Bob Geldof's adoption plan

Nov 13, 2007, 11:30 GMT

Irish musician and activist Bob Geldof EPA/Peter Kneffel

Sir Bob Geldof is planning to formally adopt the late Michael Hutchence's daughter.

The anti-poverty campaigner has cared for 11-year-old Heavenly Hirani Tiger Lily Hutchence since 2000, when her mother and Bob's ex-wife Paula Yates died of a heroin overdose, and three years after her INXS singer father was found dead in a Sydney hotel room.

The Hutchence family have now received a letter from Bob's lawyers informing them of his intentions to change Tiger Lily's surname to Geldof and to make her formally his daughter. The move has not been welcomed by the family.

Tina Hutchence - Michael's sister - fumed: "It's not enough that he should have Tiger Lily, but he thinks he should adopt her and change her name."

Tina also complained the former Boomtown Rats star has only allowed Tiger Lily's grandmother to see her four times in seven years.

She added to Australia's New Idea magazine: "None of the rest of us have seen Tiger, only my mother, and that was with the nanny. In seven years he's given my mother just four days of supervised visits.

"And the interesting thing is Bob Geldof is patron of a charity called Grandparents Apart - a charity for grandparents who don't get to see their grandchildren."

Tiger Lily was born in 1996, a year after TV presenter Paula ended her 10-year marriage to Bob in order to pursue her romance with Michael.

Bob, 56, has three other children with Paula, 24-year-old Fifi Trixibelle, 18-year-old Peaches Honeyblossom and Pixie, 17.

This month marks the 10th anniversary of Michael's death. The Australian rocker was discovered naked and hanging from a cord in a hotel room on November 22, 1997, aged just 37.

(C) BANG Media International