True Crime With Caledonian Kitty

(Paula Yates. Picture credit: mirror.co.uk)

Continued from part two... 

Paula really struggled with her grief over Michael's death, she never recovered from it. She spent her days drinking, taking drugs and would have shady characters at her home. She would often be seen out at a local cafe with a well known heroin dealer.

She said in an interview ''when Michael died I was tipped over the edge, I was beyond grief''

Paula Yates was always known for her glamourous outifits and confident, often forward manner, it was so tragic to see how she had become a shadow of her former self. 

Sometimes she would be spotted walking to the local shop barefoot to buy 6 minature bottles of vodka. She would do this a few times a day.

On the morning of 17th of September 2000, someone called Paula's home and Tiger answered and told them that she couldn't wake her mother up. The friend rushed over to the house where she found Paula's body and called an ambulance, she was pronounced dead. She was 41 years old. 

She was found to have died from an accidental heroin overdose.

Paula's funeral took place on the 23rd of September 2000 and Bob sorted out all of the funeral arrangements. The cover of ''These Boots Were Made For Walking'' sung by Paula was played at the service. 

Bob got custody of Tiger and brought her up alongside her sisters. There was some difficulties with Michael's family over custody of Tiger, Michael's sister tried to apply for custody but failed. Tiger remained with Bob and her name was changed to Heavenly Hiraani Tiger Lily Hutchence Geldof. 

More sadness was to occur when Paula's daughter Peaches (who was the spitting image of Paula) died of a heroin overdose at the age of 25. The day before she died she uploaded a picture of herself and Paula.

This whole story was a sad and tragic tale. It's hard to know how to describe it, I do believe there was a lot of love between Paula and Michael but there was also a self distruct button that they both shared. Some people wonder why Michael left Helena Christensen for Paula, what some people don't realise about Paula was her confidence, her flirty behaviour. There were times when Paula could be really sexy and glamorous and did have that ''naughty girl'' persona about her which I imagine attracted Michael to her. There was also the fact that she was determined to seduce Michael and that may have turned him on, they seemed to have the same kind of sexual tastes but I didn't want to get into all of that in these posts, obviously there is so much to this story but I tried to keep it as brief as possible. 

I don't blame Paula for Michael's death, I think the two of them just got into such a mess and Paula did play games but I'm sure she had no idea things would turn out like they had. I also wonder, as well as everything else with the grief etc, if Paula had a hard time getting older, she was in her 40s and couldn't play the flirtatious girl anymore, maybe she struggled trying to find out who she was. I feel sorry for what happened to her and Michael, both were struggling and they met at the wrong time. 

Michael is a legend and always will be and continues to influence up and coming artists and bands. I love listening to INXS music and I also like watching some of Paula's interviews on The Tube from the 1980s. Both were such bright personalities, it should have worked between them but sadly things didn't go that way.

(Michael & Paula. Picture credit: chinchillanews.com)

RIP Michael, Paula & Peaches x

Thank you for taking the time to read my posts, see you in the next one x

Further reading & sources:

- Paula Yates Autobiography
- Paula's Former Assistant's Book
- Michael's Brother's Book
- Michael Hutchence - Mystify
- Michael Hutchence - Wikipedia
- Paula Yates - Wikipedia
- Bob Geldof - Wikipedia
- Bob Geldof Interview
- Paula Yates - Find A Death.Com
- Paula Yates - Find A Grave.Com
- Michael Hutchence - Find A Grave.Com
- Kelland Hutchence - Find A Grave.Com
- Paula Yates - Docu
- Paula Yates & Michael Hutchence - Interview
- Paula Yates & INXS - The Tube

(Michael Hutchence & Paula Yates. Picture credit: telegraph.co.uk)

Continued from part one....

As hard as it was to be separated from Paula and the girls, Michael had to fly to Australia for a tour to mark the 20th anniversary of the band and to promote the new single ''Elegantly Wasted''. Paula and Michael made plans for the holidays for Paula to come out with the girls to see Michael, he was so excited about this.

Michael seemed to be in good spirits and had drinks with friends in his hotel room and attended rehearsals. He knew the situation with Bob would continue to be a nightmare but he seemed to be focused on seeing Paula and the girls. 

On the night of the 21st of November 1997 he had dinner with his father and seemed to be fine although his father later said that looking back, Michael may have been covering up what he was really feeling. At the end of the dinner Michael smiled and danced away back up to his hotel room. There was nothing strange or worrying about his behaviour.

For the rest of that night Michael appeared to be excited waiting on Paula's phonecall from London, he was in his hotel room drinking with friends and taking some substances. At one point the friends had left and Michael continued to stay up and wait for Paula's call. In the early hours of the 22nd of November 1997, Paula called to say that she wouldn't be bringing the girls out to Australia because Bob had got a court injunction which banned the girls from travelling out of the country. Michael was furious. 

(Michael, Tiger and Paula. Picture credit: smh.com)

At some point during the early hours, a guest in the room next to Michael's overheard a heated conversation. They said it was a man shouting ''She's not your wife anymore''. Paula later claimed that Bob had said to Michael during this phonecall ''Remember, I'm above the law''.

Michael continued to suffer alone in his hotel room and tried to make a few phonecalls. He spoke to his business manager and ex girlfriend and in both of those phonecalls he was highly emotional. His ex girlfriend (who he often rang in times of trouble) Michele was very concerned so she decided to come over to the hotel to see him. His business manager, Martha said that he left an angry message on her answer machine saying ''I don't give a f*ck anymore''. 

Michele came to the hotel but couldn't get an answer so she assumed that Michael had fallen asleep and left a message at the front desk for him. At around 11:50am, a maid tried to get into Michael's room and couldn't get the door open, it soon became apparent that Michael's deceased body was behind the door. He was naked and had tied a snakeskin belt over the security latch at the top of the door. One can only imagine what that poor maid must have felt being in that situation or how Michele must feel. Michael was just 37 years old. 

Paula refused to believe it, when she was told by her assistant she slapped her across the face and told her she was lying. Paula went into a really deep state of depression and denial. The whole story about Michael's death by Erotic Asphyxiation was invented by Paula who refused to believe that he had taken his whole life. The Erotic Asphyxiation story went worldwide and for years (even up until recently even though it was confirmed to be suicide) a lot of people believed it. Some people were cruel and made jokes about it. I felt that it took a little bit of dignity and respect away from Michael to hear people talking like that and for Paula to say such a thing.

She said he would never leave his daughter which we can believe to be true if he was of sound body and mind, he was really out of it and so depressed that I don't think he even knew what he was doing, it could have been a spilt second decision, just the night before he was excited and looking forward to seeing Paula and the girls. 

Paula had a narcissistic side to her and I'm not saying that she didn't care about Tiger's feelings or Michael's feelings about his daughter but there was a sense of ''He would never leave me'' about the whole thing.

Michael's funeral took place on the 27th of November 1997 in Sydney. The night before the funeral, Michael's brother claimed that Paula had put a gram of heroin in Michael's pocket.

(Michael & Tiger. Picture credit: dailytelegraph.com)

Michael was cremated and his ashes were divided up between his parents and Paula. His father scattered his ashes in Sydney Harbour.  

Paula did an interview where she spoke about both Michael and Bob, even in that interview she played the two men off against each other. I'll never forget her comment aimed at Bob ''It's hard to be playing pubs when someone else is playing stadiums''. 

She obviously knew that Bob's music career was important to him and that he regretted the fact that The Boomtown Rats didn't go as well as he'd hoped. Paula could be cold when she wanted to be. 

Paula claimed that Michael was the love of her life but it wasn't long until she was back in the newspapers dating other men. One ex boyfriend even went to the newspapers saying that Paula kept a cushion filled with Michael's ashes on her bed. 

After Michael's death, Paula had some stints in rehab and a number of flings. Gone were the days of babydoll dresses and bows in her hair, she was looking drained and exhausted. 

She never got over Michael's death and for the next two years she battled to get through the days, weeks and months and more tragedy was just around the corner...

Continued in part three...

(Michael Hutchence & Paula Yates. Picture credit: chinchillanews.com)

Back in the 1990's when Paula Yates and Michael Hutchence were discovered to have been in a relationship, it caused newspaper headlines. She was known as the bubbly English TV presenter who was married to ''national treasure'' Bob Geldof (The Boomtown Rats frontman and co-creator of the famous 1985 charity concert, Live Aid) and he was an Australian rock superstar from INXS who was loved the world over and in a relationship with the beautiful supermodel, Helena Christensen.

Michael (born in Crows Nest, Australia on the 22nd of January 1960) always had an eye for the ladies and they had an eye for him but he had a lot of respect for Helena at that time and didn't want his affair with Paula to become public knowledge. Michael had a really hard time in the UK because of the British tabloids and they often painted him as the villain who stole Bob Geldof's wife. The newspapers would often print unflattering pictures of Paula and would often compare her next to Helena. Both of them didn't have an easy time when it came to the press but what Michael didn't know was that Paula had become quite a master at finding ways to gain publicity. According to Paula's former assistant Gerry Agar, Paula arranged for Michael to spend time with her at a hotel in London in secrecy but what she had actually done was inform the press beforehand and that was how the affair was discovered. One can only imagine what Helena and Bob felt as they picked up the newspapers to see Paula and Michael splashed across them.

(Paula Yates & Bob Geldof. Picture credit: chinchillanews.com)

Over the years I have read various books about Paula and Michael (I'll post the links to some of them in my third and final post) to try and get a view from all sides and one that seems to be a common fact is that Paula was obsessed with Michael and would have done anything to keep him and didn't care who that hurt in the process. At the time he was with her, Michael was in a bad place, there were problems in his career, he often felt lonely, suffered from bouts of depression and he was struggling to come to terms with a brain injury that left him with a loss of taste and smell.

(Helena Christensen & Michael Hutchence. Picture credit: foxnews.com)

The two of them met years before the famous ''Bed Interview'' when Paula interviewed Michael on the TV show ''The Tube''. According to Paula he invited her up to his hotel room that night. Paula was told to leave Michael alone as she had often flirtied with the male guests and was rumoured to have had a few flings with them. INXS's road manager at the time said Paula told him, ''I'm going to have that boy''. After The Tube interview, Paula would go to INXS shows and kept in contact with Michael. Paula had always had a thing for Michael Hutchence and Bob knew this, she would keep a picture of the rockstar on their fridge and Bob would constantly rip it off and she'd just replace it with another one.

(Paula interviewing Michael on ''The Tube''. Picture credit. standard.co.uk)

Paula wrote about her marriage to Bob in her autobiography and claimed that there were problems long before Michael and her got together. Paula was born in Colwyn Bay, Wales on the 24th of April 1959 and got together with Bob Geldof in 1976. They had a star studded wedding in 1986, the guest list was like a who's who of the 1980s and the marriage lasted until 1996.

(The famous bed interview on The Big Breakfast show. Picture credit: you.co.uk)

Paula had already had three children with Bob, Fifi Trixibelle, Peaches and Pixie. Shortly after her divorce from Bob in 1996, Paula gave birth to Heavenly Hiranni Tiger Lily, her fourth child and Michael's first. They called her ''Tiger'' for short.

(Michael, Paula & Tiger. Picture credit: theguardian.com)

According to Paula, she and Michael had been trying for a baby for about a year and they were both over the moon when Tiger was born. Michael adored his little girl and you would think that the birth of the baby would bring their relationship closer but people close to Michael said that he felt trapped by Paula.

Some people believed that Paula got pregnant to stop Michael from leaving her. There was no doubt that he was devoted to his daughter and he grew so close to Paula's other daughters too. For someone who was a bit of a ladies man and rockstar, behind the scenes, Michael was quiet and just wanted the simple things in life and he seemed to take to fatherhood quite naturally.

The situation between Paula and Bob was difficult, Paula and Michael's nanny claimed that she found drugs in the couple's bedroom as well as x rated photos. There was a battle for custody of the girls and things turned very ugly, the pressure was getting to Michael and stories kept ''leaking'' to the press (allegedly via Paula who seemed to be enjoying the attention whilst both Michael and Bob were struggling to deal with the situtaion). Michael just wanted to go back to Australia but Paula was tied to London because of the girls.

Continued in part two...

(Shelley Lubben. Picture Credit: howardstern.com)

Continued from Part One...

So, Shelley vanished into thin air, she went into hiding when everything was coming out. Her addiction to alcohol and drugs was spiralling out of control and some people believe that she was never sober to begin with.

Everything seemed to have just stopped, there was no new videos on her channel, nobody knew where she was. She was still estranged from her children.

She ended up with a new boyfriend who was also an addict and the pair of them were a mess, people commented that Shelley was in such a state at this point that they would not have been surprised if she'd ended up taking an accidental overdose or ended up in jail at some point.

(Shelley Lubben, Picture Credit: slubben/twitter)

People's concerns were justified when an incident happened where a man was out riding on his bike one day and Shelley and her boyfriend were driving (he was driving the car) both of them were heavily loaded up on prescription pills and who knows what else. The car crashed into the man and he sadly lost his life. It was recorded as a ''hit and run'' so obviously they must have took off in the car but luckily her boyfriend was sent to prison for this. Apparently he already had a criminal record so was not new to being on the wrong side of the law.

At around the time of February 2019, Shelley had been continually battling her alcoholism and had been in hospital because of it.

Gone were the days of luxury houses and glitz and glam from the proceeds of the foundation, she was now living in a run down trailer park called Lemon Cove in California. Her daughter Tiffany had sadly passed away at just 30 years old after taking her own life, they'd been estranged for a while and whilst she was alive, Tiffany claimed that Shelley abused her in so many ways. A few people who had gotten close to Shelley later said the same thing, that she had caused so much trouble in their lives.

Just a few days after her daughter Tiffany's death, Shelley was found dead in her trailer on the 9th of February 2019 by a male friend, she was just 50 years old. She was found in her bed with bloody liquid in her mouth. It was a suspected overdose and alcohol withdrawal, whether or not it was an accident or she took her own life it's hard to say as sources vary. There are sources that say Shelley was heartbroken over tiffany's death and she died of a stroke, some say she died of an intentional overdose and there are even claims that she could have been murdered. 

The few people who still had a good word to say about her claim that she had plans to make a comeback with the foundation and get sober for good, others were not shocked by her death because they could see that she's been on a rocky road for a long time.

(Shelley and her boyfriend. Picture credit: thedevilandshelleylubben)

The truth was, Shelley was not on the road to recovery, she had three restraining orders out against her and an upcoming arrest, she had a lot of serious financial problems which is probably why she was living in the trailer. At 50 years old, where was she going to go from there? She had burnt all of her bridges and had nobody to turn to.

Shelley always had issues with her health and was not in the best shape physically or psychologically just before she died.

Apparently the guy who found her took off with her car and her iphone.

There was no funeral and her death wasn't even reported in the newspapers. She was cremated and there was no obituary or tributes, her ashes were scattered somewhere private.

It was a sad, tragic end to a roller coaster of a life. She was really messed up and no matter how people tried to help her she never got better. From a young age she was geared towards money and to get money in any way shape or form. She may have had the best of intentions with the foundation (there were people who did say that she helped them beat their addictions and change their lives) but the greed got to her.

This is just my opinion but I do think that something must have gone on in her childhood for her to turn to prostitution at the age of 16. Shelley said that her Dad had said to her ''You are dead to me'' during an argument, some people believe that her tense relationship with her father was what made her crave constant male attention others believe she was abused.

In regards to what Shelley claimed happened during her time in the porn industry, I can't say if that did or did not happen as I wasn't there. Whilst researching this case I was reminded of another former porn actress Linda Lovelace who claimed that she had suffered abuse in the porn industry especially at the hands of her husband, she became an activist for a while before briefly returning to the industry before her tragic death in a car accident. I think there's bad sides to every industry and I have seen and heard some porn stars say that they've suffered abuse whilst others say that they love their job and are treated fairly.

I also read some statements that Shelley had come under fire for speaking out about the porn industry and was being stalked and harassed to the point two of her previous homes was set on fire. I can't confirm if that's true or not but it seems that there are both supporters of Shelley and people who still claim that she was a fraud.

I'm not stating exactly what I think did or did not happen in the porn industry (there have been claims by former porn stars that a lot of the things Shelley spoke about were true and others who disagree), I've just included what I have found in my research and let you make your own mind up or continue looking into this more. I have included links below if you would like to see both Shelley's videos and other people's opinions on the matter. 

I hope you found this post interesting as much as I did researching it. I was shocked when I found out that Shelley had only died last year, all I knew about her was her activism, I couldn't believe all of the other stuff that went with her story.

I do think that somewhere deep down she wanted to do good for people and in a lot of cases she did help people but in other ways she hurt people, people who trusted her and loved her.

What are your thoughts on this? Let me know either below or message me in private by email (caledoniankblog@yahoo.co.uk) or anywhere on my social media pages.

RIP TIffany, Shelley & the man who tragically lost his life in the hit & run incident.

See you in the next post x

Further reading & sources:

- Shelley Lubben - YouTube
- Shelley Lubben - Website
- Shelley Lubben - Wikipedia
- Shelley Lubben - Instagram
- Shelley Lubben - Twitter
- Shelley Lubben - Documentary
- The Pink Cross Foundation
- Shelley Lubben Article - CBN

Some other people's opinions on Shelley's life & death:

- On The Death of Shelley Lubben - Jordan Owen
- Ex Pornstar's Experience Working With Shelley - Jenni Niccum
- The Truth About Shelley Lubben - Monica Foster
- Alexandra Mayers Discusses Shelley's Book on Her You Tube Channel