Paula Yates
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Paula Yates (born April 24, 1960 in Colwyn Bay, Conwy, Wales – died September 17, 2000) was a British television presenter.
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[edit] Personal
She was brought up in North Wales in a show-business family, her mother Elaine Smith who uses the stage name Hellen Thornton / Heller Toren, a former showgirl, actress and writer of erotic novels. Her father Jess Yates; who was known as "the Bishop" and presented the ITV religious programme "Stars On Sunday;" were married from 1958-1975. Jess Yates was sacked from his job in 1974 presenting religious programmes because of scandalous newspaper stories about his private life. Jess Yates was 16 years older than his wife and their marriage was unconventional. In an unsettled childhood Paula, from the age of eight, lived mostly with her mother, including spells in Malta and Majorca.
Paula attended school at Penrhos College, Ysgol Aberconwy. The Yates' ran the Deganwy Castle Hotel for a time, before moving to a large house in Rowen, Conwy. After the break-up of her parents' marriage in 1975, Paula lived in Majorca for a time, before returning to Britain and, after being the ultimate party girl she landing a job as presenter of the music show, The Tube, with Jools Holland.
[edit] Marriage To Bob Geldof
Yates met Bob Geldof when she became an obsessed fan of the Boomtown Rats in their early days. They got together as a couple in 1976 when she travelled by aeroplane to Paris, to surprise him while the band were playing there. Their first daughter, Fifi Trixibelle, was born on 31 March 1983.[1] After 10 years together, they married on 31 August 1986 in Las Vegas, with Simon Le Bon of Duran Duran acting as Geldof's best man. The couple then had two more daughters, Peaches Honeyblossom Michelle Charlotte Angel Vanessa Geldof on 16 March 1989[2] and Pixie Geldof on 17 September 1990.[3] Pixie is said to be named after a celebrity daughter character from the cartoon "Celeb" in the satirical magazine Private Eye, itself a lampoon of Geldof's earlier children's unusual names.
[edit] Relationship with Michael Hutchence
The relationship began to unravel when Paula famously interviewed the INXS singer Michael Hutchence in her Big Breakfast boudoir, and fell head over heels in love with him. In 1995, Yates left Geldof for Hutchence. Geldof and Yates divorced in May 1996. Two months later Yates' daughter with Hutchence, Heavenly Hiraani Tiger Lily Hutchence (known as Tiger,) was born on 22 July 1996.[4][5]
[edit] Career
Paula posed naked for Penthouse in 1978, just before she became a music journalist, writing a column called "Natural Blonde" in the Record Mirror. She first came to prominence in the 1980s, as co-presenter (with Jools Holland) of the Channel 4 pop music programme The Tube.
Yates continued with her rock journalism; in addition to being presenter of cutting-edge music show The Tube. She became most notorious for her on the bed interviews on the show The Big Breakfast (produced by Geldof).
After the birth of her daughters Peaches and Pixie, she also wrote two books on motherhood.
[edit] Author
Paula Yates was the author of several books, including:
- Rock Stars in Their Underpants (1980)
- A Tail of Two Kitties (1983)
- Blondes (1983)
- The Fun Starts Here (1990)
- The Fun Don't Stop: Loads of Rip-roaring Activities for You and Your Toddler (1991)
- And the Fun Goes On: A Practical Guide to Playing and Learning with Your Pre-school Child (1991)
- Village People (1993)
[edit] Hutchence's Death, Yates Death
In November 1997, Hutchence was found hanged in a hotel room in Sydney. Yates became distraught, refusing to accept the coroner's verdict of suicide. She eventually sought psychiatric treatment. Yates never really recovered from losing him, and even attempted suicide. Meanwhile, she battled Hutchence's mother Patricia Glassop and her daughter Tina for custody of Tiger.
According to Gerry Agar's 2004 book Paula, Michael and Bob; Paula's dispute with Hutchences family over Michael's estate saw her struggling to bring up her daughter. Whilst battling grief and problems with addiction, she was also in an extremely difficult financial situation. Paula resorted to selling her jewellery, including the 3 amethyst rings Geldof gave her after the birth of each of their daughters in order to pay bills at the small mews house she downsized to in the years prior to her death.
While fighting for custody of Tiger, there were media allegations suggesting that Jess Yates had not been Paula's natural father. A paternity test proved that the late quiz show host Hughie Green had in fact been her natural father, not Jess Yates. Shortly after this announcement, Paula Yates was found dead, at the age of 40, of an accidental heroin overdose, leaving her youngest child an orphan. The coroner ruled that it was not a suicide, but a result of 'foolish and incautious' behaviour.
[edit] The Aftermath of Paula's Death
Soon after Paula's death, Tiger was adopted by her ex husband Bob Geldof, so that she could be raised with her three older half sisters Fifi, Peaches, and Pixie.
Several people have written books claiming to know the truth about Paula Yates, including her estranged mother Heller Toren, half brother Christopher Green & one time manager and friend Gerry Agar.
[edit] Trivia
In his memoirs, the gay actor Rupert Everett included the revelation that he conducted a six-year affair with Yates.
[6] In 1982 Paula released a cover version of the Nancy Sinatra hit single "These Boots Are Made for Walkin'".
[edit] References
- ^ http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0946809/bio Fifi
- ^ http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0946809/bio Peaches...
- ^ http://www.imdb.com/name/nm2368067 Pixie
- ^ http://www.astrodatabank.com/NM/GeldofBob.htm
- ^ http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20070309033549AA3szBj
- ^ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/These_Boots_Are_Made_for_Walkin%27
- Green, Christopher; and Clerk, Carol (2003). Hughie and Paula: The Tangled Lives of Hughie Green and Paula Yates. London: Robson. ISBN 1-86105-609-5.
- Rojek, Chris (2001). Celebrity. London: Reaktion Books. ISBN 1-86189-104-0.
[edit] External links
- Paula Yates at h2g2
- Paula Yates at the Internet Movie Database
