Peaches Geldof and the Geldof family #3

[Boogs]

I was too young at the time to appreciate the tube and when she was on the big breakfast I just found her embarrassing. I remember watching the interview with Michael Hutchence and cringing. I didn’t think it was electric chemistry, I thought it seemed desperate and sad.

I do see things differently now. I have compassion for the woman who quite obviously was carrying a hell of a lot of childhood trauma. She was incredibly selfish though and caused so much damage to her children. I’m glad the other girls seem to be breaking the pattern like poor Peaches couldn’t.

I never saw her and Michael as a big love story. It was 2 damaged people who came together in a toxic whirlwind. I don’t think they would have stayed together if he hadn’t died. The way she described their big love story was very immature. All she cared about was holding onto him and fulfilling her own needs and wishes. Everyone else (including her children) were collateral damage.

Just watching the documentary I wouldn’t have recognised Grace Dent. In my head I was envisioning her in her early Big Brother days of fame.

On a separate note I saw the Boomtown Rats at a festival a few years back. I had no interest in watching them but they were brilliant. Bob is an excellent front man.

 

[Asterix]

As I recall Paula's boob job was tabloid news for some reason but however you look at it, Hislop was punching down and that's never a good look.

 

[Serene Serena]

I remember reading the transcript of that conversation and wondering why she was so obsessed with a dead heroin addict. Did she see him as a romantic, though troubled, hero? Her soulmate in another dimension?

She definitely seemed to regard her addiction as something rather special, instead of the sleazy, sordid mess it actually was.

 

[cee-bee]

I think it’s actually interesting how Paula herself set Bobs personality as cold and horrible - she used it to make herself feel less terrible about leaving him. He also did seem to help her. I believe he also helped MH - didn’t Bob actually move out and help MH with a place to live by swapping? I honestly don’t think he hated either of them, it was just he was not about to let her zoom off to Australia after MH on tour and stood his ground about their schooling. Ultimately MH and PY had a lot of problems in themselves and Bob telling them they couldn’t just do as they pleased if it affected the kids did not land well. Bob worrying about his kids being away for a long period on tour with a rock band was a legit concern

whatever Bob geldof’s characterisation, I think he was very justified in preventing Paula just flying off with their young children to the other side of the world, especially in life of their drug usage.

I know it’s a very different lifestyle but it does feel to me like Paula and her love life very much came before all else, including her children. Dragging them across the world so she could be a groupie to her boyfriend, isn’t the type of example or environment young girls need.

After Michael died, she was reported to have had a toy boy lover shortly after, and checked herself into rehab which prompted MH’s father to try and seek custody of Tigerlily.

sad state of affairs really. Sounds like Paula didn’t have much by way of a supportive and loving mother and never knew how to be one herself.
---

Did anyone ever find out what happened to michael’s money? Now that was a mystery, he basically died penniless because all his money was tied up in opaque and impenetrable trusts. Family believed he had been taken advantage of after his head injury when he may not have been thinking right.

Colin Diamond was his tax lawyer and held the funds on trust, or something along those lines.

he claimed MH’s fortune was wasted away on drugs and legal fees… hmmm

Tiger Lily only got £500

 

[Sideboard Bob]

Slightly different topic, but I’m curious what everyone thinks. Why is this thread so interesting?
It’s all basically old news, but it’s a very active thread. I guess the Paula Yates documentary helped, but even before then there‘s a lot of discussion.

I think it could be because so many different topics are covered. Multiple generations. Looking at media from the past in a new way.

I wonder if it’s human nature to try and make sense of a tragedy?

 

[HotesTilaire]

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

Actually the guys still live in east London!
thing is, back at the time BB was sooooo much fun and soooo hectic that Paula was about the least interesting thing about it. Also, the house was next to the canal and for some reason that meant some of the toilets flushed with canal water, that’s the most behind-the-scenes info I can tell you.

 

[cee-bee]

I would love to be able to read Peaches’ Elle girl column again. I was roughly the same age as her and had a bit of a fascination with her. She came across as a bit of an idiot but at the same time she was my age and she had a magazine column and a rich dad.

I remember she wrote about how down to earth and normal they were, because they flew across the world in economy.

meanwhile, teenage me who had never been on a plane

 

[FrannyGallops]

I'm obviously reading it incorrectly, I thought @gemini Moons post Courtney Love was saying Paula was murdered by tabloid....unless this is an album name which it could be as I'm not a fan of CL so wouldn't know.

That’s what it sounded like to me as well, and kind of what the documentary was suggesting. I’ve said already that I didn’t like Paula Yates growing up but after watching some of her stuff on YouTube and reading her biography, I have a different opinion of her. She was quirky, fiercely intelligent and had bags of charisma.

HOWEVER. I also think she manipulated the press as seen from the documentary when Michael’s sister had an inkling that it was Paula who was tipping them off as to their location all the time. And it was Paula who alerted the press to where Michael and Paula were staying in a hotel when their affair came to light because Paula wanted to force Michael’s hand (I think he would have kept it under the radar, as she was married to his friend and he was maybe not as serious about her as she was about him). She was the one who courted publicity a lot of the time. You live by the sword, you die by the sword. You can’t keep feeding the dragon then expect it not to turn round and bite your hand off.

 

[kingseven]

For anyone who watched the documentary Mystify it always stood out to me that all of Michael's ex-partners spoke so highly and respectfully about him even though he often overlapped them with someone else. It feels like they all accepted he was only theirs for a short time and were grateful for that.
---
Was Robbie Williams as close to Paula as he makes out or just desperate to feature in this documentary?

 

[maytoseptember]

I remember reading the transcript of that conversation and wondering why she was so obsessed with a dead heroin addict. Did she see him as a romantic, though troubled, hero? Her soulmate in another dimension?

She definitely seemed to regard her addiction as something rather special, instead of the sleazy, sordid mess it actually was.

Nail on head, I think. Peaches strikes me as the type of girl to idolise Elliot Smith as this beautiful, fucked up genius who burned too bright (girls like that in love with rock stars like that are ten a penny) and some sort of kindred spirit.

His death was awful though (for those who don’t know, it wasn’t an OD, he either stabbed himself in the chest or was murdered by an unknown assailant).

 

[despair]

I also noted that Bob’s Mum died when she was 41, same age as Paula when she died. He was 6 when his mum died, so he obviously had experience of the loss of a parent at a young age to share with Tiger Lily and Peaches two sons

Probably a major factor in Fifi choosing to not have children. She stated she would never because of the harm parents can do to them (essentially-I can’t remember her exact words but that’s what I interpreted)

 

[Miss Havisham]

Tragic Michael Hutchence's sister slams Helena Christensen over injury secret

HE was the wildman of rock who dated the world’s most beautiful women including supermodel Helena Christensen and actress Kylie Minogue. So it was a huge shock when INXS lead singer Michael Hutche…

www.thesun.co.uk

Lots of interesting info in this article!

Sad to read that the ex girlfriend gets the blame - despite there being “alcohol and cocaine” in his bloodstream when he died.

 

[HotesTilaire]

Well I’m sure all of us have seen the hospital stomach pumping machine at one time or another. The dna part, which is able to differentiate the sperm human/canine and number of humans is quite something. The NHS receives lots of investment for this type of equipment.

 

[plinky2]

Michael was very sexual and adventurous as well documented by everyone who ever knew him, even his own brother. but I think someone investigating his death asked all his exes if he did dangerous things in sex they all said no. I remember reading that Michael was more into the famous Sting type of love making - all the senses being stimulated and taken to a new level with stroking feathers, blindfolds and 3somes. Gerry claimed MH had put on a rubber suit and asked Paula to peg him with an huge dildo and they took Polaroids of it. I often think Paula was exaggerating a lot of what went on, she needed money as was in a load of debt so IMO she sold MH’s privacy down the river to the highest bidder. I don’t think MH was horrible and no one has ever said much bad about him. He was painfully shy in actual fact and quiet and growing up he was not a cool or cocky guy. He seemed to get on better with women as he was a soft/gentle type of person. Even in interviews you can see hes really calm, quietly spoken and measured. Paula talked bullshit at 10000mph.

Mh was afraid TL was going to be taken from him. He had ‘somehow’ become convinced BG, SS or his family was going to take her away from him and Paula. It does not help the press started making out like this was a possibility when all BG was doing was stopping his OWN kids going. I have always believed that Paula wanted him to be against Bob, so she turned him that way by lying to him and winding him up, and MH stepped up to ‘protect’ her. But she was doing a lot of the winding up of Bob, gossiping to journos, selling stories, fibs and lies to make herself look better, trying to get their friends to help. Bob and MH were not natural enemies and MH was not naturally inclined to make them. PY needed MH to be on her side. Alice Evans reminds me of PY - manipulative.

I’m not even such a huge fan of Mh but something was clearly very wrong, he had never looked worse since he met her, he aged 10 years in a short while and the post mortem showed his body in bad shape and health (aside from his injuries he had a deep cigarette burn in his finger which was so bad it was down to the bone).

 

[Jelly Bean]

I was trying to think of an equivalent set of people so interesting these days and can't tbh.
Has social media killed all that? We could only get glimpses of the goings on through TV and newspapers which made it more intriguing. If it was going on now I imagine Paula would have a carefully curated IG life and there might be less press intrusion.
Plus to be blunt, Paula and Michael dying, then poor Peaches, with the echoes of her mother, give it all a Greek tragedy quality.

 

[coffeeandwine]

I think one thing that cannot be underestimated is how hard it is to break the cycle of trauma. Paula couldn't manage it with her kids, nor could Peaches, and that's no indictment of them on my part: it's very hard and takes constant work.

 

[cee-bee]

PY flounced around writing witty things for columns and fantasising about everything. She actually liked the ‘jezabel’ label as it what what got her jobs - Paula flirting and giggling on TV was her USP. She tried to foray into an Earth mother type and could have done well with that long term but she wasn’t really that good at concentrating on one thing. I do feel sorry for her as she was clearly very damaged from her childhood and was trying to find safety and love but got it mixed up with sex and obsessions

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.

 

[HotesTilaire]

Is it really true though? Sounds like an urban legend

 

[despair]

It does reek of desperation.
Also I’d be concerned about hygiene with food items in my vagina, regardless of how famous a rock star was.

 

[Observ@h]

Hislop and Merton go into the show with pre written jokes and quips as well as being quick witted enough to ad lib.
PY was wise not to try and best them.

I remember watching HIGNFY at the time and being surprised that she couldn’t answer them. Her comfort zone was 1:1 interviews when she was completely in control and could flirt outrageously, but a load of older men, all of whom know the format and are prepared with jokes, is completely different.

I honestly think they brought her into the show because they thought she’d be hilarious, but she couldn’t use her usual skills in that environment. I don’t think they deliberately brought her on to be nasty. Hislop would expect that she’d fight back aggressively like a man would do.

I thought she did well to say to Hislop “Ian, be kind” and refusing to join in or try and clap back once he was really on her case. Also what did those men say that was so funny. ”You’ve had a boob job”, hardly witty.

It comes back to being a woman in a man’s world or place. They treated her like a man, but she was a woman and acted like one.