Bob Geldof speaks about ‘bottomless’ grief after death of daughter Peaches

‘Time doesn’t heal, time accommodates,’ musician says

Bob Geldof has opened up about the “boundless” grief he experienced following the death of his daughter Peaches Geldof, saying: “The abyss is infinite.”

On Saturday, the musician and activist appeared on Irish chat show The Tommy Tiernan Show.

During his interview with comedian Tiernan, Geldof explained he recently attended the funeral of a friend’s son.

“He didn’t want me to come for fear that I had to relive it. But I had to be there for him because it is unbearable,” the 68-year-old said.

In April 2014, Geldof’s daughter, Peaches, was found dead at her home at the age of 25. An inquest heard her death was caused by a heroin overdose.

Peaches’ mother, television presenter and writer Paula Yates, died of a heroin overdose 14 years prior.

Geldof explained to Tiernan how the grief he experiences is “ever-present”.

“Time doesn’t heal, time accommodates,” the Boomtown Rats frontman said. “You’re driving along, and you’re at the traffic lights, and for no reason whatsoever the person in question inhabits you. And I’ll cry.

“And then I look around to make sure the people next door don’t see me, aren’t taking a photo and posting it or something. But that happens, and that happens to everyone.”

Grief-stricken: Bob Geldof on ‘The Tommy Tiernan Show’ (RTE One) (RTÉ One)

Geldof said when incidents like this happen, he acknowledges that “it’s time to cry now”.

“And you just do it to the maximum because there’s no use holding it in. Lights are green or whatever you do before and then you go. And that’ll always be there, and you accommodate that,” he said.

“But once you understand the nature of this ... because it is boundless, and it is bottomless, the grief, the abyss is infinite.”

In June 2011, Peaches became engaged to S.C.U.M. frontman Thomas Cohen.

The couple were married in September 2012 and had two sons.

Following Peaches’ death, Cohen released a statement which read: “My beloved wife Peaches was adored by myself and her two sons.

“I shall bring them up with their mother in their hearts every day. We shall love her forever.”

In Geldof’s statement, he described his daughter as “the wildest, funniest, cleverest, wittiest and the most bonkers of all of us”.