The sister of the late rock star Michael Hutchence has slammed his ex-girlfriend, supermodel Helena Christensen, for not disclosing that he suffered brain damage during a visit to Denmark in August 1992.
Tina Hutchence said her family only found out three years ago that the INXS frontman had suffered a brain injury after being hit by a Copenhagen taxi driver.
Speaking to The Sun this week, Tina said she was furious the ’90s supermodel waited so long to open up about the incident after Michael died by suicide in a Sydney hotel room on November 22, 1997.
“I’m sure if Michael (pictured above with supermodel Helena Christensen) hadn’t had that accident in Denmark, he would still be with us today,” says Tina Hutchence
“I know Michael was so happy with Helena and there was a time I couldn’t imagine them not being together,” she said.
“But I was furious when I first heard about the attack because I felt it was their duty to tell his family.”
Tina said there were “scary stories” about Michael after his death, including that he died of a fake sex act. She said Helena could have contacted her family privately.
“There were all these horrible stories about Michael after he died, so it was wrong that Helena didn’t tell us about the head wound. She was very close to our parents and could have easily contacted us.”
Tina added: “I’m sure if Michael hadn’t had that accident in Denmark he would still be with us today.”
“There were all these horrible stories about Michael after he died, so it was wrong that Helena didn’t tell us about the head wound. She was very close to our parents and could have been contacted easily,” added Tina. Pictured: Christensen and Hutchence
Runway star Helena first spoke about the attack in a 2019 documentary about the life of INXS frontman Mystify: Michael Hutchence.
Ms Christensen opened up about the moment she saw the taxi driver shout at Hutchence to step aside before getting out of his car and hitting him, ABC reported.
The blow was so severe that the singer was thrown backwards and fell, hitting his head on the curb and left unconscious in the middle of the street.
Michael died by suicide in a hotel room in Sydney on 22 November 1997. The INXS frontman was one of the most famous men in the world at the time
“He was unconscious and blood was coming from his mouth and ear,” recalls Ms Christensen in the documentary.
The supermodel took Hutchence to hospital but thought he wouldn’t make it through the night.
When he woke up in the hospital, Christensen says he wasn’t the same person.
“This dark, very angry side came out in him,” she said.
Ms Christensen said his personality changed from “joyful, sweet, deep and emotional to dark and very angry”.
During the week and a half he spent in the Danish hospital, he was aggressive, pushing away doctors and nurses and insisting that he be allowed to go home.
He spent the entire next month at the supermodel’s apartment, refusing to eat and vomiting blood.
The pair then traveled to Paris, where they saw a specialist who confirmed that Hutchence’s sensory interest in food and wine had been wiped out by the attack.
He also suffered multiple brain seizures and began taking medication to deal with the pain caused by the injury.
The blow was so severe that the singer was thrown backwards and hit his head on the curb, leaving him unconscious in the middle of Copenhagen Street. Christensen said his personality changed from “joyful, sweet, deep and emotional to dark and very angry.” The incident happened five years before his death. Here: London, 1990
Christensen says the incident contributed to Michael’s depression and eventual suicide five years later in a hotel room in Sydney.
“When Michael hit his head, he came back a different person and I’m sure the doctors prescribed all sorts of weird and wonderful concoctions,” bassist Garry Gary Beers told Sunday Night in 2014.
“He was an ass and he wasn’t, that’s the point. This was not the Michael we knew and it was so surprising. He couldn’t smell, he couldn’t taste, he drank bottled wine because it wasn’t for him.’
While publicly reporting the loss of his sense of smell and taste, Hutchence Christensen was sworn to secrecy about the attack.
“She didn’t even tell her parents for 20 years, so her interview was very insightful. And then the coroner’s report was even more revealing – about what he was hiding,” Australian director Richard Lowenstein told ABC Radio National’s Stop Everything.
The director said that even the band members didn’t know the full extent of Hutchence’s injury until they watched the full documentary.
Lowenstein obtained the coroner’s full, unredacted report on British journalists and sought the advice of neurologists and psychologists.
He said it was a “revelation” about Hutchence’s downward spiral, with a “perfect suicide storm” in the report.
Michael rose to fame as the lead singer of INXS in the 80s and 90s. In the photo with the band
Source: Daily Mail
Ashley Root is an author and celebrity journalist who writes for The Fashion Vibes. With a keen eye for all things celebrity, Ashley is always up-to-date on the latest gossip and trends in the world of entertainment.
