The older sister of late INXS front man Michael Hutchence has revealed the truth behind her brother’s premature death in a Sydney hotel room – and shockingly admitted who she really blames for his demise.
WATCH: The Life and Death of Michael Hutchence on INVESTIGATES podcast
Speaking exclusively on the podcast Investigates from her home in California, Tina Hutchence, 72, says she watched on in horror as her rock star sibling became involved with controversial mother-of-three Paula Yates as he nursed his own horror brain injury.
Tina reveals she believes her brother would still be alive if he stayed with Aussie sweetheart Kylie Minogue, who he met in 1987 and dated on-and-off for two years.
“He was in the wrong relationship. If he’d stayed with Helena [Christiansen] or the usual women that he was with, Kylie, any of those women, who thought about other people, not just themselves…” Tina tells Investigates.
“Paula was sick. [Someone with] borderline personality is not somebody that should be getting together with somebody who has [their own] problems.”
Kylie and Michael’s whirlwind relationship was a surprise to the Hutchence family and the rest of the world – but Tina remembers the Loco-Motion singer as being a positive influence on the bad-boy rockstar.
“Kylie surprised me because I just had no idea. It just seemed an odd combination,” she laughs.
“Michael called me and said, “I have someone here, we want to take you to dinner,” and I’d heard rumours that he was seeing Kylie and next thing he said, “So I’ll surprise you. It’s Kylie, Kylie Minogue.”
“She’s such a lovely lady. She was beautiful. She was a little girl then, she really was.”
In the days before Michael’s 1997 death at the Ritz Carlton in Sydney’s Double Bay, the 37-year-old star was desperate to have his young daughter Tiger-Lily with him in Australia.
Tina says even now, 23 years later, she is still angry with Paula for how she treated Michael.
“He had a traumatic brain injury and was being pushed to the limit with paparazzi, with Paula calling them and saying, “This is where we’ll be.” I mean, really?” Tina says.
“All he was asking for [was to be with Tiger Lily]. Paula already had the tickets for the Qantas flight for her and Tiger Lily. She was supposed to leave the next night.
Not only did he not see his child for that Christmas, he did not see Christmas at all.”
Tina remembers her brother Michael as easy-going and full of life – but says all that changed in 1992 when he was the victim of a horrific assault in Copenhagen.
Michael lost his sense of smell and taste, which had a devastating impact on his love for music. In the years that followed, Tina says the Michael she knew and loved completely disappeared.
“We just couldn’t understand that he was just not the same Michael,” she says sadly.
“The thing that I mostly noticed was the change in his personality because he’d always been so easy going. In fact, honestly, he just let people walk over him at times, but that changed. He would sometimes snap.”
Speaking about her brother just months after Michael would have turned 60, Tina says she wishes people would have done more to save him after his brain injury turned his life upside down.
“I’m angry. I’m angry that partly we didn’t know enough about traumatic brain injury then, that he was being taken care of. We didn’t know what it was,” she says.
“We all miss him. His friends are also still very protective of him and our family was torn apart when he left us, but I miss his hugs.”
Tina also regrets not having more of a relationship with Michael’s daughter Tiger-Lily, now 23, who was adopted by Bob Geldof after the death of Paula Yates in 2000.
“She’s Bob’s child. She’s a Geldof now. Always has been. He took steps so that I could not see her, I don’t have his kind of money, but I would show up in London. I would tell him I’m coming and when I would show up, I’d call. He will have taken her to Paris, sometimes to Spain,” Tina says.
“I just stopped trying after a while. After 10 years, I stopped sending letters or anything. We could’ve had a relationship. We could’ve had a relationship even though she was in London, but Bob wouldn’t allow that. He never allowed it.”
Tina has written a book: Michael: My Brother, Lost Boy of INXS – available now.
If you or anyone you know is struggling, contact Lifeline on 13 11 14 or Beyond Blue on 1300 22 4636.
Subscribe to Investigates on Acast, Apple or Spotify, or listen below.
Related stories
Native ad body.
Native ad body.
Native ad body.
