A host of celebrities said farewell to the socialite and model Peaches Geldof at a private funeral in an idyllic Kent church today.
Bob
Geldof was said to have led tributes to his daughter at the same church
where the funeral of her own mother Paula Yates was held - and where
she herself was married in 2012.
Supermodel Kate Moss and her musician husband Jamie Hince were among the stars attending the funeral at St Mary Magdalene and St Lawrence church in the village of Davington, near Faversham in Kent.
Sorrow: Model Kate Moss and her husband musician
Jamie Hince from band The Kills (pictured in sunglasses) arrive at the
St Mary Magdalene and St Lawrence church in the village of Davington,
near Faversham in Kent
Sombre: Radio 1 DJ Nick Grimshaw (left), a close
friend of both Peaches and her younger sister Pixie arrives at the
funeral. Journalist and television presenter Mariella Frostrup (right) -
who was a close friend of the model's mother Paula Yates - with her
husband Jason McCue, a human rights lawyer
Sarah Ferguson, Duchess of York (left), the former wife of Prince Andrew, arrives
for the service. Right, actress Trudie Styler, who is married to the musician Sting - a friend of Bob Geldof
The funeral of Peaches's mother Paula Yates
(left, with Peaches) was also held at the Kent church. Right, Peaches
and her boys - Astala Dylan Willow (right), 23 months, and Phaedra Bloom
Forever, 11 months
At peace: Peaches had finally found happiness
with her husband Thomas Cohen. Here the couple are seen with their two
young boys in November last year
Musician and television personality
Jools Holland was among the first to arrive, followed closely by
Sarah Ferguson - who arrived alone in a chauffeured Bentley.
The Duchess of
York smiled at journalists as she stepped out but said nothing before
heading into Davington Priory.
Nick
Grimshaw, a close friend of Peaches, and journalist and television
presenter Mariella Frostrup, accompanied by her husband Jason McCue, a
human rights lawyer, were also at the funeral. Ms Frostrup was a friend
of Paula Yates.
Also
in attendance were former Rolling Stones bassist Bill Wyman, model and
television personality Jo Wood, model and presenter Alexa Chung,
Razorlight frontman Johnny Borrell, singer Eliza Doolittle and actress
Jaime Winstone.
Dozens of locals also looked on as cars
began to arrive outside the church, which is where the 25-year-old
socialite married musician Tom Cohen, the father of her two children, in
2012.
A
hearse carrying Peaches' coffin drew into the Davington Priory estate
just before 1pm. The coffin was painted sky blue, with clouds and
flowers along the side and a picture of Peaches' family at the back. The
painting also depicted her beloved pet dogs and cat which often
featured on her Instagram and twitter accounts.
The
order of service had a beautiful photograph of Peaches taken by
photographer Brian Aris on her wedding day in September 2012.
Alexa Chung, the television presenter, model and
journalist (left) arrives to pay respects to Peaches - who she met on
the London social scene. Razorlight frontman Johnny Borrell (right) also
attended the funeral
Nick Grimshaw, left, offers support to a female
mourner - both of whom were friends with Peaches. Right, Debbie Leng,
the former partner of Roger Taylor from rock band Queen, holds a bunch
of flowers as she walks to the church
English rose: Actress Jaime Winstone, a friend
of Peaches and her sisters, brought a bright red flower to the funeral.
Right, Jo Wood, the former wife of the Rolling Stones guitarist Ronnie
Wood
Fashionista Amy Molyneaux (left) who worked with
Peaches and was a close friend and former record label owner, musician
and Oasis manager Alan McGee (right)
Mourn: Pete Briquette, left, an original member
of the Boomtown Rats pictured outside the church and Crown Prince
Pavlos, son of Greece's deposed King Constantine
Stars: Musician and presenter Jools Holland -
who is a friend of Bob Geldof - was one of the first to arrive for the
funeral earlier today
Bill Wyman - former bass player with the Rolling Stones and friend of Bob Geldof - arrives with his wife Suzanne, right
A
wreath of bright yellow sunflowers and an arrangement of spring flowers,
including pink roses and purple lilies, was delivered this morning to
Sir Bob's home by local florist Lotty's Flowers.
Peaches' ashes are expected to be scattered in the estate's garden, where she played as a child, according to reports.
Written
in chalk on the church's wall, a message read 'RIP Peaches'. Around 30
bouquets of flowers - left by well-wishers in the days after Peaches's
death on April 7 - remain attached to Davington Priory's front gate.
Mystery
still surrounds the sudden death of Peaches on April 7, because the
post-mortem results were inconclusive and toxicology results are yet to
be completed.
The coffin, covered in paintings, is driven to the Kent church as hundreds gather to pay their respects to Peaches
A group of mourners arrive for the ceremony, which took place in the same church as the funeral of her mother Paula Yates
More friends of the family arrive at the church earlier today. Mystery still surrounds the sudden death of Peaches on April 7
The funeral was held at St Mary Magdalene and St Lawrence
Church in Davington, near Faversham, Kent
A bunch of flowers left by mourners, with a card reading: 'Shine bright like a diamond. RIP Peaches'
Tribute: A floral arrangement is delivered to
the church ahead of the service. Bob Geldof is thought to have led the
ceremony today
Her
body was found at the home she shared with her husband and their two
young sons, Astala, 23 months, and 11-month-old Phaedra, in Wrotham,
Kent, after officers were called 'following a report of concern for the
welfare of a woman'.
The
day she died former Boomtown Rats singer Geldof paid tribute to his
daughter alongside his partner Jeanne Marine and Ms Geldof's sisters
Fifi Trixibelle, Pixie and Tiger, saying she was the 'wildest, funniest,
cleverest, wittiest and the most bonkers of all of us'.
Kent Police said the death was being treated as a 'non-suspicious, unexplained sudden death'.
An inquest is not expected to be opened and adjourned by the coroner until after the results of toxicology tests are known.
A church with special significance for the girl who lost her own mother
The church in Kent is also where Peaches married her second husband, musician Tom Cohen, and where her mother, Paula Yates, married Irish musician Bob Geldof in 1986.It is also where Peaches' mother Paula Yates' funeral was held after was found dead in her Notting Hill, west London, home in 2000.
Peaches' four-year-old sister Tiger Lily was found playing near to her mother's body by a family friend. Peaches was just 11 when her mother died after an accidental heroin overdose.
Poignantly the very last message Peaches, a prolific Twitter user, posted online was a picture of her as a toddler with her late mother.
Peaches had spoken of feeling the presence of
her late mother keenly as she walked down the aisle of St Mary Magdalene
and St Lawrence Church
Speaking to Hello! magazine at the time of her wedding to Tom Cohen in 2012, she said: ‘I feel her [Yates] presence all the time but especially today. Mum loved family celebrations and she would adore Tom and the fact that we’ve married here.
'I know she is watching over me and feeling so happy for us.’
From grief to growing pains and a happy family of her own: The tragic life of Peaches Geldof
BY SARA NATHAN
The loss of Paula from a heroin overdose
when Peaches was just 11 in 2000 was the catalyst for an uncertain and
precarious life dogged by allegations of drug abuse that only seemed to
be finally stable when she gave birth to her own little boys and married
musician Thomas Cohen.
Peaches Honeyblossom Michelle
Charlotte Angel Vanessa Geldof was born on March 13, 1989, in London,
the second daughter of Boomtown Rats star Sir Bob Geldof and his then
wife, TV presenter Paula Yates.
Girls' day out: A young Peaches, left, with her mother Paula Yates after a shopping trip to Harrods in the 1990s
Centre of attention: A young Peaches with her celebrity mother on a trip to a Disney attraction
In a revealing interview with Elle magazine in 2012, Peaches described the change in her mother after the split, admitting: ‘The transition of my mother who was amazing, who wrote books on parenting, who gave us this idyllic childhood in Kent; and who then turned into this heartbroken shell of a woman who was just medicating to get through the day.
First husband: Peaches Geldof pictured with her
first husband, musician Max Drummey in Las Vegas in 2008. The couple wed
when Peaches was just 19 and the marriage lasted 186 days
Australian rockstar Michael was found hanged in a hotel room in Sydney in 1997, and three years later Paula died from an accidental heroin overdose aged 41.
As Peaches said, she remained unable to come to terms with her mother’s death for several years.
‘I remember the day my mother died, and it's still hard to talk about it. I just blocked it out. I went to school the next day because my father's mentality was 'keep calm and carry on', she said.
‘So we all went to school and tried to act as if nothing had happened. But it had happened. I didn't grieve. I didn't cry at her funeral. I couldn't express anything because I was just numb to it all. I didn't start grieving for my mother properly until I was maybe 16.’
Peaches admitted to heavy drinking and taking drugs herself as a teenager, but insisted that she had always used the memory of her mother to stop her spiralling out of control.
She said: ‘I did experiment with drugs, I did get drunk and go to parties, but I was never that wild.
‘I could have been, I could have let myself spiral but all the time I remembered what happened to my mum.’
But despite her comments, in her bleakest teenage days, Peaches faced allegations of shoplifting and drug abuse and it was feared she would follow in her mother’s tragic decline.
It was in March 2010 that the clearest example of just how far Peaches had allegedly gone astray was given when pictures of the blonde were published online by a man who claimed to have had sex with her while they were high on heroin.
Eyes glazed and her head lolling on a stranger’s tattooed chest, Peaches was shown gazing up a camera, prompting fears for the little girl lost.
Peaches had long been linked to drugs. In July 2008, she was treated by emergency paramedics after an overdose and was believed to have stopped breathing for several minutes until she was revived. However, she refused to go to hospital for fear her father would find out.
While Peaches' lawyers denied she attended the Scientologists' 'detox' clinic with the man who claims to have been her lover, she confessed to being a member of the Church of Scientology.
In October 2009, she said: 'I've been one for a while now. I was confused about what path to go through and I feel like I needed a spiritual path.
‘I felt I was lacking something when I didn't have a faith. In the end, all it's about is making yourself a better person.'
The organisation, founded by sci-fi author L Ron Hubbard and popular with Hollywood stars such as Tom Cruise, has many critics.
Family: Sir Bob Geldof and Peaches at London Fashion Week
At the age of 19 she married wannabe drummer Max Drummey, 24, in Las Vegas without her father's knowledge. The marriage lasted just six months.
She attempted to launch a music career, while Disappear Now, the style magazine she launched, flopped and her column on trendy New York magazine Nylon was slated by readers.
While living in LA, Peaches dated actor and horror director Eli Roth, who featured in Quentin Tarantino's hit movie Inglourious Basterds.
Roth, whose films such as Hostel have been described as 'torture porn', has boasted about scaring girls into bed with sick horror films.
It was not until she returned home to London that Peaches found some sort of sanctuary.
On April 12 2012, she became a mother to her son Astala with Thomas Cohen, the lead singer of S.C.U.M, whom she married in a lavish ceremony in September 2012, covered by Hello! Magazine.
Wild child: Peaches and Pixie Geldof leave the London premiere of Memoirs of a Geisha in 2006
Giving his father of the bride speech, Sir Bob quipped that it was a ‘relief’ to see his daughter married off, adding: 'It's a beautiful day, in all senses of the word. I am happy for them. I love seeing people in love.'
The occasion was also laced with some sadness as it was same church where her late mother, TV presenter Paula Yates was laid to rest in 2000, and where her parents had their marriage blessed in 1986 after tying the knot in Las Vegas.
Sisters: (from left to right) Tigerlily, Fifi, Pixie and Peaches pictured together in 2005
She went on to give birth to her second son, Phaedra, who will turn one on April 24 – on what would have been Paula’s 54th birthday.
‘I couldn't help feeling mom must have had a hand in it,' she mused.
The last few years made it clear she was a wild child no more. Although she remained almost scarily thin, her Instagram and Twitter feeds were filled with pictures and videos of her young family and treasured dog Parpy.
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