‘Paula and I had a profound connection’: the women in Bob Geldof’s life

Bob Geldof, 73, is best known as one of the organisers of Live Aid, and as a member of ’70s rock band the Boomtown Rats. Here, he discusses losing his mother at a young age, and how it rocked him again after he split from his former wife, the late TV presenter Paula Yates, before he found happiness in his second marriage.

Married twice, Bob Geldof says he’s a “one-woman man”.

My mum, Evelyn, died when I was seven. I remember her lipstick on a China tea cup and on a cigarette butt in an ashtray. I would sit at her feet while she worked a Singer sewing machine. She also wore black velvet gloves to the elbow. She was around 40 when she died.

My dad, Robert, would leave the house on Monday and come back Friday. The only job he had was selling towels, rugs and glassware around the countryside. I was at home with my two older sisters, Cleo and Lynn.

Cleo got out of the family home quickly – she didn’t want to be a surrogate mother at 17. I was just a little boy and didn’t obey when she told me to go to bed – the relationship was a bit fraught. She died four weeks after my dad in 2010.

Lynn was more academic. The nuns would bring us food in the evening; otherwise we were left to our own devices. We didn’t have a fridge, television, heating or a phone. Lynn would iron my clothes. We are good buddies now.

With Paula Yates, Geldof’s ‘f--- off wow woman’. The pair split in 1996.Credit: Syndication International

I had my first serious girlfriend, Daphne, in 1969. I was living in a squat in London and knew her from Dublin. She taught me the art of packing. I still pack my shirts the same way I saw her do it after we took a trip to Canada.

I have vivid memories of the first time a girl made me a meal. Dad was a good cook, but I kept saying thank you to her every time some peas came on the table. It was comforting and very sexy because it struck me as being extremely womanly. I still think it’s beautiful, and I never take it for granted.

When my band, the Boomtown Rats, went to England in 1976, our record label organised a party for us. We were in the middle of a new revolution of music – friends and equals to the Ramones and the Sex Pistols. I saw this f--- off wow woman and it was Paula Yates. She had just turned 18. She was very clever, funny and beautiful – a lethal combination. She thought I was cute. She went to the record company and asked where I lived and came to find me.

Paula and I had a profound connection. We married in 1986 [they divorced in 1996 and Yates died in 2000]. We were together for 19 years and had three kids. When it ended, that was shattering for me.

The psychological thing of losing my mother aged seven came home to roost when my relationship with Paula ended. It was like my mother had disappeared all over again. It’s not a question of being bruised; it’s about being torn apart. There’s a fear of women that comes with that experience, and I knew I never wanted to go through that again.

Geldof with his wife, Jeanne Marine, who he met 30 years ago.Credit: Getty Images

I first met actress Jeanne Marine when I was recording a solo album, The Happy Club, in Paris. We had a coffee together four years later, in 1996 – I found her gobsmackingly beautiful. What I loved about Jeanne is that she had no idea who I was. She couldn’t speak English and I couldn’t speak French. Through gestures and speaking slowly we got to know each other.

I was in Africa when it was Jeanne’s 30th birthday. I asked if she would come to England. She said OK; that was 30 years ago. Life without love is meaningless. I am a one-woman man.

I married two extraordinary women but I don’t remember there being a push to get married. With Paula, I had just been knighted and didn’t want to leave her out. She wanted to be Lady Paula. Dave [Stewart] and Annie [Lennox] from Eurythmics were our best man and maid of honour.

I married Jeanne when she turned 50, in the French town where we have a house. I might get killed for saying this, but I feel that some women judge their unmarried friends; like it’s a social status to be married and those who don’t get asked become resentful for it never happening.

Bob Geldof is touring Australia throughout March and April.

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