Peaches Geldof and the Geldof family #3

[Meehee69]

When I used to watch The Tube I was a small town girl who had a couple of shops to buy clothes from.
I had never really seen ladies with tattoos on their arms and the vintage style clothes that Paula wore.
Now if you don’t have a tattoo you are different and you can buy whatever clothes you want from th’internet .
The children’s names were all very different to the Lauren’s and Rebecca’s that were in where I live.
She liked attention and pushing boundaries but I did find her interesting when I was a teen.
Now I’m a mum and granny I just think that she was either just very selfish or had trauma that she couldn’t cope with and using hard drugs is never ever going to end well x

 

[maytoseptember]

That CDAN blind is such shite. As if the family would sweep the small matter of Tom murdering Peaches under the carpet “for the sake of the kids”.

 

[Boogs]

When Paula left Bob for Michael it was all over the press and back in the mid 90s before a million channels and streaming services you couldn’t really avoid it. It was fascinating in a car crash kind of way. I remember how shocked I was when Michael died. It’s weird I wasn’t a fan of his but I can remember exactly where I was when I heard. I guess it’s because it was so unexpected. When Paula died I wasn’t surprised and in all honesty didn’t feel much sympathy for her at the time as I just saw her as someone who was shockingly selfish who had prioritised a man and drugs in front of caring for her kids. I thought Peaches was a precocious brat but I was really sad when she died in such a similar way to her Mum as I thought of how young she was when her Mum died and how damaging it must have been.

I think exploring toxic relationship dynamics fascinates a lot of people, often because they are trying to make sense of their own experiences.

I am not sure that I agree that Michael was a dark character. It seems that people always spoke very highly of him and that his brain damage really changed who he was. The talk of the dark sex stuff came from Paula and I think she was constantly trying to prove to everyone how amazing and unique their love and sex life was. I take all that stuff with a bucket full of salt.

 

[Wavylines]

Which was kind of quite sweet until it became apparent the earth mother who attachment parented was off her face on methadone or heroin.

I liked peaches but it still makes my blood boil that she was forcing this earth mother facade down our throats whilst being a heroin addict. Its lying in the most bold way. She was a total fake.

 

[Sideboard Bob]

For anyone who wants to see what an utter prick Hislop was.

Thank you for sharing this, I watched the whole episode last night. At first she is her usual quick, funny self, but Ian Hislop is such a prick here.

With Paul Merton, it’s good natured banter, but with Hislop, it quickly becomes clear that he absolutely hates her.
His comments aren’t like the usual HIGNFY jokes, as someone else said, it’s just bullying. You know he’s gone too far because even Angus Deyton basically says, “come on, she’s our guest”.

The fact that she had to ask him to be kind isn’t because she couldn’t handle the banter, it’s because he crossed a line, and was just treating her with total contempt, in front of a live audience.

 

[despair]

And no doubt he knew and did nothing. I know this is easier said than done because you can’t help who you fall in love with but when you have children if your partner isn’t interested then why on earth continue the relationship? Idk seems to me bob was a shitty father to those girls. I have 3 girls myself and my god I would do everything in my power to prevent them been addicted to drugs that is honestly one of my biggest fears.

I understood she was involved but just not in a very public way (complete opposite to Paula) The girls seem pretty close to their dad and see him.
Sadly there is actually no way of stopping a child hell bent on doing drugs no matter what you put in place (unless you lock them up) they will find a way. It was one of my biggest fears and sadly became a reality with one of mine and I can’t tell you how hard I tried.
what I don’t understand is having followed peaches she had 2 relapses prior to her death (she collected her methadone at a local pharmacy regularly) but slipped and so went into rehab twice. It seems incredibly risky therefore to leave her for extended periods in a house in the middle of nowhere most weekends whilst Tom focused on his music and his parents had the boys. What on earth did they all think was going to happen?
Taking Phaedra back one day only to discover the next she was dead. But Tom stated he had found her stash recently.
So all very strange and risky. Maybe they couldn’t have stopped her, but the baby.

 

[blueberriesarenice]

Oh the old “illegal”sex acts thing again lmao. So cringe. Supposedly he put an oyster in her vag. Groundbreaking. No disrespect to the dead but sometimes I read MH quotes about his love of women/sex and I get the major ick.

 

[cee-bee]

I used to really like Paula back in the day. She was so full of personality and fiercely intelligent. Her sad decline and death was such a tragedy for all concerned and, of course, the ripples spreading out years later to the loss of Peaches in eerily similar circumstances.

fiercely manipulative perhaps. She lacked any real emotional intelligence and doesn’t appear to have been academically inclined either.

my guess is that her parents’ literary/showbiz connections helped young Paula get a leg up in music journalism and how she got a co-presenting gig in her early 20s. That and her relationship with Bob Geldof.

she met Bob at a Christmas party in 1977 - how many 18 year olds find themselves partying with internationally renowned musicians? 18 year olds with family connections, that’s who. And how did this relationship take off and propel her into the limelight? Because Paula love bombed Geldof to the extent his band mates called her the limpet. She was very manipulative, very early on in life. and while I am a little judgemental of Paula, I say that from a place of pity for her - because to be that manipulative, that young and to never be able to emotionally mature: Paula must’ve had a pretty unhappy and traumatic upbringing.

 

[FrannyGallops]

Poor kids, a mother that valued drugs, sex and chasing clearly wankered rock stars over them. Bono cut ties because of their drug use, around children, their house was raided and drugs found in smartie tubes, if this was anyone else no one would be so soft and rose tinted.
This woman actively put her kids at risk.

I agree that Paula was a terrible mother but I still have compassion for her and how it ended and her upbringing. If she’d been a man, nothing of what she did would have been noteworthy. It would barely have made the press, let alone her still being derided for it decades later. How many male rockstars (for example) walk out on their kids for another woman, start another family without a backwards glance and take copious amounts of drugs yet are still hailed as legends? I can think of loads. Yet women like Paula and Courtney Love are slated for forever and a day because they’re not supposed to behave like that. Why do we always women to higher standard than we do men?

 

[Eirawen]

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.

Are you in touch with Zig and Zag? What are they up to these days

 

[coolcat2022]

Yes, even if only indirectly. No one wanted to piss off Saint Bob.

Saint Bob is an entitled twat. Ask any cabin crew who’ve dealt with him. Treats crew like skivvies. Peaches was up her own arse on board ‘ooh im peaches’ and Fifi unfortunately smells really bad.

some gossip from the cabin crew world.

 

[rosieflowers]

Honestly I think she was trying to fool herself as much as anyone else. That's what she wanted to be but just couldn't kick the addiction

 

[plinky2]

Was Tina the one who tried to get custody of Tiger Lily?

I actually don’t think much of Bob Geldof or his parenting so the fact that Hutchence’s blood family couldn’t get custody of Tiger Lily versus Geldof kind of jumps out at me. I know the idea Geldof had some kind of good reputation from his “charity work” was around, but not so convinced that really swung it.

I don’t have kids so what would I know and appreciate it’s not a kind thought but stellar parenting isn’t jumping out at me when it comes to any of this family.

Tiger had never really met these people though. You can’t realistically have a child with 3 siblings in the U.K. then send them to Australia as a toddler alone after their mother dies. Being with her siblings was more important than being with strangers thousands of miles away. Just because you are a blood relative doesn’t mean you have automatic rights to someone’s child and a court didn’t agree either

 

[despair]

I’m from the generation who loved Paula Yates. She was a ballsy, confident and engaging woman. She made the Tube absolute compulsory viewing. Loved her. I remember hearing her death and I cried.

I’m from the same generation and found her completely awful, terrible female role model and mother. And I don’t know anyone who thought she was great!!

 

[Old Harold]

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.

 

[FrannyGallops]

Oh the old “illegal”sex acts thing again lmao. So cringe. Supposedly he put an oyster in her vag. Groundbreaking. No disrespect to the dead but sometimes I read MH quotes about his love of women/sex and I get the major ick.

That’s gross but it’s not illegal, is it? In fact, most stuff is legal between two consenting adults these days. I always wonder if they just mean anal (but that’s not illegal anyway) but I’m probably quite vanilla when it comes to celebrities and their sex lives (and reading some of the stuff MH and PY got up to, I’m quite happy with that i.e the rubber suits, massaging her arse cheeks ‘for hours’ etc).

I think a lot of celeb type men push the boundaries when it comes to sex out of sheer boredom. They can have any woman they want, so they don’t even get a buzz out of ‘the chase’ and have to find it in other ways. Not my cup of tea. I wouldn’t want to be a performing monkey for a man in the bedroom just to keep him interested.

 

[EnjoyingTheShow]

I am in my 50s and Paula was before my time, or perhaps I was a bit unsophisticated and didn’t see her in her early days.

If you are in your 50s, how is Paula “before your time”.

 

[coffeeandwine]

She used to put around the persona of being teetotal, antidrugs and quite prudish. Was that all a myth from the beginning?

Yes. Peaches also put out there that she was a hippy earth mother who loved attachment parenting when she was addicted to heroin and her babies spent time away from her regularly. Both were putting the persona out there they wanted to be but that doesn't mean it was really what they were doing.

 

[HotesTilaire]

I don’t think it’s fair to say that if you’re in the media you’re fair game for crazy press harassment though. What if you start off ok with it, have a breakdown then can’t cope? You can never change your mind?

60 photographers following you (shouting abuse and taunting you) 24/7 so you can’t face taking your baby for a walk, just after your partner has suddenly died, you mother lied about your father then you unexpectedly find out your father is actually his arch enemy isn’t really what she signed up for, and can’t really be defended. It kind of still happens though.

 

[despair]

yeh I think she’s mentioned on the doc herself, she was in her 40s, a mother of 4, her personal life was messy and tragic. Society/the media in the 90s wasn’t forgiving towards “jezebels” especially when they were aging.

the young bubbly flirty schtick wasn’t going to work for her anymore and she was cutely aware of that.

being the wife/girlfriend of a rockstar was her ultimate goal - it always had been. She’d achieve that with Bob and then he’d fallen from popularity. She’d had that with Michael but then he’d died. And at that point, she was the washed up one.

she had retreated to Hastings, and was acutely aware of all of the above. There’s no doubt in my mind that the despair of that realisation drove her to drug abuse.

I see a lot of similarities between Paula and Caroline flack. Both women were successful, popular, flirty tv presenters. Both women were very narcissistic. Both had messy love lives which had blown up in scandal shortly before their deaths. Both were women who were deeply immature and were looking at an (unfairly) bleak existence for women over the age of 40 in their chosen careers.

Caroline Flack was also charged with domestic violence and there was enough serious evidence to proceed without a witness. CPS do not do this without very consistent, clear evidence. I have been involved in situations where CPS could not build enough of a case to go to court DESPITE knowing how bad a situation had been. So given they decided to continue with the case I find all the glorifying of her very sickening.