Obituary: Peaches Geldof

  • Published
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Peaches Geldof on life and love at 20: Interview first broadcast 2009

Peaches Geldof, the second daughter of musician Bob Geldof and late TV presenter Paula Yates, was found dead at her home in Wrotham, Kent, on Monday.

The 25-year-old had moved out of London to live in the countryside with her two young sons, Astala and Phaedra, and second husband, musician Tom Cohen.

Born in 1989, Peaches Honeyblossom Geldof embarked on a media career at the age of 15, writing a column for Elle Magazine and the Daily Telegraph.

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Michelle Mone tells 5 live: "She was an incredible young woman"

She was also a model and TV presenter.

Geldof left home at the age of 16 and went on to contribute to publications including The Guardian and US style bible Nylon, as well as presenting TV programmes such as ITV2's OMG! with Peaches Geldof.

During her teenage years she had spoken of experimenting with drugs and she became a favourite of paparazzi photographers, often snapped on the red carpet or leaving parties in the early hours.

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Peaches Geldof was on Sport Relief last month

In recent years she had devoted much of her time to looking after her two sons and regularly posted pictures of them and her pets on her Twitter feed.

However, just last week she had attended a launch for Tesco's F&F clothing range in London.

Image source, Getty Images
Image caption,

Peaches Geldof attended the Brits earlier this year

Geldof had continued to write opinionated columns, including one piece in The Independent, voicing her support, external for same-sex marriage.

In November last year she took on controversial commentator Katie Hopkins, external while speaking about attachment parenting on ITV programme This Morning, applauded by many on Twitter.

Just a month before her death she gave an interview on attachment parenting, external - which often involves sleeping in the same bed as your baby - to Mother and Baby magazine, which billed "the It Girl turned earth mother" as its new columnist.

"Becoming a mother was like becoming me, finally," Geldof told the magazine.

"After years of struggling to know myself, feeling lost at sea, rudderless and troubled, having babies through which to correct the multiple mistakes of my own traumatic childhood was beyond healing," said Geldof.

Her first son, Astala, is one and Phaedra will turn one on 24 April.

Image source, Reuters
Image caption,

Peaches and husband Tom Cohen in 2011, before the birth of their two children

Image source, PA
Image caption,

Peaches on a family night out in 2005 with dad Bob, sisters Fifi and Pixie and half-sister Tiger Lily

She had also spoken of how she owed her life to her children and said: "I am not about to let them down, not for anyone or anything."

After the birth of Astala in 2012, she told Elle magazine, "The minute I held him, it was like this missing piece of my life being put into place; everything started to heal."

She also spoke of the importance of creating a family for him to grow up in, saying, "Even if it's an archaic idea, I want Astala to have a mummy and daddy together for ever."

Her own mother Yates split with Bob Geldof and formed a relationship with INXS frontman Michael Hutchence, who died in 1997.

Geldof was just 11 when her own mother died from a heroin overdose in 2000, aged 41.

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David Sillito looks back on the life of Peaches Geldof, who has died at the age of 25

In September 2012, she revealed she had not been able to come to terms with her mother's death for several years.

Geldof had two sisters Fifi Trixibelle and Pixie and a younger half-sister Tiger Lily Hutchence Geldof.

'Princess Peach'

After moving to New York in 2008, where she married rock musician Max Drummey before separating six months later in early 2009, Geldof was briefly the editor of her own magazine, Disappear Here.

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OK! Online's Sarah Robertson: Peaches Geldof "was phenomenally bright"

She told The Guardian that she started the magazine, external with former Loaded editor James Brown as she felt "hugely patronised" by women's magazines. It also targeted men, and featured a column from the late Tony Benn.

In a tribute on Elle magazine's website - where Geldof wrote one of her first columns, external - a former colleague at Nylon, Faran Krentcil, revealed she had given her the nickname "Princess Peach".

She said she would remember her for many "amazing things" including making Justin Timberlake teach her Spanish on camera during fashion week and offering paparazzi "a six-pack of beer as they followed her through the supermarket."