Daughter of Kurt Cobain and Courtney Love, Frances Bean inherited a fortune, married twice and overcame addictions

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Intuition drove her to live intensely. No matter how hard she tries, Frances Bean Cobain You can’t escape your last name. And this happened from minute zero of its existence. And the only descendant of Kurt Cobain and Courtney Love was already famous before she was born, with withdrawal syndrome, on August 18, 1992. The tragic physical absence of her father is marked, however, by the inevitable presence of the burden and fame of a legacy impossible to silence.

When the Nirvana leader committed suicide on April 5, 1994, just a few months after turning 27, he left a mark in the history of rock. “I can’t bear the thought of Frances becoming a sinister, miserable, self-destructive rocker like I have become. (…) Her life will be much happier without me”, wrote her father in the suicide note they found with him. This is how Frances, with just 20 months in the world, prematurely assumed the legacy of one of the most transcendent rock artists of the end of the century.

The young woman, who told a podcast that she felt “guilty for having inherited an estate from someone she had never met”, is now 31 years old and, after a period of emotional instability, a scandalous divorce and a fervent fight against addictions, she preferred move away from the media spotlight and dedicate himself to protecting his father’s work.

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The meaning of your name

Kurt Cobain and Courtney Love named their little Frances Bean inspired by two of her references: Scottish songwriter Frances McKee, lead singer of The Vaselines (one of Kurt’s favorite bands) and Frances Farmer, prominent American actress of the 1930s. The curiosity of her middle name, Bean, is an eccentricity that goes back to a memory of Cobain, who, upon seeing his daughter’s first ultrasound , defined it as a “bean”.

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When she was just a baby, Frances made headlines after rumors spread that her mother used heroin during her pregnancy. Although in September 1992 the couple attended the MTV Video Music Awards and denied the accusations, that same year Frances Bean was left in the care of her maternal aunt. The matter was resolved in court, when she had not even completed her first year. On April 1, 1994, Frances visited her father at the Exodus Recovery Center, a rehabilitation center in Los Angeles designed to treat addictions, without knowing that this meeting would be her last. Three days later, Cobain committed suicide by shooting himself.

Her mother’s instability forced Frances to move between different guardians, and she stayed in 27 different houses, but mainly lived between her paternal grandmother’s farm in Washington and the Chateau Marmont hotel, in California, where she stayed with her mother. In 2003, Love lost custody of her daughter after an arrest for attempted robbery, drug overdose and threats of suicide.

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The singer got Frances back after spending time in rehab, but in 2009 she lost her again for the third time. Frances’ days were split, at the time, between Seattle and Los Angeles, while Love battled her own demons. During these years, her godparents, Michael Stipe and actress Drew Barrymore, were very present.

Despite her lineage, Frances Cobain has always sought to stay away from her past. With a huge burden on her shoulders, she gave her first interviews at the age of 13, in which she had to refer to her father’s death and her mother’s hospitalizations. Away from the stage, Cobain’s daughter rejected the roles offered to her in the cinema to star in the Twilight saga and play Tim Burton’s Alice.

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In 2006, she began her career as a model and posed for Elle magazine wearing pajamas and a brown coat that her father had worn to their wedding ceremony in Hawaii in 1992. Two years later, she appeared dressed as Eva Perón in the publication Harpers Bazaar and, In 2017, he filmed a campaign for Marc Jacobs. As proof that humor heals all wounds, her 16th birthday had a themed celebration focused on suicide, something that was approved by Love. At 18, she received more than a third of Kurt’s inheritance and became responsible for managing Nirvana’s brand and image rights.

Daughter of Kurt Cobain and Courtney Love, Frances Bean inherited a fortune, married twice and overcame addictions — Photo: Reproduction

In order not to limit her artistic ambition, in early 2010, she chose the pseudonym Fiddle Tim (Violin Tim) to exhibit some work at an independent gallery in Los Angeles. Two years later, she chose the song “Black”, by The Jesus and Mary Chain, to be part of a collective exhibition in which she participated for the first time in her own name, at the age of 20. In 2018, she revealed on her social media that she experienced addiction problems, but that she managed to rehabilitate herself: “I feel transcendental here and now, because I’m celebrating my second year sober,” she shared with her followers.

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“It’s a daily battle, dealing with all the pain, chaos, tragedy and fucked up things that happen or will happen. Self-destruction, substance use, and the absence of pain are much more attractive alternatives. But without a doubt the decision to be present in the moment is the best I’ve ever made, both for myself and for those around me”, she reflected, ready to embark on a healthier stage.

Two marriages and a divorce in the media

Frances’s love life was full of ups and downs. She married musician Isaiah Silva, singer and guitarist for The Eeries, in 2014 and divorced two years later. It was People magazine that confirmed, in 2016, that she had filed for divorce, citing irreconcilable differences. At the time, Frances claimed that Silva should not be entitled to any money from her father’s estate, valued at $450 million. During their bitter separation dispute, the couple reached a settlement, and Frances lost the iconic Martin D-18E guitar that Kurt Cobain used during his legendary MTV Unplugged performance with Nirvana in 1993.

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Divorced from Isaiah Silva, she later had a relationship with Matthew Cook, lead singer of The Ceremonies. Although this relationship also came to an end, Frances found love again with a famous American skateboarder: Riley Hawk. According to documents accessed by the news portal TMZ, the couple obtained their marriage certificate on October 7, 2023. The ceremony was officiated by Michael Stipe — REM singer —, Frances’s godfather.

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Dedicated to the visual arts (painting and drawing are her passions) and safeguarding her father’s legacy (although she has admitted on several occasions that she doesn’t like Nirvana’s music), Frances keeps her feet on the ground and today decides to shelter herself from the media spotlight .