People

Bob Geldof ‘blames himself’ over death of daughter Peaches

Boomtown Rats singer ‘goes over and over and over’ what he could have done differently

A file image from 2009 of Sir Bob Geldof and his daughter Peaches. In an interview last night as Sir Bob said he blamed himself for the death of his daughter, who died of a heroin overdose earlier this year. Photograph: PA
A file image from 2009 of Sir Bob Geldof and his daughter Peaches. In an interview last night as Sir Bob said he blamed himself for the death of his daughter, who died of a heroin overdose earlier this year. Photograph: PA
Thu Oct 16 2014 - 10:02

Bob Geldof says he “blames himself” for the death of his daughter Peaches, who died of a heroin overdose earlier this year.

The Boomtown Rats singer and activist said he “goes over and over and over” what he could have done to help the 24-year-old mother of two who had started using the drug again in the months leading up to her death.

In an interview with ITV News he described the journalist, model and television presenter as “super bright” but “frantic”.

A file image from April showing the casket carrying the body of British celebrity Peaches Geldof arriving for the funeral ceremony. Photograph: PA
A file image from April showing the casket carrying the body of British celebrity Peaches Geldof arriving for the funeral ceremony. Photograph: PA

Ms Geldof was found dead by her husband Tom Cohen at their home in Wrotham, Kent, on April 7th this year.

READ SOME MORE

Geldof said: “You blame yourself. You’re the father who is responsible and clearly failed.

“For anybody watching, who has a dead kid and you’re a parent. You go back, you go back, you go back, you go back, you go back, you go over, you go over.

“What could you have done? You do as much as you can.”

He said newspaper attacks on his daughters following their mother Paula Yates’ death in 2000 had also “damaged” them.

Asked if he knew about his daughter’s drug addiction, he said: “Course I knew about it and we did more than talk about it, yeah. She was super bright. Too bright.

“A very errant mind that could focus intensely on a book which she would consume and just absorb it.

“But the rest was a franticness. She knew what life was supposed to be and God bless her she tried very hard to get there. And she didn’t make it.”

An inquest heard she had started using heroin again in February, after taking the substitute drug methadone for two and a half years.

Geldof said performing with the Boomtown Rats helps him to escape the grief of his losing his daughter, who had two sons, Astala, two, and one-year-old Phaedra.

“I put on my snakeskin suit and I can be this other thing,” he said.

“It is utterly cathartic. Those two hours and I am drained. In every sense it empties, it drains my mind. On stage I’m lost in this thing and it’s a very brief respite.”

PA