Paula - New series

[WandaOff]

Channel 4 this week, documentary about Paula Yates.
She was the same age as me and I followed her career from the beginning. Had a bit of a girl crush on her and was genuinely sad when she died.

I thank Paula desperately wanted to believe his death was due to autoerotic asphyxiation so gave interviews about their kinky sex life. She couldn't accept he would commit suicide.

I agree it was never going to work with MH long term. Seemed like a very toxic relationship. I can see that because he died it was easy for Paula to cling on to this idea that he was her true love & saviour. If he had lived I’m sure the reality would be very different. They certainly weren’t perfect for each other as this doc would have you believe.

Im glad i seen this thread. I dismissed this programme as i thought she was just an attention seeker. I didn't realise her qualities. I'll definitely watch it now.

I think regardless of how she was ‘in real life’ she was a really good tv presenter and interviewer at a time when it was really difficult to be taken seriously as a woman - whatever people thought of her she definitely carved her own niche which was a brave thing to do.

Her treatment in the press and the media in general was totally horrific and wouldn’t have happened to a male.

Mystify is a great film.

Interestingly, all of his exes, including Kylie Minogue, who is interviewed for the film, seem very fond of him despite what seems to have been a bad break up.

I loved her. She used to write a column in the Record Mirror (that dates me), which was really witty and good natured.
Didn't NME print a picture of her when pregnant with the tagline 'abortion of the year'?
The British media can be so vile

He wasn't gay then. If you catch my drift!

That headline about her and Terence Trent Darby was shocking. I'd forgotten how overtly racist the tabloids were at the time.
I'm the same age as her, and like pp, followed her from her time on The Tube, which I loved. She was obviously a complex character who had wit and talent, but made many bad choices, not least with drugs. Those last interview tapes were actually very touching.

Sorry, responded to the wrong quote. Was meant to be the one about Paula's supposed affair with Rupert Everett!

I did wonder, @IcedPurple !

Mystify was such a well made documentary, Michael was a troubled soul with a complex life and the film didn’t shy away from any of that. I agree it showed Paula in a bad light but from the family’s perspective, things started to go very wrong once he met her. He wasn’t a combative person and he got involved in a very bitter custody fight with Geldof. If you’re a hedonistic rock star you really don’t want that in your life, but he made his bed and all that.

Much like the George Michael documentary last week, I feel this doc about Paula was missing something. The people interviewed didn’t really know her (what was the point of Robbie Williams with his anecdotes?) and it just scratched the surface of her childhood, her affairs, her relationship with her children. I did read that she had an eating disorder too, and I would have liked to hear from Rupert Everett who said they had an affair for years.

Poor Peaches too, to die the same way as her Mum.

Also, Pixie looks a lot like a young Bob Geldof - the eyes and chin.

Yes I was wondering that.

Just watched the first one & at the end she has left Tiger in Aus with Michael.

And said something about "if we can't all be together it will kill him"

Well you can't just expect to take someone else's kids to the other side of the world!

Unless MH relocated how would it have worked?

What a tragedy it all was.

Michael was clearly a changed man after his accident, and no longer able to cope with stress or discord. A brain injury such as the one he suffered is a terrible thing.

It’s awful that taking drugs was more important to her than the young child who was in the house with her at the time, rinse and repeat with her daughter !

I agree @Throwncrumbs . Not only was Paula the same age as me, I have a child the same age as Tiger Lily, so it resonated on a personal level. It shocked me that the heroin OD happened at all, never mind with a small child there. As you say, repeated with Peaches.

@Dartmoorcheffy where could I find the court transcripts please? I’ve tried googling but no luck, thanks

Exactly!

If Bob had wanted to take the girls to the other side of the world to be with his drug using girlfriend and their new baby, would Paula have said 'Sure! No problem!' I doubt it.

If Michael was so desperate to be close to another man's daughters then he should have stayed in London. I doubt this was the case however. It's just what Paula felt she had to tell herself.

What was the brain injury?

I was really shocked at how vile the press were to Paula. I wonder if it would be different now? Or whether it would just be replaced by people on twitter being vile instead?

I think he was attacked by a taxi diver when he was with Helena, he fell back and hit his head on the curb. Later it came to light he suffered quite bad brain damage that affected his sense of taste and smell (lost them completely) and changed his personality but I think he wanted to keep it a secret. It didn’t all come out until after his death.

Ive just looked up the documentary on Michael Hutchence called Mystify. It seems it isn't on player or Netflix Anyone know where i can watch it?

He was also obsessed with suicide from a young age and drew pictures of himself with a noose round his neck.

YouTube.

They were two troubled souls together. Sadly for the children involved, it was never going to end well. I know someone who met her, and said she was lovely, nice, and welcoming. People are only human, which means that we all have flaws. Be thankful if you are addiction free, I think.

It's total nonsense that Terence Trent D'arby is Pixie's dad. Look at Bob's sister Cleo. Image of Pixie

Just saw this on Twitter: www.catherinemayer.co.uk/post/everything-you-know-is-wrong-how-the-media-misrepresented-paula-yates-and-continues-to-do-so