Michael Hutchence’s sister has claimed the late INXS frontman would still be alive today if he had stay in a relationship with Kylie Minogue.
In an interview with the Investigates podcast on Thursday, Tina Hutchence said her brother’s ill-fated romance with TV presenter Paula Yates – who died of a heroin overdose in September 2000, three years after Michael’s suicide – was his undoing.
‘Paula was sick. [Someone with] borderline personality is not somebody that should be getting together with somebody who has [their own] problems,’ she said.
Different ending: Michael Hutchence’s sister has said the tragic rock star would still be alive today if he’d stay in a relationship with Kylie Minogue
By comparison, Tina said that her brother’s exes, including Kylie and supermodel Helena Christensen had a grounding influence on him.
‘He was in the wrong relationship,’ she said, referring to Michael’s tragic romance with Paula.
‘If he’d stayed with Helena or the usual women that he was with, [or] Kylie, any of those women who thought about other people, not just themselves…’
Speaking out: In an explosive interview with podcast Investigates on Thursday, Tina Hutchence said her brother’s ill-fated romance with the late TV presenter Paula Yates was his undoing
Tina initially thought Michael and Kylie were ‘an odd combination’, but found herself ‘surprised’ by how well they worked together.
She recalled Michael phoning to say he wanted his sister to meet his new girlfriend, after Tina had heard rumours he was dating the pop princess.
‘[Kylie] was such a lovely lady. She was beautiful. She was a little girl then, she really was,’ Tina said.
Perfect match: Tina said that while she initially thought Michael and Kylie were ‘an odd combination’, she was ‘surprised’ at how well they worked together
Michael dated Kylie on and off between 1987 and 1989, before moving on with Helena in the early ’90s.
He then embarked on a tumultuous relationship with Paula, with whom he welcomed his only child, daughter Heavenly Hiraani Tiger Lily Hutchence Geldof, now 23.
Michael was with Paula until his death by suicide aged 37 in November 1997.
New sensation: Michael dated Kylie on-and-off for around two years from 1987, before moving on with supermodel Helena Christensen in 1991
In the documentary Mystify: Michael Hutchence, released last year, Kylie spoke about her relationship with the Never Tear Us Apart singer.
She said the public perception that she was a ‘pure, good girl dating this dark, bad boy’ was accurate, but she always felt ‘safe with him’.
‘I felt protected. He had insatiable curiosity, all the good things in life and some of the bad,’ she said.
Ups and downs: He then embarked on a tumultuous relationship with Paula Yates, and the couple welcomed a daughter together, Tiger Lily, now 23. Pictured at an event in Sydney in 1996
‘He opened up a whole new world for me. A lot of it was based around pleasure, let’s face it.’
Kylie, who was just 19 when they first started dating, said Michael ‘awakened [her] desire for things in my world’.
She said when their relationship finally ended she was heartbroken, even though she never expected they would be together forever.
‘He opened up a whole new world for me. A lot of it was based around pleasure, let’s face it,’ Kylie said of her relationship with Michael. Pictured at Michael’s 30th birthday party in Sydney in January 1990
‘It felt loving, yet sad and probably doomed. We talked through things and I couldn’t give you an actual reason [as to why it happened],’ she said of their break-up.
‘I left pretty confounded and destroyed, and I knew that was… that was it. Yeah, he broke my heart. I have to confess, the hurt stays for quite a long time.’
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‘He was in the wrong relationship,’ Tina insisted of Michael’s relationship with Paula. Pictured performing in Germany in November 1990