I refuse to be a grief-stricken single father says Peaches’ widower, 25
AT just 23 and with two young children, he dealt with the heartbreak of his wife Peaches Geldof’s death from an overdose.
But Thomas Cohen said he ‘ refused to become a traumatised, grief-stricken single father’ as he gave an emotional interview about coming to terms with the loss.
The musician, now 25, admitted he had turned to therapy and transcendental meditation, describing losing a spouse as ‘ the hardest thing you’ll ever have to do’.
Cohen, formerly of rock band S.C.U.M, credited music as playing a ‘huge’ part in coming to terms with the tragedy, adding that he had become ‘really close’ to the Geldof family.
But he said accepting the ‘ traumatising’ death of Miss Geldof, whom he married in 2012, was something he needed to do on his own. He told the Sunday Times Magazine: ‘The thing that really had the greatest impact upon me and the entire situation was the realisation that if you aren’t going to love yourself, if you’re not going to take care of yourself, if you’re not going to take yourself to every single place you need to go in order to heal yourself, then you’re not going to get through the grieving process.
‘People can be there, people can love you, you can love them and that’s fine, that’s wonderful. But nobody’s going to come along and do something for you, they’re just not. You have to do that for yourself.
‘It’s exactly the same thing with alcoholism, drug addiction ... I made the decision to start looking after myself. I refused to lose myself and become a traumatised, griefstricken single father.’
Cohen, who lives at his parents’ south London home with sons Astala, three, and Phaedra, two, is promoting his first solo album Bloom Forever, to be released on May 4.
Written between 2012 and 2015, it recounts the period surrounding his wife’s death. One song, Country Home, includes the lyrics ‘My love had gone/She’d turned so cold.’
This is thought to be a reference to the moment Cohen found his 25-year-old wife’s body at their Kent home following an accidental heroin overdose in April 2014.
Cohen is believed to be dating model Daisy Lowe, 27, who was a close friend of Miss Geldof, but he declined to discuss his personal life. He said: ‘I can talk about being happy, but it doesn’t have to be in the context of someone else or something else.’