Paula Yates and Bob Geldof met at a Christmas party in Ireland in 1977. Paula was a teenager, so besotted by the Boomtown Rats singer that she followed the band on tour.
When the pair finally became lovers Paula said: "It's a mad, passionate affair". She worked as a music journalist before becoming a television presenter on the Channel 4 music show The Tube in 1982. A year later she gave birth to their first daughter, Fifi Trixibelle.
In June 1986, shortly after Geldof was knighted for his work on Live Aid, the couple got married in Las Vegas. They had a second ceremony later where Paula was given away by Duran Duran singer Simon Le Bon. The couple had two more daughters, Peaches and Pixie. In 1992 they launched a joint project when Paula presented an interview segment of The Big Breakfast, made by Planet 24, in which Geldof had a one-third stake. But in February 1995 she left Geldof for INXS frontman Michael Hutchence. Geldof was devastated. A month after Paula left him, he said: "Life is very hard at the moment, but I hope our marriage can survive." He added: "I guess I'll stay in love with her no matter what happens. She's a fantastic girl."
But Paula never went back to him and in May the following year the couple were divorced. In a bizarre settlement the couple, with their partners, swapped homes. Paula went back to her old matrimonial home in Chelsea, while Geldof moved into Hutchence's bachelor pad nearby. The pair then became involved in a long and painful battle for custody of their daughters. In October 1996, after the discovery of drugs in Paula's house, Geldof won temporary custody before a compromise to share the children was reached.
Then in June 1998, seven months after Hutchence's suicide, Paula lost custody of the children again when a bout of depression and an apparent suicide attempt saw her admitted to a rehabilitation clinic.
Geldof yesterday expressed his shock and pain at the news of Paula's death. He said in a statement: "We are all so sad. The loss for all the children is insupportable."