‘He just moved on’: Michael Hutchence’s sister reveals details of INXS singer’s famous exes in new book
HE wooed some of the world’s most beautiful women. Now, the late Michael Hutchence’s love life is in the spotlight again in his sister Tina’s explosive new book.
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MICHAEL Hutchence excelled at loving women, was useless at breaking up with them but remained close friends with his exes, according to a new book penned by his sister Tina.
Some of those women share their intimate memories of the INXS superstar in Michael, Tina’s quest to share an intimate family portrait of her larger-than-life rock star brother.
She reveals a man who needed the company of women but never had plans to marry, telling his mother Patricia “there are just too many beautiful women in the world”.
While he craved their companionship, the women in his life including film producer Michele Bennett, Rosanna “Johnny” Crash, Kylie Minogue, Helena Christensen and Paula Yates, were strong and independent forces of their own whose busy lives were not always in sync with the nomadic rock star lifestyle.
“He wanted the companionship. He liked to experience things with someone, particularly travel,” Tina said.
“I think the only one who was with him constantly was Rosanna; he wanted them to drop everything which is crazy.
“He would be intrigued by these interesting women but even with Michele, who wanted to pursue her career as INXS was taking off, he knew she wouldn’t be able to just go and meet him whenever he wanted.”
Tina agrees her brother was notoriously bad at breakups, sometimes overlapping his relationships.
He infamously broke 21-year-old Minogue’s heart with a phone call after he met Danish supermodel Christensen.
“He didn’t break up with some of them, he just moved on. I think the Kylie breakup was the worst, poor baby. But he remained good friends with every single one of them and that’s a very special man who can do that. They all still loved him,” she said.
Tina still wrestles with the relationship between her brother and Paula Yates, writing in the book that the British television personality attempted to put a wedge between the rocker and his family.
The book reveals Hutchence as a sensitive young boy who loved poetry but suffered insecurities as his life was uprooted by the divorce of his parents Kell and Patricia and he moved between Sydney, Hong Kong and the US.
She shares his generosity with family and friends, a gregarious host of parties and Christmas gatherings at his home in the south of France where he loved to cook.
Tina would spend long nights on the phone and trade faxes with her younger brother in the 1980s and 90s as he toured the world.
He shared his greatest frustrations with her about being thwarted in his efforts to support his critically-acclaimed side project Max Q with electronic artist Ollie Olsen, released in 1989 when INXS was having a hiatus from their extensive world tours.
It has been reported that the band’s manager Chris Murphy and members of INXS were worried if the project was successful it would jeopardise the group’s future.
As the record’s 30th anniversary looms next year, Tina is again campaigning for the experimental record to be reissued after being unavailable for many years.
“When Michael wanted to do something outside of INXS with Max Q, he was frustrated. It was shocking he wasn’t allowed to promote it,” she said.
“That’s when I would get the late night phone calls from somewhere in the world saying ‘Every time we have a break between tours all the other guys in the band do their own thing, yet they get upset when I want to do something.’
“In the book, I bring up an interview Michael and Andrew Farriss did together and when asked about doing things outside the band and Michael said it is terrible when somebody thinks they have to sneak around and do something.”
“As I understand it, Chris Murphy owns it. All his friends and fans are asking why it hasn’t been re-released.”
As well as leading the charge for a statue of her brother commemorating his contribution to Australian culture, Tina has also been working closely with director and Hutchence confidante Richard Lowenstein on his documentary Mystify.
It is believed the film will premiere at the Sundance festival in early 2019.
Michael by Tina Hutchence with Jen Jewel Brown is out on September 26 (Allen & Unwin, $32.99).