The late INXS singer Michael Hutchence’s sister has expressed her displeasure after his model ex-girlfriend, Helena Christensen, was apparently told not to notify his family about his brain injury. Hutchence, a 37-year-old Australian rocker, committed suicide in a Sydney hotel room in 1997.
It wasn’t until after his death that it was revealed Hutchence had suffered brain damage as a result of a road rage incident in Copenhagen, Denmark in 1995 in which he was beaten by a cab driver. This was finally made public in 2019 as a result of a documentary by director Richard Lowenstein, who interviewed Hutchence’s ex-girlfriend Helena and received a full autopsy report.
According to Lowenstein, the singer swore her to secrecy, which meant that not only did the rest of the world not know, but his family was also apparently ignorant of the depth of his internal ailments, which led him to have “sudden mood swings and anger outbursts.”
Tina Hutchence, Hutchence’s sister, has recently confessed that she wishes she had known about her brother’s health problems sooner. Hutchence’s sister Tina commented on the discovery in an interview with The Sun On Sunday, saying,
I know Michael was so happy with Helena and there was a period when I couldn’t picture them not being together. There were all these awful stories about Michael after he died, so for Helena not to tell us about the head injury was wrong. She was very close to our parents and could have easily reached out.
In Lowenstein’s Mystify documentary, Helena discussed the road rage incident, explaining how they were riding their bikes home when they stopped in a tiny lane to grab a pizza. Hutchence was discovered dead in his hotel room in Sydney in November 1997, and his death was ruled a suicide by a coroner. Heavenly Hiraani Tiger Lily, his kid with companion Paula Yates, was one at the time of his death. Yates was killed by a heroin overdose in 2000.
The news was revealed in a two-part special episode of the LiSTNR programme Behind The Hits, which aired last Friday (November 18) and included interviews with former INXS members Andrew Farriss, Kirk Pengilly, Jon Stevens (who took over as lead vocalist for Hutchence between 2000 and 2003), as well as one-time members Jimmy Barnes and Suze DeMarchi.
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