Orphan who’s Bob Geldof’s greatest success
Her rock star dad Michael Hutchence killed himself when she was a baby – then mum Paula Yates died of a drug overdose. Today, as Tiger Lily turns 21, she’s the . . .
FROM her earliest days she has been the mirror image of her late father Michael Hutchence — the intense brown eyes, that curving, scowling smile. There is also a depth to the gaze of Heavenly Hiraani Tiger Lily Hutchence, now known as Tiger Hutchence-Geldof, that hints at how much she has experienced.
This look is immediately striking in the arty pictures of her recently posted on the Instagram account of British photographer Kate Bellm.
In the publicly accessible images, captioned ‘Heavenlytiger’ or ‘TIGER’, we see her in varying states of undress — topless, bare bottom on show, lean limbs wrapped around female friends. Several show her nude (albeit with her modesty covered to meet social media rules). In one she and another naked woman are kissing underwater.
An image taken in San Pancho, Mexico, last March shows an unlit cigarette dangling from the topless Tiger’s lips. Miss Bellm, 30, captions it:t: ‘My soulmate.’ Tiger replies delightedly: ‘@KateBellm I love you so muchoooo!’ In another, taken in Majorca, where Bellm lives for part of the year, r, Tiger is seated, naked, with two other modelss under the caption ‘Sisterhood’.
For a young woman who rarely poses in publicc — certainly, she has dabbled in no OK! or Hello! o! photoshoots, unlike her late sister, Peaches — these edgy images appear to mark something of a transition. Indeed, today is her 21st birthday and d she seems to be marking the occasion with her r first steps away from the protective embrace of adoptive father Bob Geldof, who has spent muchh of the past 20 years shielding her from view.
There are signs she is going through a belated d rebellion, possibly bolstered by the fact thatt unlike Pixie and Fifi, Geldof’s other daughters,s, she no longer needs his financial support. Forr despite reports that INXS singer Michaelel Hutchence’s fortune was ‘lost’ in a web of complexx financial mishaps, the Mail can reveal it does existt and is around £12 million.
Geldof family friend Gerry Agar reveals thatt Tiger received a chunk of the money aged 18, 8, which was partly used to fund her apartment in n New York. Today, she will get another paymentt and the final tranche when she is 25. Not that this s inheritance has affected her. ‘ To meet her, youu wouldn’t know she has money,’ one friend says.
Agar agrees, saying: ‘Tiger is a wealthy youngg woman, but she is really happy living out of thee spotlight in New York. She’s working hard becausee she wants to go into acting and she’s keeping herr head down, something she and Bob agree upon.’’
Perhaps he would be less pleased by the factt that Tiger has made tentative moves to contact t her aunt Tina, sister of Hutchence. Tina fell out t with Geldof spectacularly in the custody battlee for four-year- old Tiger after her mother Paula Yates, Geldof’s wife, died of a heroin overdose. AFTERwARdS Geldof raised her as his own. Today, she calls him ‘dad’ but despite their close bond, it seems Tiger has decided to start doing things her way.
New York has been her home for the past three years, and she will shortly graduate from a leading acting school there. She set up home with boyfriend Bruno Sorondo, a Spanish skateboarder, but they split two years ago.
In his place are a large, protective group of friends, mostly aspiring actresses. One pal indicates Tiger is noted for her bohemian enthusiasms including surfing, meditation and yoga. Indeed, at her private £12,000a-year sixth form in Southwest London, she was famous for her long armpit hair.
She has remained in a rather boho crowd, of whom photographer Kate Bellm is one. A friend of the model daisy Lowe, she met Tiger through her sister Pixie.
Tiger’s nude shoot with Ms Bellm is something of a sea change, as she has previously scrupulously avoided attention, with the exception of a low-key modelling campaign for ethical clothing company House of Khadi last year.
In her late teens, she was invited everywhere, just like socialite Pixie, but almost invariably said no.
Her reluctance is said by a family source to stem from her sensible elder sister Fifi and former nanny Anita debney. They instilled in Tiger an aversion for fame and the temptations it brings, including drugs.
Fifi, who was 17 when their mother died, is fiercely protective and slept in the same room as Tiger for years.
The source said: ‘Tiger is no fool; she’s witnessed an awful lot. She knows what happened to her mother, seen what happened to her sister. It’s not a life she wants. She is very grounded and has been told to keep away from drugs.’
So there has never been any question of her going off the rails like her mother or Peaches, who died in 2014 after struggling for years with a heroin habit.
Much credit must go to Bob Geldof, who has cherished her since her mother was found dead in September 2000. A couple of years ago, Geldof released a single called Silly Pretty Thing, which is, I can reveal, a song about Tiger, and how much he and his wife Jeanne adore her. ‘Just you and me, and our silly pretty little thing,’ he sings. ‘The world is spinning, full of kindly beings. The one you love will love you back. And no one’s spoiling anything.’
In the song’s video, which features Geldof jumping on a trampoline, he is briefly joined by Tiger. For a few seconds at the end of the film, she can be seen jumping, her long brown hair flying.
The fact that Tiger has found such contentment with Geldof is extraordinary given that Hutchence, encouraged by Paula, loathed him. Hutchence was found hanged in his hotel room in November 1997, hours after arguing with Geldof on the phone. Tiger was 16 months old.
INXS guitarist Tim Farriss says: ‘Michael hated Bob so much; to think that he would end up as the sole parent of Tiger Lily would have been the most horrific thing he could have imagined.’
Geldof is not an easy man. Outspoken, sometimes controlling, he can be horribly inflexible but is loving to a fault and had the sense to see that Tiger needed a solid family. I’m told that when Tiger was growing up, he used to get cross about Peaches talking to the little girl for hours about their mother, whom Peaches idolised.
He didn’t approve, either, of Peaches selling endless interviews referring to her mum, and the pair were estranged when she died. TH
ANKFULLY, Gerry Agar reveals: ‘It’s a very different story with Tiger, because Tiger was totally raised and totally loved by Bob’s wife Jeanne so she has such stability. They have been very strict with her and Tiger is incredibly unlike Peaches. She wants to please them.
‘People do not realise Tiger was a part of Bob’s life even before Paula died. After she lost custody of her daughters with Bob [in 1998 after a suicide attempt], he and Jeanne allowed Paula to come to their home with Tiger to stay the night.
‘He knew Paula was really ill and it was an attempt to get her well. By the end, he and Paula were on good terms. So before Paula died, Bob was getting very fond of Tiger. He also felt a sense of guilt when Paula died that he had not been able to help her.’
when 41-year-old Paula was found dead at her home in Notting Hill in 2000, little Tiger was found beside her. She was immediately taken
to Bob’s flat by Paula’s friend Jo Fairley. Agar recalls: ‘The girls were in a panic that Tiger might be taken away from them. They couldn’t bear to lose Tiger as well and that is why Bob stepped in. He has a noble heart and could see it would not be good for Tiger to be separated from her sisters.’
She was made a ward of court, compliant with a will Paula made, stating she wanted her daughter to grow up in Britain. The will also stipulated Tiger should have ‘no access to the parents of Michael Hutchence’.
Paula hated Hutchence’s mother Patricia and had been wounded when Tina claimed that he wanted to leave Paula at the time of his death. (Hutchence’s bandmates concurred, recently saying he was planning to split with Paula.)
Three months after her death, Geldof was given ‘ permanent residency’ of Tiger. Paula’s friends Belinda Brewin and Jo Fairley wrote to the court saying Michael had hated his family. The Hutchences disputed these claims.
His mother and Tina looked into adopting Tiger, forever badgering Bob to let them see her. In 2006, Tiger went to Australia and spent five days with Patricia and Hutchence’s father, Kelland. To Geldof’s fury, they gave photos of her visit to a celebrity magazine.
The following year Patricia told Australian magazine New Idea that Tiger had phoned her, saying: ‘I love you and Grandpa and I want to live with you.’
Soon after, Geldof filed to adopt her. Patricia never saw Tiger again. In the last years of Patricia’s life, Tina begged Geldof to let Tiger contact her. He refused. Today, Tina, a make-up artist and mother living in California, has written two open letters to Tiger begging her to get in touch.
As a result, says a family source, there has finally been some contact. Tiger has sent word via mutual friends to Tina, asking how she is. Some sources suggest a parting of the ways with Geldof on this issue.
What of Hutchence’s legacy? There has been much confusion about his fortune. His will left some money to charity, then half of the remaining estate to his parents, brother, sister and Paula. The other half was to go to Tiger.
It was expected to total around £25 million. However, within a year of his death, the executors indicated Hutchence was effectively bankrupt. His homes in the South of France, Notting Hill and Australia did not appear to be owned by him and neither did the royalties to his hit songs.
Later investigations showed he had disguised ownership of his fortune to avoid tax, using trust companies — the Vocals Trust. His furious mother and sister took legal action against Colin Diamond, Hutchence’s financier, but settled out of court. Meanwhile, the singer’s Monaco-based tax adviser Gordon Fisher said in a letter that Hutchence was ‘acutely aware of his potential exposure to financial abuse’ so hid his fortune.
He wrote: ‘The Vocals Trust was an asset protection trust. As the deceased observed at the time, and subsequently, he wished to secure himself against his “thieving relatives”, his “girlfriends”, and, in the event he married, his “wife/ies” (sic).’
Gerry Agar says the complicated matter has been quietly sorted out by Geldof. ‘Michael’s money has always been there but he handed everything over to Colin Diamond to keep it safe, for tax reasons mostly,’ she says. ‘Some years ago Bob had lunch with Colin Diamond and there was a decision Colin would put a proportion of the money into a trust for Tiger; she would get a bit when she was 18, a bit when she was 21 and another bit when she was 25.’
Another landmark is approaching for Tiger — November marks 20 years since her father’s death.
A ‘new’ album of unreleased solo songs is to come out, as is a documentary of his death, which reportedly draws on Hutchence’s private diary. His brother Rhett says that, once again, people are seeking to exploit Hutchence’s memory.
But what will Tiger think — and will she finally break cover on this milestone?