Live Aid organizer Bob Geldof has been awarded custody of Tiger Lily, the orphaned daughter of his former wife Paula Yates and her lover, INXS singer Michael Hutchence.

On Dec. 14, the British High court awarded the singer custody of the four-year-old for a year to enable her to live with her three half-sisters from Yates' marriage to Geldof. The order will be reviewed after twelve months.

Tiger Lily has lived in Geldof's home since September, when Yates was found dead in her Notting Hill home of an apparent drug overdose. Hutchence died in an Australian hotel room in November of 1997 of an apparent suicide. The London court rejected an application from Hutchence's half sister Tina Shorr, who claimed the child would be harmed by living in the glare of the public eye.

Hutchence's father, Kelland, a sixty-nine-year-old former businessman, told reporters Monday night that he was "delighted" that his granddaughter's future had been resolved. "All I can say is that we are extremely happy that Bob Geldof has got custody," Hutchence said from his Sydney home. "We think that Tiger should be with her sisters, and not be moved out of the very loving, caring and good environment she is in at the moment. The girls always lived with Bob, and they will now spend Christmas together. That is her family now. She is with her sisters. She loves them and they love her."

JAAN UHELSZKI
(December 20, 2000)