His personality changed: Michael Hutchence’s sister on his traumatic brain injury
As she releases new book, Tina Hutchence discusses her brother’s childhood in Hong Kong, his parents’ split and his turbulent and complicated personal life as an adult
Everything about Michael looked different, his sister thought. He was paler, duller in the eyes, more slumped in the shoulders. Even the INXS singer’s Byronic curls seemed to have lost their bounce.
It was 1996, the day before Tina Hutchence’s wedding. Earlier, in a fax to her, he’d explained the “unmitigated hell” he was going through, “with the press, the police, a fire, four burglaries, litigation … we have seven or eight writs on our hands”.
Two months later, a police raid would find drugs in the house he shared with Paula Yates. The next year he would be found dead in a Sydney hotel room from an apparent suicide.
The story of Michael’s final years under siege from the paparazzi has been well documented. Tina says she was moved to write her new book Michael: My Brother, Lost Boy of INXS because she felt that he had become a tragic caricature in the hands of other biographers – and she’s counted at least nine. Hers includes an introduction about the Paradise Papers leak of confidential documents and Michael’s missing millions, and written tributes from several of Michael’s friends.
Here are excerpts from an interview The Guardian conducted with Tina where she talks about Michael’s childhood in Hong Kong and his complicated personal life as an adult rock star.
