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Quicknation Paula Yates
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Paula Yates (April 24, 1960 – September 17, 2000) was a Welsh television presenter born in Colwyn Bay, Conwy, Wales. When she first came to prominence in the 1980s, as co-presenter (with Jools Holland) of Channel 4 pop music programme, , she was better known as the daughter of former TV presenter, Jess Yates, who had been sacked from his job presenting religious programmes because of scandalous newspaper stories about his private life.
In 1978 Paula posed naked for Penthouse (magazine). Yates became even more famous as the partner of Bob Geldof, with whom she lived for some years before their marriage in 1986. They already had one daughter, Fifi Trixibelle, born in 1983, and went on to have two more daughters, Peaches Honeyblossom and Pixie. She was also one of the presenters on The Big Breakfast, which was produced by Geldof. In 1995, Paula left Geldof for singer Michael Hutchence, with whom she had another daughter, Heavenly Hiraani Tiger Lily, known as Tiger Lily. At the same time, her public conduct and personal life began to be questioned and criticised in the media: for example, her much-publicised cosmetic surgery was mocked. When she appeared on the BBC series, , she was openly ridiculed by other participants. However, she remained amiable and laughed most of the comments off, despite calling Ian Hislop, who made most of the offending comments, "sperm of the Devil" (commonly supposed to have been a slip of the tongue for "spawn of the Devil"). In 1997, Hutchence was found hanged in a hotel room in Sydney, and Paula became distraught, refusing to accept the coroner's verdict of suicide. She was eventually to seek psychiatric treatment. Meanwhile, there was a question over the custody of her youngest daughter, Tiger Lily. Moreover, further media allegations were made 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. Shortly after this announcement, Paula Yates was found dead, at the age of 40, of an apparent drug overdose. Hughie Green's son, Christopher, has gone on record as saying that Kell Hutchence (Michael Hutchence's father) never fought for custody of Tiger Lily. In his book , he says of the late Kell Hutchence that "he was one of the very few decent people out there who tried to be the peace maker in a sad story". According to Christopher Green, Kell's ex-wife and step-daughter only made motions to gain custody of Tiger after Paula's death. Tiger Lily now lives with Bob Geldof and her half-sisters, the children he had with Yates. |
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