Paula Yates facts for kids

Paula Elizabeth Yates (24 April 1959 – 17 September 2000) was a British television presenter and writer. Yates is best known for her work on two television programmes, The Tube and The Big Breakfast. She was subjected to intense media attention and scrutiny, owing to her popularity and her relationships with musicians Bob Geldof and Michael Hutchence.

Early life

Born on 24 April 1959 in Colwyn Bay, Wales, to English parents, Yates was brought up in a show business family. Her mother was Elaine Smith, a former showgirl, actress, and writer of novels from Blackpool, who used the stage name Heller Toren. Up until 1997, Yates believed her biological father to be Jess Yates, who hosted the ITV religious programme Stars on Sunday. A DNA test in that year revealed that her biological father was game show host Hughie Green. Jess Yates and Elaine Smith were married from 1958 to 1975. Jess Yates was 19 years older than his wife, and their marriage was unconventional.

Yates described her childhood as lonely and isolated; her mother, she claimed, was absent for much of her upbringing. She attended a village primary school, Penrhos College, and Ysgol Aberconwy. The Yates family ran the Deganwy Castle Hotel for a time, before moving to a house near Conwy. After the break-up of her parents' marriage in 1975, Yates lived mostly with her mother despite having a closer relationship with her father, and also had periods in Malta and Mallorca where she was a pupil at Bellver International College, before returning to Britain.

Career

In 1979, Yates began her career as a music journalist with a column called "Natural Blonde" in the Record Mirror. She first came to prominence in the 1980s, as co-presenter (with Jools Holland) of the Channel 4 pop music programme The Tube, having been a minor co-host of BBC TV chat shows with presenter Terry Wogan. She also appeared alongside her friend Jennifer Saunders in 1987 for a spoof documentary on pop group Bananarama.

In 1982, she released a version of the Nancy Sinatra hit song, "These Boots Are Made for Walkin'".

After the birth of her daughters, Yates wrote two books on motherhood. She continued with her rock journalism, in addition to being presenter of the cutting-edge music show The Tube.

Yates became most notorious for her "on the bed" interviews on the show The Big Breakfast, produced by her husband, Bob Geldof.

Personal life

Yates met Geldof in the early days of the Boomtown Rats. They began a romantic relationship in 1976 when she flew to Paris to surprise him while the band was playing there. Their first daughter, Fifi, was born in 1983. After ten years together, Yates and Geldof married on 31 August 1986 in Las Vegas, with Simon Le Bon of Duran Duran acting as best man. The couple then had two more daughters, Peaches on 13 March 1989, and Pixie on 17 September 1990.

In 1985, Yates met INXS lead singer Michael Hutchence while interviewing him for Channel 4's rock magazine programme The Tube. In February 1995, Yates left Geldof, and later that year became pregnant with Hutchence's child.

Geldof and Yates divorced in May 1996. On 22 July 1996, Yates gave birth to a daughter, Tiger Lily Hiraani Hutchence.

On 22 November 1997, Hutchence died.

In June 1998, Geldof won full custody of the couple's three daughters. She met Kingsley O'Keke during her stay in treatment, but the pair broke up after a six-week romance. O'Keke later sold his story to a tabloid newspaper.

Death

On 17 September 2000, on Pixie's 10th birthday, Yates died at her home in Notting Hill at the age of 41.

Soon after Yates's death, Geldof assumed foster custody of Tiger Lily so that she could be brought up with her three older half-sisters, Fifi, Peaches and Pixie. Her aunt, Tina Hutchence, the sister of Michael Hutchence, was denied permission by the judge to apply for Tiger Lily to live with her in California. In 2007, Geldof adopted Tiger Lily and changed her surname to Geldof; as of 2019, Tiger's legal name was Heavenly Hiraani Tiger Lily Hutchence Geldof.

On 7 April 2014, Yates's second-oldest daughter, Peaches, died, aged 25. One day before her death, she uploaded a picture to her Instagram of herself as a young girl and her mother under the caption "Me and my Mum."

Legacy

On 13 March 2023, Yates was the subject of a two-part Channel 4 documentary, entitled Paula, which looked at her life and career. The documentary, highlighted the intense media surrounding Yates and the often negative coverage in the British press. Paula included interviews with her friends and social commentators including best friend Belinda Brewin, Nicky Clarke, Robbie Williams, Vanessa Feltz and Grace Dent, and used archive footage of Yates and previously unheard recorded interviews, conducted shortly after the death of Hutchence. Brewin revealed that she and Yates had been shopping on the Fulham Road in London, when they met Diana, Princess of Wales, who told Yates: "I love it when you're on the front page of the papers, because it means I got the day off".

In a review for Paula, Lucy Mangan, writing for The Guardian, hailed the documentary as "a glorious celebration of the most witty, flirty woman to ever grace our TVs" and gave the show 4/5 stars. Carol Midgeley, writing for The Times, also gave the documentary 4/5 stars, opining that Yates was a "fizzling force of nature". Gerard Gilbert, writing for the newspaper I, rated the documentary 3/5 stars, adding that he "was left with a tragic sense that Yates’s untimely death robbed us of an intriguing second act".

The first episode of the documentary garnered 970,000 viewers, beating that night's BBC2 and Channel 5 offerings.

Filmography

Selected credits

See also

In Spanish: Paula Yates para niños