel sorry for Paula - she chose to have multiple affairs, dump the kids with the hired help and then overdose with her daughter in the house. However I do feel very sorry for all of her children - Peaches never stood a chance did she?

Spot on! I wasn’t a teenager in the early 80’s (born in 1974) but I do remember her being exactly what you describe
---

I remember seeing her on that bed and it did make me cringe she was not backwards in coming forwards and put it about and fed her own ego and narcissm. The earth mother image is what really made me puke, none of it was her at all she put herself first and kids second or even third after Michael H. I agree on HIGNFY Hislop (whom I dislike anyway not because of Paula) and Merton thought she would come back at them with witty comments and give as good as she got but no she wasn't that bright at all and by then she was unpopular in general and she shouldn't really have gone on the show.

She used to have a parenting column In something like Prima magazine when she was still with Bob. It was all PTA’s and summer fetes and making cakes, while looking like she was dressed like Minnie Mouse. All an act, she was not a great mother…

 

[Make It Stop]

Re Courtney Love I’m sure I’ve read somewhere before that she believes her father used to drug her with LSD when she was a young child so he could S/A her.

 

[Phil Anne Throw Pee]

I’m not questioning whether we are born and therefore could die naked by choice. It is not common to die intentionally naked.

It is very common for people to kill themselves naked.

 

[Meehee69]

Gosh you could be me with your comment. Exactly my thoughts and experience.

Speaking of women with tattoos, the first time I had ever heard of it was reading an article about Cher having a butterfly tattoo on her bum years ago. The idea seemed completely bizarre

And this is why I love Tattle - so many shared views and so many different views xx

 

[HotesTilaire]

I got a copy of that some years ago for a quid in a discount bookstore. Didn’t realise I might end up a millionaire from it one day. Fuck 1st editions of Harry Potter, I’m getting rich from Paula, Michael & Bob! Watch out for me on Antiques Roadshow

My library has it, the budget crisis is solved!