Paula Yates’ life and death is set to be put under the microscope in Channel 4’s two-part documentary starting on Monday night.
The upcoming programme will feature four previously unheard interviews with the late TV presenter and journalist, who died of an accidental heroin overdose in September 2000 at the age of 41.
Titled Paula, the documentary will look back at Yates’ career and the impact she made as she battled to ‘have it all’ while torn between the duties of family life and her own personal career and happiness while living in the spotlight.
Here’s everything you need to know about Yates ahead of tonight’s first instalment.
Who was Paula Yates and who was she married to?
Yates was a popular television presenter and hosted shows such as The Tube and The Big Breakfast on Channel 4 during her career in television.
She was also well-known for her marriage to Bob Geldof and her relationship with Michael Hutchence, the lead singer of the Australian rock band INXS.
Yates and Bob struck up a romantic relationship in 1976 in the early days of The Boomtown Rats.
They welcomed their first daughter, Fifi, in 1983 before going on to marry in Las Vegas in 1986 after 10 years together.
The couple then had two more daughters, Peaches in 1989, and Pixie in 1990.
However, their marriage was not to last, with the pair divorcing in 1996.
Before their split, however, Yates met INXS lead singer Hutchence while interviewing him for The Tube in 1985.
Yates would go on to maintain irregular contact with the rocker for nine years, and two months after divorcing Bob, she welcomed his child, daughter Tiger Lily.
In November 1997, Hutchence was found dead in a hotel room in Sydney. His death was recorded as suicide by hanging
What happened to Paula Yates?
Yates died of an accidental heroin overdose at her Notting Hill home on her daughter Pixie’s 10th birthday in September 2000.
The coroner ruled that her death was not suicide, but a result of ‘foolish and incautious’ behaviour.
During the inquest, Yates’ friend disclosed that she had not taken illegal drugs for nearly two years.
Coroner Paul Knapman concluded that although the amount Yates had taken would not have killed an addict and added that ‘an unsophisticated taker of heroin’ like Yates had no tolerance to the drug.
Her ex-husband Bob assumed foster custody of daughter Tiger Lily before officially adopting her in 2007.
But the Geldofs would experience further tragedy in April 2014, when Yates’ second-oldest daughter, Peaches also died of a heroin overdose at 25.
One day prior to her death, she uploaded a picture on Instagram of her and her late mother along with the caption: ‘Me and my Mum.’
Paula airs on Monday and Tuesday night at 9pm on Channel 4.
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