Yates' turbulent loves

Paula Yates at Michael Hutchence's funeral with Tiger Lily

Paula Yates met Bob Geldof at a party in Ireland at Christmas in 1977.

A teenager, she followed the band on tour and started going out with Geldof in Paris.

They moved in together and Yates worked as a music journalist before starting as presenter in music show The Tube in 1982.

She gave birth to their first daughter, Fifi Trixibelle, in April 1983.

Shortly after Geldof was knighted for his work on Live Aid, the couple got married in Las Vegas in June 1986.

Paula and Geldof had two more daughters, Peaches and Pixie.

Bob Geldof with the couple's two younger children in 1996

The couple launched a joint project in 1992, when Paula presented an interview segment of The Big Breakfast, made by Planet 24, in which Geldof had a one-third stake.

Devastated

But their marriage finally failed in February 1995, when Paula left Geldof for INXS frontman Michael Hutchence, who left supermodel Helena Christensen to be with her.

Geldof was devastated by the break-up.

He later said: "I guess I'll stay in love with her no matter what happens. She's a fantastic girl."

But in May 1996 they divorced. Yates went to the home she had shared with Geldof in Chelsea, while Geldof moved into Hutchence's bachelor pad 270 yards away.

Yates said: "I've been married for nine years. Now it's over. We got married too young."

Yates first met Hutchence in February 1995 when she interviewed him on The Big Breakfast.

Michael Hutchence was found dead in Sydney in November 1997

Over the next few months, she reportedly had operations to enlarge her bust, straighten her teeth and had two ribs taken out to make her slimmer.

Drugs find

In August 1996, Yates gave birth to Hutchence's daughter and her fourth child, Heavenly Hiraani Tiger Lily.

The next month, while Yates and Hutchence were in Australia, the children's nanny found opium in a Smarties tube in their home and informed police.

The couple claim the drugs were planted and Yates was arrested but not charged.

However, In October 1996 Geldof won temporary custody of his three children.

She was devastated when Hutchence was found hanged by his belt in a hotel room in Sydney in November 1997, and never accepted the coroner's verdict of suicide.

Shortly afterwards, Yates said she felt "almost like I don't exist", adding: "I'm broken, I don't have any fight."

She said she had contemplated suicide every day but knew she had to be there for her four daughters.

'Suicide' bid

In April 1998 she was admitted to a psychiatric hospital with depression.

Two months later, she apparently tried to hang herself but was found unconscious but still breathing.

In June 1998, she lost custody of the children again when a bout of depression and an apparent suicide bid saw her admitted to a rehabilitation clinic.

A number of legal battles were threatened, with Hutchence's father Kelland making an abortive attempt to win custody of his grand-daughter.

Meanwhile, Yates took the family to court to try to win a share of Hutchence's estate for their daughter.