Sister of tragic INXS star Michael Hutchence slams Helena Christensen for keeping his brain injury secret
HE was the wildman of rock who dated the world’s most beautiful women including supermodel Helena Christensen and actress Kylie Minogue.
So it was a huge shock when INXS lead singer Michael Hutchence took his own life in his luxury hotel room at the age of 37.
The rock star — famed for his mane of dark hair and supreme confidence on stage — was found naked behind the door of room 524 at the Ritz Carlton in Sydney at 11.50am on November 22, 1997.
A coroner’s report confirmed he had hanged himself, though when found he had slumped to his knees.
There was little indication that he was suicidal, and his family has long been dogged by rumours that he died playing a sex game.
But Michael’s sister Tina Hutchence today opens up about the disturbing secret that she says finally provides an explanation.
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Michael, we now know, suffered brain damage during a road rage assault by a taxi driver in the Danish capital Copenhagen.
The singer’s model ex-girlfriend Helena, 53, said this caused him to suffer from uncontrollable rages.
But Tina claims Helena failed to tell his friends and family about what happened — and its link to his suicide — until three years ago.
In an exclusive interview to mark 25 years since her brother’s death, Tina, 74, said: “I know Michael was so happy with Helena and there was a time when I could not imagine them not being together.
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“But I did feel angry when I first found out about the assault, as I felt it was her duty to say something to his family.
“There were all these awful stories about Michael after he died, so for Helena not to tell us about the head injury was wrong. She was very close to our parents and could have easily reached out.
“My first thought was, ‘He died all those years ago. Why didn’t she say something before now?’ ”
Michael and Helena had seemed destined for a much happier ending when they met at the height of their fame in 1991.
He was the charismatic rock star who had built a £16million fortune with hits such as Suicide Blonde, Mystify and Need You Tonight.
Green-eyed Helena had a similar presence on the catwalk and commanded a phone-number income as one of the first “Angel” supermodels to promote Victoria’s Secret lingerie.
Danish tradition
Tina, who moved from Australia to Los Angeles 50 years ago to work as a make-up artist, recalls her first meeting with Michael’s glamorous girlfriend, who he dated for five years.
She said: “It was one Christmas at my parents’ place in Australia. My brother Rhett called me and said we had to go to the hotel for Helena’s birthday on December 25 and we would all jump on her bed.
“It’s a Danish tradition, but my mother said, ‘I’m not going to bother Michael at 9am and jump on his bed, it’s insane’, and I didn’t go either.
“Helena later turned up at the house with tins full of herring — another Danish tradition — and Rhett joked it was because supermodels don’t do the washing up.
“But Michael was so enamoured with Helena that anything she wanted to do seemed right for him.
“She was quick-witted and smart and would make Michael laugh a lot, which was good, because he worked so hard.”
Tina added: “I don’t know if Michael and Helena talked about marriage but you could tell she was pushing for something.
“I remember one Christmas my stepdad Ross gave our mother a ring and Helena’s friend was given a ring by her boyfriend.
“My boyfriend also proposed to me, and Helena said something like, ‘Oh some people just get everything’.
“She wasn’t a happy camper but I don’t think Michael was ready for marriage back then.”
It was the road rage attack in Helena’s home city in August 1992 that apparently doomed their relationship.
She finally opened up about the incident to Michael’s close friend, film-maker Richard Lowenstein, in 2019 for BBC2 documentary Mystify.
She said: “We were riding home on our bikes and we stopped to get pizza. He was in the middle of a tiny, narrow road and was eating his pizza.
“This insane taxi driver yelled at Michael to move. He got out of his car and punched him.
“Michael fell backwards and hit his head on the kerb. He was unconscious and there was blood coming out of his mouth and ear. I thought he was dead.
“We got to the hospital and he woke up and was aggressive. They were trying to make him stay but he was physically pushing them away.”
After weeks of refusing to be treated, he was eventually seen by a neurologist in France, who discovered a crack in his skull and severed nerves affecting his sense of smell. The damage meant he would never regain his sense of taste or smell.
Michael told Helena: “When I have children, I will never be able to smell my baby.”
Years later a post-mortem examination found two large areas of damage in his brain’s frontal lobes.
Scientific studies have proven that this type of injury can make it very difficult for a person to manage their anger, which could explain Michael’s sudden decision to take his own life.
Tina said: “Michael didn’t stay in hospital. He went to Helena’s place and made her promise not to tell a soul because he thought people would look at him differently. He wouldn’t even have tests at the hospital.
“She said he spent a few weeks at her place throwing up and talking nonsense and he was really ill.
“After that head injury he would fly off the handle, and I witnessed that several times.
“Sometimes he would have friends round and he would ignore them, and that just wasn’t Michael. He was always very gracious before, no matter what was going on.
“I believe his anger was a big reason they separated. He told me he had gotten bored with models. He said, ‘It’s a cliché and I don’t want to be that person.’
“I said, ‘It didn’t bother you before’. He said, ‘It does now’.”
Michael’s relationship with Big Breakfast presenter Paula Yates has been cited as another factor behind his death.
He broke up with Helena after his infamous “boudoir” interview with mum-of-three Paula on her TV studio bed in 1994. Two years later she gave birth to their daughter, Tiger Lily.
The romance also caused the end of Paula’s marriage to Sir Bob Geldof, the father of her first three kids, and a bitter custody battle ensued.
Michael’s heavy drug taking with Paula — who died from an overdose in 2000 aged 41 — became the stuff of legend and he was found to have alcohol, cocaine, Prozac and other prescription drugs in his system when he died.
The coroner heard he was suffering from another fit of uncontrollable rage — shouting and swearing down the phone at Sir Bob, now 71, during a row about allowing Tiger Lily to visit him in Australia — before he took his own life in the early hours of the morning.
Tina is now calling for INXS to be inducted into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame in the States, and believes they would now be as big as the Rolling Stones had her brother not died.
She said: “I thought it was weird, him getting together with Paula, as she wasn’t the type of person he’d been with before.
“I got on with all his previous girlfriends, including Kylie Minogue, who was very young but blossoming and lovely.
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“Paula would not take my calls and she had a big part to play in what happened.
“But I’m sure that if Michael didn’t have that accident in Denmark, he would still be with us today.”