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Rock star Sir Bob Geldof has given a rare insight into how his children are coping in the wake of a "nightmare" decade.
The Irish singer and anti-poverty advocate had three children with TV presenter Paula Yates - Fifi Trixibelle, Peaches Honeyblossom, and Pixie.
Yates left Geldof, after almost 20 years together, for INXS singer Michael Hutchence in 1994 and divorced Geldof in 1996.
Yates and Hutchence soon after had a daughter, Heavenly Hiraani Tiger Lily, and Hutchence was found hanged in a hotel room the next year.
Geldof obtained full custody of his three daughters and, since Yates' death from a drug overdose in 2000, has been legal guardian of Tiger Lily Hutchence.
Media reports have suggested he now wants to change Tiger Lily's name to Geldof.
But while he did not address the name-change question, Sir Bob - attending a Queensland University of Technology Business Leaders' Forum in Brisbane last night - revealed some of the pain he had gone through in recent years.
"You live this life for this great 20 years - she was brilliant, funny, gorgeous and I loved her very much," Sir Bob said of Yates.
"And then she falls in love with someone else.
"Like anyone else in that situation ... you find it very hard to understand and yet you have to - and then (there are) the nightmares and horrors that follow.
"You can imagine, you lose the person you love once and then you lose them completely, utterly, totally."
He said his children had been deeply affected by the loss of their mother.
"But what could you do? There's nothing you can do about that - you deal with it," he said.
"But they are all great. They're mad and funny and they are doing well.
"But they will probably end up as bonkers as myself."
- AAP
