True Crime With Caledonian Kitty

(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...