LONDON: Live Aid founder Bob Geldof said his family was “beyond pain” at the death of his socialite daughter Peaches at the age of 25 on Monday.
Police were called to her secluded home outside Wrotham in Kent, southeast England, but she was pronounced dead at the scene. Her death was being treated as “unexplained and sudden” but non-suspicious, police said. The coroner is probing the possibility model and writer Peaches died of natural causes, according to The Sun, and police say they found no evidence of ‘hard drugs, no suicide note and no visible signs of injury’.
Peaches, a mother of two young sons herself, was just 11 when her mother, television presenter Paula Yates, died of a heroin overdose aged 41 in 2000.
In her last Twitter message to her 190,000 followers on Sunday, Peaches posted a photograph of her as a baby being held by her mother, with the words, “Me and my mum”.
Her father Bob, who put together a huge live rock show in 1985 to raise money for the Ethiopian famine, said of his second daughter: “Peaches has died. We are beyond pain.
“She was the wildest, funniest, cleverest, wittiest and the most bonkers of all of us.
“Writing ‘was’ destroys me afresh. What a beautiful child.
“How is this possible that we will not see her again? How is that bearable? We loved her and will cherish her forever.”
Singers Lily Allen and Ellie Goulding were among the first to pay tribute on social media.
“My thoughts are with Peaches’ family at this awful time,” fellow mum-of-two Allen wrote on Twitter. “I hope they get to grieve in peace. Peaches, rest in peace gorgeous girl”
Singer Ellie Goulding added: “Even if you think you’ve got it all figured out, some things still can’t be explained or understood. Two beautiful children. RIP Peaches”.
Sharon Osborne later said it was “unimaginable” what the family was going through, while X Factor mogul Simon Cowell tweeted: “The few times I met Peaches she was a sweet, funny warm person. Much love to her family she has left behind.”
Radio 2’s Sparky spoke to Geldof last month and after interview chatted about his family. “It was with real warmth that he spoke about his daughters and in particular how talented they were each in their own way,” said the radio presenter. “He singled out Peaches for her writing pointing out she really “had it” and was proud she showed such a creative side. He bemoaned the fact that maybe she wasn’t getting the recognition she deserved but the whole conversation just reflected he was a proud loving Dad.”
‘Beloved wife’
Peaches was the second daughter of Bob Geldof and Paula Yates, along with Fifi Trixibelle and Pixie; Peaches has a half-sister, named Heavenly Hiraani Tiger Lily, her mother’s daughter with late INXS frontman Michael Hutchence.
Peaches’ second husband Tom Cohen, the singer in the now-disbanded group S.C.U.M, said: “My beloved wife Peaches was adored by myself and her two sons Astala and Phaedra and I shall bring them up with their mother in their hearts every day. We shall love her forever.”
She married her first husband, rock musician Max Drummey, in 2008 but they separated the following year.
Peaches wed Cohen two years ago in the same church in Kent where her parents were married and where her mother’s funeral was held.
On the day, she told Hello! Magazine: “I feel her [Paula Yates’s] presence all the time but especially today.
“Mum loved family celebrations and she would adore Tom and the fact that we’ve married here. I know that she is watching over me and feeling so happy for us.”
Speaking of her mother’s death in a 2013 interview, Peaches said: ‘I remember the day my mother died, and it’s still hard to talk about it. I just blocked it out. I went to school the next day because my father’s mentality was “keep calm and carry on”.
‘So we all went to school and tried to act as if nothing had happened. But it had happened. I didn’t grieve. I didn’t cry at her funeral. I couldn’t express anything because I was just numb to it all. I didn’t start grieving for my mother properly until I was maybe 16.’
Peaches had a media career writing for British newspapers and presenting celebrity-driven TV shows. She was a frequent attendee at fashion shows in London and New York, and was photographed just last week at a London show for the Tesco brand F&F.
Kent police said in a statement: “Police were called at 1.35 pm on 7 April 2014 to an address near Wrotham following a report of concern for the welfare of a woman.
“A woman aged 25 was pronounced dead by South East Coast Ambulance Service.
“At this stage, the death is being treated as an unexplained and sudden death. Officers are working to establish the circumstances around the death.
“The local coroner has been informed and a post-mortem is expected to be carried out in the next few days,” the statement said.
A black Vauxhall private ambulance left the house under police escort shortly after 8:25 pm.
In an interview with the Guardian newspaper in 2009, Geldof acknowledged that she used drugs as a teenager but said she had stopped.
“’Yeah, I’ve taken drugs. Yes, I have had experiences, and a few of those experiences were unsavory, not ones I want to repeat, but I was growing up. I wanted the experience,” she told the paper.
“I wasn’t hugely into drugs and I’m sober now,” she added. “I’m not Amy Winehouse. I never have been. I wasn’t a crackhead.”
“It’s very, very sad. Peaches has overcome a lot in her childhood, seemed to be getting her life together. You hear something like this and words can fail you. It’s just tragic, terrible news,” Ray Levine, Peaches’ former publicist, told Sky News.
“Having to deal with the death of your mother at such a young age would be difficult for any child, let alone someone in the public spotlight,” he added.
In the public eye since her teenage years, Peaches Geldof struggled with a turbulent social life, highlighted at every turn by a British press eager for celebrity news.
Born on March 13, 1989, she left home at 16.
British tabloids and gossip magazines also focused on the more sordid details of her life, including reports that she was caught shoplifting cosmetics and claims that she used heroin.
In 2010 she was dropped from a lingerie modelling contract after photographs showing her topless and allegations that she used drugs surfaced.
