Peaches Geldof died of a heroin overdose,an inquest heard today.
At the opening of her inquest in Gravesend, Detective Chief Inspector Paul Fotheringham, said: "Recent use of heroin and the levels identified were likely to have played a role in her death."
She was discovered by husband Thomas Cohen in a spare room, where she lay on a bed with one leg dangling on the floor.
Her father, Bob Geldof, has meanwhile proposed to his long-term girlfriend, determined that something positive will come out of the last few weeks of tragedy for the family.
The Times is claiming that the results of a toxicology test to be revealed later today at the inquest into her death will show that Peaches died of drugs, in an eerie recasting of the death of her mother, the TV presenter Paula Yates.
Yates, who was married to Peaches’ father, Bob Geldof, the founder of Live Aid, had been in a relationship with the singer Michael Hutchence when he committed suicide in a Sydney hotel room in 1997. Paula was found dead in her Notting Hill Gate home in 2000.
The Times makes the explosive suggestion that the lack of drug paraphernalia in the house has led to suspicions that “items may have been removed before the property was searched” by police. At the time of her death police said the death was “non-suspicious” but “unexplained.”
Peaches—a TV presenter, journalist and socialite—was found dead at her house in Kent with her 11-month-old son by her side, who is now being cared for by her father, Tom Cohen, lead singer of the punk band SCUM. When Paula was found, she was with her daughter Tiger Lily, then aged 4.
Hours before she died, Peaches posted a photograph of herself and her mother on twitter.
The Times says that the toxicology results “will be announced by Detective Chief Inspector Paul Fotheringham during a brief hearing in Gravesend, Kent, this afternoon.”
The alarm was raised by Mr Cohen, 23, who had spent the previous night away with their eldest son Astala, aged 23 months.
He asked a friend to visit the family house when he could not contact his wife.
Ms. Geldof had a long history of drug use, including reports that she had to be revived after an overdose in 2008.
Bob Geldof released a statement after his daughter’s death in which he described Peaches as “the wildest, funniest, cleverest, wittiest and the most bonkers of all of us.”
Peaches had two young sons, Astala, 20 months, and Phaedra, 10 months, with her second husband, Thomas Cohen.
“My beloved wife Peaches was adored by myself and her two sons,” he said. “I shall bring them up with their mother in their hearts everyday. We shall love her forever.”
However, amidst all the tragedy, there is one ray of light—Bob has got engaged to his girlfriend of 18 years, French actress Jeanne Marine, accordign to the Daily Mail.
“Bob has proposed,” Jerry Hall tells diarist Sebastian Shakespeare. “She is over the moon. Jeanne Marine has been a rock and a tower of strength over this.
“Bob and Jeanne have been through hell, but they are determined something positive will come out of it.
“After all the sadness, we need something to focus on which will bring joy and light.”
